{"id":610,"date":"2023-02-05T19:10:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T19:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/?p=610"},"modified":"2023-02-05T19:54:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T19:54:51","slug":"from-cacti-killer-to-gardener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/from-cacti-killer-to-gardener\/","title":{"rendered":"From Cacti Killer to Gardener"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nishant Bagh, Srinagar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

This quote hits home. I\u2019ve tried growing plants a couple of times. And I\u2019ve killed all of them – every single time. I\u2019m talking about killing –  Aloe vera and cactus, also known as the king and queen of the most indestructible plants on every gardening list. After a while, I ran out of excuses for blaming external factors like bad weather, bad plants, bad soil, etc. but still didn\u2019t want to publicly admit that maybe gardening is not my thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every once in a while, I would tell Hari, let\u2019s get only a few plants, this time it will be different. After agreeing to this a couple of times, he said, 
Vasu, cactus survives and thrives in the desert. We\u2019ve killed cacti over and over again. I think we should give this gardening thing a rest. <\/em>
And that was the end of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sister(Vidhi) started gardening around 2020. She gifted us 2 plants. One of them accidentally got cut from the stem (don\u2019t ask me how and why) and it was deemed dead in the next 2-3 days. Well, actually it was dead that very minute. I thought if I kept a supporting stick to make it appear non-broken, the stem might get glued together in one single piece. And I wouldn\u2019t be called a cacti killer again, just maybe. Clearly, neither of that happened. And this time, even I was convinced that gardening mere bas ki baat nahi he. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other one was a small rubber plant, we kept it behind the balcony door and pretty much forgot about it. Turned out that it started growing rapidly. Almost every couple of days, there was a silky soft new leaf and then another. My sister had bought another rubber plant for her home and even with all her knowledge of fertilizer, soil mixes, sunlight condition and all, her rubber plant wasn\u2019t growing a single new leaf. Whereas, ours had pretty much doubled in size in a month. I still remember both of us would excitedly look at the plant every morning as soon as we woke up and be so thrilled to see the new leaf. The plant got root-bound and under Vidhi\u2019s supervision, we repotted it. I wasn\u2019t aware of any of this terminology, as well, we never reached this stage before. Once this meticulously planned process was over, Vidhi said, well, repotting slows down the growth for a while, so you might not see a new leaf but it will\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Me: You evil person, you are telling me this now\u2026 I would have never re-potted this.
Sis : Yeah, and that\u2019s why your plants die.
Me: Chup kar. This one is growing better than yours.
Sis : Di, this is how plants grow. Thoda research kar le.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the next few days, we anxiously waited for any signs of the new leaf. I remember telling Hari, she did this purposefully. Since her rubber plant wasn\u2019t growing, she was jealous. Point to be noted – At this point, my sister had a fully functioning garden. She was harvesting<\/strong> chilies, multiple varieties of tomatoes, coriander, mint, and had at least 10 more green plants of which I didn\u2019t even know the names. I didn\u2019t even know there was a differentiation between indoor and outdoor plants. Or the fact that there are different varieties of soil, and you need to add fertilizers, compost and so many other things to the soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lo and behold, after a week, the new leaf showed up. I was over the moon. I usually message Hari, when he is in the office unless it’s urgent. But this time, I straightway called him,
 Aree aa gaya, naya leaf aa gaya. Thank god.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my birthday, Hari gave me a money plant. And of course, it more than doubled in size. My confidence was soaring sky-high. If I had any visitors over, I would have definitely bragged about our shiny 2 new plants and introduced ourselves as gardeners. But well, this was during covid – so no one to show off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vidhi had to go out once and she asked me to work from her place until the maid was done cleaning. After work, I sat on her balcony, admiring the tomatoes. What joy it is to have such green surroundings and eat the food you are growing with your own hands. A little too inspired and a lot more motivated with the bunches of tomatoes, I went to a nearby nursery to buy some plants. The plan was to get one flower and a fruit plant.  But you see, nurseries are these magical Disney-like places. I ended up buying a little more than 2,  so I had to call my husband for lending an extra hand. Though I was a bit skeptical about his happiness\/reaction about, well, this thing. So, I asked him, do you want to have a coffee nearby? He had back-to-back calls for the next 2 hrs after which he would be free. Patience is definitely not at all my strong or any suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked the gardener if I buy more, will you deliver it to my home, which is right across the street and I\u2019m not paying a dime for delivery. He agreed. So, I thought of surprising my husband and patiently waiting for his calls to get over. It didn\u2019t. In fact, it was overstretched. I finally barged into his room and asked him to take a 5 mins break and come out. His reaction was epic.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H: WTF? Is this my home or someone else\u2019s? What did you do? 
Me: I did shopping \"\ud83d\ude0d\".  I said with a big grin on my face. I was so inspired by the tomatoes growing in Vidhi\u2019s place and I wanted to create our own garden. And now that we are pro\u2026..
H: We have 2 plants. How is that pro? OMG. Can we return this or at least half of this?
Me: Noooo, I picked all these plants very carefully and that person delivered for free too.
H: Ayoo!! Vasu, why??
Me: It\u2019s all right. We will be fine. 
H:  You know you could have just bought 5kgs tomatoes. That\u2019s a lot easier and cheaper.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I bought 13 plants which included a Xmas tree taller than me \"\ud83d\ude0d\". 13 pots and trays – 6 very big ones,  and the rest medium sizes. 3 big sacks of soil, one sack of cocopeat and a bunch of fertilizers, compost, etc. Our big hall was filled with plants and that\u2019s why my husband was taken aback. My sister had her own facepalm reaction and some more comments.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Legendary X-Mas Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

