I grew up in the countryside surrounded by greenery. Growing up, nobody spoke about gardening as a hobby, it was something we all did naturally. Plants thrived and flourished without much human intervention and fruit trees were always laden with fruits. Everything was grown organically. The only fertiliser we knew came in shitloads from the chicken farm nearby.
When I was chatting with a friend yesterday, I was surprised to learn that he had never planted anything in his life. An engineer by training, he knows how to fix his own computer, install solar panels in his house and has even built a temperature controlled greenhouse in his garden, yet when it comes to growing things, he has no clue.
"How is that possible?" I asked. "All you need is soil!"
"What kind of soil and how much?", he asked.
For beginners like him, taking the first step is the most difficult. In his case, maybe he's just being too technical though he thinks that once he has 'broken the ice', he will be encouraged to move to the next level.
It looks like seasoned gardeners like me have taken our green fingers for granted. For me, as long as I have soil, I can grow (or at least try to grow) anything. Planting pots can come in the form of jars, tubs or anything with drainage holes. Compost can even be made at home. When dealing with pests and mites, we can mix a mean concoction in the kitchen that can kill them without harming the plant.
Well, I encouraged him to give gardening a shot, afterall he has a big garden. I hope he becomes hooked like me. Just look at some of the plants I have in my patio, once salvaged from seeds and vegetables in the fridge.
When I was chatting with a friend yesterday, I was surprised to learn that he had never planted anything in his life. An engineer by training, he knows how to fix his own computer, install solar panels in his house and has even built a temperature controlled greenhouse in his garden, yet when it comes to growing things, he has no clue.
"How is that possible?" I asked. "All you need is soil!"
"What kind of soil and how much?", he asked.
For beginners like him, taking the first step is the most difficult. In his case, maybe he's just being too technical though he thinks that once he has 'broken the ice', he will be encouraged to move to the next level.
It looks like seasoned gardeners like me have taken our green fingers for granted. For me, as long as I have soil, I can grow (or at least try to grow) anything. Planting pots can come in the form of jars, tubs or anything with drainage holes. Compost can even be made at home. When dealing with pests and mites, we can mix a mean concoction in the kitchen that can kill them without harming the plant.
Well, I encouraged him to give gardening a shot, afterall he has a big garden. I hope he becomes hooked like me. Just look at some of the plants I have in my patio, once salvaged from seeds and vegetables in the fridge.
After harvesting some leaves from my big basil plant for a minced-pork dish, I put the stalks back into moist soil. Some of them survived and are doing very well though there were some that didn't make it.
I have a bunch of citrus plants growing in my garden. I'm not sure if they germinated from orange or mandarin seeds. We'll see.
I didn't harvest the roselle fruits in time and some of the seeds began germinating. I put them in a pot of soil to see if they'll grow into big roselle shrubs.
Even the kang kong stems that didn't make it to the cooking pot ended up in the planter box. New leaves are already growing from the stems.
Some experiments didn't work like the frangipani stems salvaged from the mother plant. Most of them have already shrivelled up. Oh well, at least I tried.
hehehehe.....have u tot of planting some pandan leaves? *WIDE GRIN*
ReplyDeleteI already have at my apt. And I planted many small ones at the farm. They're doing great.
ReplyDeleteI love kangkong and always cook them. Yet, I didn't know that kangkong can be planted from its stems! Thanks for this sharing. That'd be my next project.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention, that's an interesting story too! Hope your friend would break the ice real soon and learns more about gardening *wink* wink *
ReplyDeleteJC - When I plant kang kang from seeds, i usually cut the top part out for eating, leaving the stems in the soil. After a week or two, you can harvest a new batch!
ReplyDeleteNice job BlurTing! I hope your friend would try to garden soon. I like all your experiments above especially the kangkung. Hmmm... if I could organise my garden a little bit, maybe I could try planting Kangkung. But, I like to eat a lot of it... so I would need a big planter to grow. See how. Have a wonderful day!
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