Enter CULITIVATING a Garden
/Enter the first spring as a new homeowner.
You are ecstatic you have your own yard. On the first nice day, you run to Lowe's and put a half dozen plants in your cart. You want to begin a garden. You hustle home with the greens and dig a hole just deep enough that the biodegradable bucket rests on top of the soil. YOU DID IT. YOU PLANTED A GARDEN.
Enter beginning of summer.
You are watering the plants, here and there. To be honest, they have kind of escaped your mind. Until one day, you look out your bedroom window and see GIANT PLANTS. Did they grow overnight?! You think it's cool and this gardening thing is legit.
Enter mid-summer.
You take a walk to the community garden blocks away from your house. You see it thriving. The fruits and veggies and flowers are soaring high in the sky. There is actual food on these plants! You are quite amazed. You wonder what the secret is, to such a fruitful crop. You think, "I should probably water my plants more often than just 'when it crosses my mind.'" You create a list of 7 things you aim to do everyday. Watering the garden makes the list.
Enter two weeks later.
You are confused. You have watered the garden daily, but there's nothing to show for it. No sign of vegetables. You notice a couple things: (1) One of your plants is toppling over. It needs support. (2) The hose nozzles is great and all but the water comes out so fast, it's putting a ton of pressure on your babies. Maybe using a watering can or screw on an spout with different watering settings would be helpful. (3) Some of the leaves on these plants have small holes in them. Oh vey.
Enter today.
You decide to you have two options. You can continue to do what you've been doing as a "gardener." Or you can cultivate your garden. You have recently been inspired by @laracasey's book "Cultivate", where she brought a four-year old almost dead orchid back to life. You saw the picture of this orchid on her Instagram story yesterday, and it is indeed, alive and well. You think, if she could bring an almost dead four year old plant back to life, you could surely bring a three month old garden back to life.
You decide to CULTIVATE your garden. You begin by going to the garage to get a shovel, a bag of soul, a pair of scissors, a wooden paint stir stick and yarn. You have four plants to tend to. You have four plants to dig up. You have four plants to replant, deeper into the soil where the roots can grow. You have four plants to prune. You have four plants to strip the bug bitten leaves. You have four plants to make new again.
And that's what you do. You begin at one end of the garden and you work your way down. With the first plant, you realize just HOW BETTER it looks and you are excited to get the other three plants in better living conditions. The red pepper, green pepper and zucchini plant have been tended to. You start on your last plant and...YOU FIND A BABY CUCUMBER! Hope is not lost.
You realize that cultivating these plants are so, so good for them. And even if no other vegetation comes from your plants, you are going to work your hardest to make sure that cucumber grows and grows. You have a feeling, though, that soon you'll begin to see more fruits appear.