We started reading and learning about all these new plant babies and our balcony was definitely green now. I did return the Xmas tree as its width was becoming a problem in our tiny balcony which earlier had to accommodate a table and 2 chairs as well. The gardener refused to take the plant back, so I bought some new plants in exchange. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of months back, we had 80 pots – and each pot has multiple plants. We have grown many plants from seeds now and in fact, that\u2019s our preferred and go-to method. We have flowers, fruit, carnivorous, medicinal, and herb, ornamental plants. Every time I travel to a new place, I try to get the local seeds and Hari bought a bunch of herb seeds on his last trip. The table and chairs from the balcony are long gone. We just have enough space to sit for 2 people. But hey, no complaints. \ud83d\ude0d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunflower Seeds from Phalgam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Seeds from Kashmir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Acidental Find<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Leaves – almost double the size of my palm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bore fruit after 3 yrs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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New plant cutting from Vidhi’s socient<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Certain delight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dragon Fruit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


In fact, one of the non-negotiable and key criteria for finding our next house was that it should have 3 big balconies. My husband went a little further, including a tiny patch of land or a terrace. And remember the X-mas tree I had to part way with, well, the new home comes with a 3-story tall X-mas tree and a full-grown guava tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We still kill plants but we grow a lot more.\u00a0I\u2019ve learned to do e-window shopping for plants where I thoroughly research all sites to find the rarest plants. Add them to the cart and the close all the tabs \ud83d\ude03 . And whenever we go to any nursery, Hari tells me exactly the number of plants I can get. We end up buying double that and that’s the happily ever after.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of our rare outings, we went not just out of Koramangala but out of Bangalore city.\u00a0 On the way back, Hari asked me, Vasu do you want to buy plants? I looked at him with such puppy eyes. Our rosemary plant had died. And even though, we have tried everything around growing these herbs from seeds – nothing worked. I bought one rosemary plant immediately and then my husband said – do you want to buy one more? In case this one gets infected and dies? I melted. We bought many great and not so easily found plants. Most priced among them dwarf mulberry plant which was already loaded with berries. And then he stopped in front of another nursery and asked do you want to see what\u2019s in there? 10X puppy eyes. I only got one flower plant from there. And when we sat in the car – I was so happy that I couldn\u2019t speak. I said I love you from my kidney, liver\u2026 ab tu jo bolega, I will do. And going forward just buy me plants for gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oh and the rubber plant, well ours has now stopped growing now. I think it\u2019s root-bound and someone had plucked its top new leaf. While my sister\u2019s rubber plant has just started growing now. And we did grow some tomatoes after quite some time. Ours bore fruit much later and got infected with bugs. Hari eventually uprooted all the tomatoes plant as it infected all the other plants too.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vidhi’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Rubber plant’s current status<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Only a portion of our tiny balcony space receives sunshine and that too only in the afternoon and yet we have managed to create a deeply satisfying and verdant oasis. Gardening at this scale is hardly the most efficient or cost-effective way to feed oneself \u2014 we are lucky to get 3-4 tomatoes and a handful of mulberries when in season. We still buy most of our groceries from the store. But the reward runs deeper than that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the seeds, plants, soil, and supplies one buys, a garden is a place of a thousand small tasks to fuss about and tend to soil pH, compost, drainage etc. There are a variety of bugs to fend off, and pollinators to entice. In fact, there is no end to the amount you can care about a garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But that\u2019s the point. This steady, slow, rhythmic, nurturing of a living thing, watching it grow from a slip of green to a thriving, lush being, provides a crucial bind to the present, and to our surroundings. It is a simple yet deeply profound agreement: I take care of something, and it feeds me. And then, suddenly, it arrives \u2014 one day, just like that. The gift of fruit, and a rare kind of ecstasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our little Oasis <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This quote hits home. I\u2019ve tried growing plants a couple of times. And I\u2019ve killed all of them – every single time. I\u2019m talking about killing –  Aloe vera and cactus, also known as the king and queen of the most indestructible plants on every gardening list. After a while, I ran out of excuses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,14,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gardening","7":"category-life","8":"category-personal","9":"entry","10":"has-post-thumbnail"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"vasudha","author_link":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/author\/vasudha\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":713,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}