I have around 15 house plants! Once our balcony has been repainted and spruced up, I plan on expanding out there! I love plants! I love to watch them slowly grow and it’s like I’m in tune with them. I know when to give each one more or less water. Sometimes I buy the very tiny plants (for around €2) because it’s like a challenge for me to see how much I can nurture them to grow and flourish into something bigger. I even named the plant that sits on my desk. 🪴🪻🌱🌻🌷🌿🍃
It is indeed. And I don’t have kids/plan on having them (I think) so I always joke that they’re my babies. The plant on my desk is a spider plant called Petunia. She’s already given me a few babies which are doing well out on the balcony. Hehe.
Thanks for the beautiful insightful piece. I have a saying, ‘When in doubt, garden.’ It’s the the most connected (and disconnected from all the shit stuff) I ever feel 😊
Great read. Glad you’ve discovered your green fingers, Sam. I found mine relatively recently, in memory of my aunt, who helped me sort out my courtyard garden in 2018, passing on a lifetime of knowledge. It brought us closer together. She had a stroke later that year and died in 2020. I think of her every time I’m in the garden.
I love this! Have I told you about my pandemic trellis? I am also not a nurturer at heart, but for some reason during lockdown, I decided I wanted to work on growing this bougainvillea that had been planted in one corner of our yard but never thrived because it wasn’t getting enough direct sunlight. Since I couldn’t go to the hardware store for materials, I cut lengths of bamboo (also from my yard) and tied them together with kitchen twine to fashion a sort of upside-down cone (which fell apart a few times and had to be shored up with paperclips and other detritus I found lurking in the junk drawer). Then I wove the short bougainvillea branches through it and kept working on it every week. It took 3 years (!) but it finally grew tall and bushy enough to overtake the shade and it’s now a full-on tree. This is maybe my greatest accomplishment ever 😂
It’s like 12 feet tall now! Of course in the meantime, they developed the land behind us, so now an even taller house has gone up beyond our wall—aka MORE SHADE. But my baby keeps reaching for the sky 🙌
"The thing is, it’s not really about the bulbs, is it? It’s about bothering about the bulbs' - so true. It's the whole process and the optimism that goes with it - that's what keeps us going.
I thought gardening was the most boring thing in the world until I had my own tiny space, as bleak as anything. I saw the magic happening, and I was a convert.
Talking of converting, I'd love to try to persuade you to give roses a chance!
This is lovely! I’m a latecomer to gardening too. My mum was an avid gardener. Her father did it professionally. I fear it may have skipped a generation with me. I’m a pot gardener too, really.
I have high expectations and dreams for my garden, but am scared of cocking it up. Plus, it’s the “blank sheet of paper”-ness of having a new-build garden!
My grandad was a big gardener but he was a fruit and veg, grow to eat gardener. Don’t be scared. Worst thing that happens is you waste some money on something that doesn’t thrive.
Such a lovely piece! I’m slightly strange as I’ve gardened since my late twenties but the older I get the more I realise I deeply need gardening to keep me from going over the edge. You’ll be growing things from seed next - and then you’ll be well and truly hooked!
I have a pair of succulents that are thriving even though I ignore them 95% of the time. I'm beginning to think of repotting them to give them a bit more growing room. There is hope!
To answer the end question: my real happy place is my "creation station," a writing desk that contains collaging supplies on one side and snail mail supplies on the other, and a bunch of art supplies on top of it. I get my joy from manipulating images and letters the same way others manipulate flowers in a vase or seeds deliberately planted in the soil.
Gardening for sure (mostly in pots since I’m in a condo). Hydrangea are a joy! And aside from needing a scant bit of epsom salts annually to keep their leaves green, all they need is water. (My kind of plant). I’m also wild about begonias right now, since they bloom all summer if one waters them. I plant them in pots with some fluffy lobelia around the edges to soften them a bit.
I'm so glad you've found joy in gardening. I took on an allotment at the end of last year having only ever grown a few geraniums. Then my mum, a keen gardener, died. Then I ran two back to back election campaigns. Meanwhile my allotment ran totally wild! Thankfully one of my allotment neighbours offered to strim it for a tenner. (Strim doesn't really do justice to the cutting down required). And now I have a blank canvas from which to start creating. But first, I'm covering it with cardboard to suppress the weeds and learning about the No Dig method - which sounds a lot better than digging to me - and figuring how to create a fruit guild. A bit of a mad story, but I'm with you on finding sanity in soil. Check out the peony tulips on Sarah Raven's website!
