May 17th, 2009Confessions of a novice gardener
Coming from a lifetime of living in flats to actually having a garden now, the thought of planting a seed and watching it grow…is completely alien to me. These past few months, I’ve begun to discover terms like compost…grow bags…stakes…seedlings…plant food (and the list goes on)…terms I would never have been exposed to if I was still living in a HDB flat in Singapore.
Anyway, the truth is…I found it extremely boring. You plant these little seeds and you wait for 2 weeks while nothing happens…yet you wake up every morning and look into this little pot to see if somehow…somehow something’s changed from the night before and you hope…no!…you pray that you see some kind of life spurting out from underneath all that soil.
J has been persuading me to get some gradening done. However, I see no point in growing flowers etc…they look pretty yes…but am I going to go through all that for something that looks pretty and dies again in a few months? So we came to a compromise…I’ll grow herbs.
I wouldn’t mind going through all that waiting and praying and watering…if I can get some fresh herbs for my dishes at the end of the whole ordeal. So I did. I planted coriander, chives, basil and rosemary. Out in the garden, we have tomatoes and courgettes which will hopefully be arriving in June. Look how gorgeous my coriander’s looking!
I might have green fingers after all….
Wife has been wanting to get a pot like yours to put up on the window ledges. Problem is – our windows doesn’t come with a ledge. LOL.
Will definitely get one if I can figure out how to drain the pot off. Unlike back home, there’s not much of a problem with insects so that’s not too bad, is it?
Yeah we got a long pot, drilled small holes beneath it and bought a matching drainage plate which we place underneath the pot. The plate can be removed and you can easily clean and wipe it down regularly. To be honest, there isn’t much drainage to be worried about…I hardly get any…it gets all soaked up.
Hi Reeta,
My mom always wanted a garden. At her main residence, there’s a senior citizen’s corner with a big patch of grass next to the block. She just sets down 10 pots of flora plants there. U can see that the group who assembles there every evening were glad to share this hobby. I was just as glad that the inspector didnt write out a fine for the “illegal” flora. He did make my mom understand abt keeping it free of mossies.
My mom rotates her stay at 3 other siblings of mine n at each residence, pots of plants with little fruits starts to accumulate along the corridor, but it was such a welcome sight. Indoors, she has the tulips I brought to SG for her to plant from bulbs. I hv the feeling that she is the only one with tulips in the whole of SG ?? Neighbours n friends do drop by to admire them.
In NL, I too had the chore of tending to a garden. It’s more my hubby’s eden than mine ;-o It’s alot of work, weeding n pruning during spring till autumn. I dislike getting blisters from pulling those tenacious weeds – ugh !
Am glad that ur herbs r thriving. It never happened with my lot *sob* I hv tried indoor pots (they need the rite temp) but the multitude of bugs just ate them up b4 they had a chance to bear fruits (was 4 bell pepper plant) *sigh*
Tulips in SG? I never thought it would grow in SG…hmm..I might pass some to my Mum when I’m back there…
The herbs I’ve growing are growing so well…well so far anyway. I do hate getting blisters from gardening especially all that dirt in my nails…haha…but I do have to pull my socks up and get in there when we landscape the garden this year…we’re doing everything ourselves to keep the cost down…yikes!!?!!