I recently published a post on my blog titled ”Something about Nature” where I briefly described my love for nature and how closely I (try to) connect with nature. This post talks about my affection towards gardens. Since my childhood, I had a huge garden at my house. My grandma was fond of taking care of our garden. She generally used to spend a couple of hours every day taking care of the garden. I became a great admirer of her work and developed an affection towards gardening. I didn’t extend my hand towards gardening then; because you know, I was busy playing outdoor games but I did make mud pies and smelled the earth.
I moved to a different city for college in my late teenage years and after that, I moved to Switzerland for a job. While my interest in gardening has taken a slump during those years, living in Switzerland again prompted me to take an interest in gardening where I saw people bring soil/clay, planting seeds and taking care of the garden themselves; whereas in India we had the privilege to hire a gardener who used to take care of garden himself. Since then, I started to buy soil, seeds, plants, and flower by myself and became passionate about gardening. Following is my first (I think) flower bucket.
Anyways, fast forward to the current day, I am still enjoying gardening as much as my grandma used to. It’s a great hobby. Gardening is many things: beautiful, relaxing, meditative, healthy, exciting, rewarding and creative. You walk around plants that you planted, you smell the flowers you put together, you harvest the vegetables, fruits n’ herbs that you had sown, you sit under that tree when the sun is shining that your grandma planted 20 years ago. This all gives you great pleasure. It is also your spot when you want to sit, have coffee and read a book.
While it does look easy to do gardening, it might not be for everyone. You need to have a lot of patience for it and it requires daily effort from your side. Patience as in when you sow a seed, it takes a while for it to grow and reflect. If you think you are patient enough to wait for a seed to grow even after you had put a lot of hard work, you might be in for some bad news. It is normal when you sow a seed, it might not germinate and hence it is advisable to sow a few of them. When you plant something, you need to take care of it (almost) daily. You need to water it, make sure it is getting enough sunlight if required, till the soil of the plants and so on. But in the end, it is all worth the effort. The joy you feel when you see a plant growing in front of the eye can not be described. It is almost like watching your baby grow in front of you.
