I’ve always wanted to be a plant mom. The type of woman who has plants of varying sizes and lands of origin, each with their own name and backstory. Sadly, I’ve always been more the type of girl to buy a plant and pour love into it for exactly one week, then struggle to keep it alive for the next few months before finally admitting defeat. Until the next time I get the urge to try being a plant mom, that is. Ha!
Anyway, last year was one of those fabled times in which I got the urge to attempt (plant) motherhood once again. At first I only intended to get one or two plants. The issue, however, is that I went to Home Depot (ahem, and Target) and bought all the plants: okra, habanero peppers, eggplants, lemongrass, bell peppers, aloe vera, basil, oregano, cilantro….you name it, I thought it was a good idea to plant! Mind you, I had never successfully kept a plant alive for an extended amount of time at this point.
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I actually did a decent job at remembering to water them and check on them for a little while. I was very proud of myself as I began to see flowers and sprouts pop up in my garden.
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But eventually, something happened in my personal life that served as a distraction (emotional plane) and then it rained extremely hard for 3 weeks straight (physical plane). I didn’t know how to handle either of those crises, and sadly all of my poor plants either drowned or died of some other natural cause. I never picked it back up, and I actually made myself feel guilty about it for a long time.
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Enter, my favorite part of the story: I was so surprised to find that, months later when I went into my garden (back patio) on a whim — bell peppers and okra had grown in!
I couldn’t believe it! This was well after I had given up on them, I was honestly shocked and a little confused. I found it hard to comprehend that, with just the smallest amount of love that I had given at the beginning of my gardening adventure….That love had both endured and grown through Big Moods and Big Weather, and entire plants were still able to blossom. Being able to eat a pepper that I had grown with a meal actually felt surreal — like too good to be true. So beautiful. And being able to bring a bag of okra that I had grown over to my mom’s house, knowing that okra was her favorite vegetable to plant in Belize when she was a little girl? Priceless.
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What a humbling gift, from my first plant friends, to understand just how far a tiny bit of love can go.
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theburiedgold 