Thank you, I might just do that! I'm planning a very bougie writing, come potting shed next to what may or may not be a damson tree. Hopefully all will be revealed when I get my pollinators going. The lovely thing about allotments is the people. One found me a rake; another gave me Jerusalem artichokes! Jo Thompson has a lovely Substack on gardening BTW.
Sam, I enjoyed this post so much (and have added the Alice Vincent book to my ‘want to read’ list). If you are interested, I recently wrote a post (with lots of pictures) about my allotment and my struggles with chronic ill health.
*waves* Hello Denyse - fellow allotmenteer here! How is your allotment going? I’ve had one for about seven years now, and, due to chronic health issues, I’ve let it lapse back into a wild state a couple of times. I recently wrote a post on my Substack about my allotment, and chronic ill health, (with lots of pictures) if you are interested.
Hi Emma! I'll hop over and take a look at your Substack.
I've covered a large chunk of my allotment with weed suppressant so that it's out of sight, out of mind. I've started working on it in chunks and have the beginnings of a fruit guild, and I've planted my currant bushes. I also started my composting operation.
I've 20 million rogue raspberry canes to dig up (I exaggerate obviously) which I'm slowly able to do now that it's rained and softened the ground.
So while I'm a long way from my allotment dreams, it's a long way forward compared to the state it was in. Meaning I won't get "the letter."
It sounds like you have made a great start! Definitely best to avoid "the letter" (speaking as someone who got "the letter" earlier this year! 🙈).
Covering as much as possible and working on it in chunks is what I did a few years ago when I was struggling. And currant bushes were what I got in first too. That sounds about right with the raspberries! Good luck with them, and with the allotment in general! 💪
Regarding the currant bushes, do you mean when I planted them originally? I think so (it was 7-8 years ago now). If I remember correctly, I planted two blackcurrants, a whitecurrant and three redcurrants, and then chopped them all to the ground. The redcurrants didn't survive, for whatever reason, but the others were fine. And the cuttings seem to root very easily (although sadly I didn't know that when I originally planted them).
Do you know if your raspberries are summer or autumn fruiting ones? Autumn fruiting you cut right to the ground each year; summer fruiting ones are a little bit more complicated.
I love Huw Richards! I will go and find him. I assume you know Charles Dowding too. Have you come across Liz Zorab? I like her YouTube channel too.https://www.youtube.com/@LizZorab Oh, and JB (although he's been a bit quiet recently...) https://www.youtube.com/@JBNat
Sorry Sam! Taking over your comments section with allotment talk!
Easy plants are still plants! I've been a sucker for house plants for most of my adult life, but when I moved from the West Coast to the East Coast of the U.S. all my plants died because I was now living in old, East Coast houses that got very little natural light indoors. Unlike my house in Seattle that had a picture window in the living room as big as a car.
I've now gotten back to having a horde of houseplants, and also a yard that I tend (minimally). But I'm a single mom with three jobs, so fussy plants are right out. Do I rely on pothos and spider plants and hostas in my garden beds? YES. Did I convert one of my raised veg garden beds to a perennial pie bed, full of rhubarb and strawberries? YES. God bless all the people who love high-maintenance plants and gardening. I just want green things around me that fit my haphazard attention and over-obligated schedule.
I am so proud that I understand this comment and even know the plant names. I am so the same. I live in a basement flat with hardly any natural light except two rooms. Houseplant hell.
Here's the combo that has finally helped my house plants to survive me: One, I put them outside on my porch as soon as the threat of frost has passed in the spring and leave them there until the threat of frost returns in the fall. That infusion of light and fresh air strengthens them for winter indoors. Your backyard might be a perfect place to host not only easy bulbs and such, but some indoor plants for the season.
Two, I found individual grow-lights on timers that I can put in my plants that don't fit kissed up against my few well-lit windows all winter. The timers mean that I can plug them in and they just turn on and off without my effort (did I mention haphazard and over-obligated?), and my plants get plenty of light. I'll also admit that in the dead of winter when I'm sitting in my chair in the early, dark morning hours drinking my coffee and all the plant lights pop on one by one it warms my heart. Like my own light, which often feels damped down and beleaguered in the depths of winter is winking at me and saying, Still here! Hold on!
