The 10 things I learned while tending to plants.
Two years ago I bought my first plant for my room in my shared house. I was spending more time in my room and realized I would like some life in it, other than myself.
It completely died over the winter. The leaves went limp and yellowed and so did the stems. I thought for sure I would have to throw it away.
I moved to an apartment and bought several more plants. All different kinds I didn’t know anything about. I just loved what they looked like and they felt fun.
To my surprise the first plant I bought started to show signs of life as the spring approached. I was so surprised. What I thought was me failing (not tending to the plant, not throwing it away or cleaning it up, letting it sit there for months on end without watering it or tending to it at all) was actually the exact thing the plant needed. Space, sunlight, and trust.
Some of my other plants died, most of them survived.
The 10 things I learned:
Each plant grows at it’s own pace, in its own time.
Each plant has an optimal growing environment and when it is in the right conditions it will flourish.
Most plants will survive in an environment that is not ideal, but some will die.
When a plant matures, it looses some of its leaves and petals. Some plants die completely and grow new leaves after.
Some plants grow quickly and others grow slowly.
Some plants take all season to sprout new growth and there is a lot of work that is being done that is not seen on the surface, until it is.
Some plants continuously bloom and sprout new growth on the surface.
Some seasons a lot of growth is visible, other seasons the growth slows.
All the plants need from me is to set the environment - feed and water them when necessary, put them in the right sunlight conditions, trim them when needed.
The more consistent attention I give them, the more fruitful their growth. If I give them too much of things, it’s just as damaging as when I give them too little.
The plants that I spent time with grew faster than the ones that I didn’t pay attention to.
Plants that were near other plants grew faster then the ones that sat alone.
Things I learned about myself taking care of plants:
I can take care of plants that I know nothing about, and be successful to a certain extent.
I forget to regularity maintain the plant, which puts it under unnecessary stress.
This is a reflection of how I take care of myself.
I can’t undo not watering them at regular intervals, I can only shift how I take care of them now and moving forward.
I want things to grow fast, but realize now everything takes it’s own time.
Even if I think something is dead or over, life may show me otherwise.
What I think is a failure, may actually be what is needed at that time.
To trust myself, and my instincts. I’ve kept 12 plants alive for 8 months that I knew nothing about! Only 2 died - one of them didn’t have the correct environment that was difficult for me to reproduce in my apartment and the second, because there was a fire on my apartment floor, the plant sustained irreversible damage.
All I can really do to set myself up for life is to fully resource myself on a consistent basis. Everything else that happens, happens.
Okay, so I misspoke - I learned 12 things about the plants and 9 things about myself.