On how I love this! My mum is an obsessive brilliant gardener as was my grandmother and I, almost deliberately, have turned my back on it all. Like you said, I’m happy to admire a beautiful garden but that’s as far as it goes. However …. 2 months post-divorce with an offer accepted on a house with a small but rather lovely garden, I find that I’m ridiculously excited about it. And I recognise that it’s about how I move on from a really painful few years and getting grounded etc. it’s even got a little stream at the bottom of it! I rather enjoy growing herbs in pots and the current owners have an extraordinarily large pot of basil growing in the kitchen which I’m keen to try. Basil hates me, just dies immediately. Really lovely to read this, thank you.
This was so interesting to read. From watching my mom, I knew that gardening was therapeutic, but I like how you became more and more fascinated as time went on with the gardening.
What a terrific piece of writing. You are a natural. I could write a book about what gardens/plants mean to me. Started as a 4yr old with my own little border. It was my ‘safe’ place to hide from two older siblings, who were exceptionally inventive at finding new ways to torment me. Throughout my life, when the chips are down, I pull on some gloves and go and plant/move something. It always gives meaning to life and living, even through the most traumatic times. I can’t recommend it enough and have occasionally succeeded in getting a friend hooked. Others - - not so much 🌺 I will seriously consider subscribing 💫
I've recently begun grounding, which is essentially what you're doing by planting and playing with soil. I have a client who is an alternative wellness expert--wowzers! I had no idea there was so much science that solidifies why we need to connect with the soil.
I am pretty bad at growing plants, but I'm trying! I currently have basil, mint, a mini banana plant, lavender and green onion. So far, so good! :)
I have around 15 house plants! Once our balcony has been repainted and spruced up, I plan on expanding out there! I love plants! I love to watch them slowly grow and it’s like I’m in tune with them. I know when to give each one more or less water. Sometimes I buy the very tiny plants (for around €2) because it’s like a challenge for me to see how much I can nurture them to grow and flourish into something bigger. I even named the plant that sits on my desk. 🪴🪻🌱🌻🌷🌿🍃
It’s such a sense of achievement isn’t it? (What’s the desk plant’s name?)
It is indeed. And I don’t have kids/plan on having them (I think) so I always joke that they’re my babies. The plant on my desk is a spider plant called Petunia. She’s already given me a few babies which are doing well out on the balcony. Hehe.
Petunia! Love it
Thanks for the beautiful insightful piece. I have a saying, ‘When in doubt, garden.’ It’s the the most connected (and disconnected from all the shit stuff) I ever feel 😊
Great read. Glad you’ve discovered your green fingers, Sam. I found mine relatively recently, in memory of my aunt, who helped me sort out my courtyard garden in 2018, passing on a lifetime of knowledge. It brought us closer together. She had a stroke later that year and died in 2020. I think of her every time I’m in the garden.
❤️❤️❤️
I love this! Have I told you about my pandemic trellis? I am also not a nurturer at heart, but for some reason during lockdown, I decided I wanted to work on growing this bougainvillea that had been planted in one corner of our yard but never thrived because it wasn’t getting enough direct sunlight. Since I couldn’t go to the hardware store for materials, I cut lengths of bamboo (also from my yard) and tied them together with kitchen twine to fashion a sort of upside-down cone (which fell apart a few times and had to be shored up with paperclips and other detritus I found lurking in the junk drawer). Then I wove the short bougainvillea branches through it and kept working on it every week. It took 3 years (!) but it finally grew tall and bushy enough to overtake the shade and it’s now a full-on tree. This is maybe my greatest accomplishment ever 😂
You haven’t but I so get that! Especially during the pandemic when nothing was under our control. How’s it going now?
It’s like 12 feet tall now! Of course in the meantime, they developed the land behind us, so now an even taller house has gone up beyond our wall—aka MORE SHADE. But my baby keeps reaching for the sky 🙌
"The thing is, it’s not really about the bulbs, is it? It’s about bothering about the bulbs' - so true. It's the whole process and the optimism that goes with it - that's what keeps us going.
I thought gardening was the most boring thing in the world until I had my own tiny space, as bleak as anything. I saw the magic happening, and I was a convert.
Talking of converting, I'd love to try to persuade you to give roses a chance!
I’ll have to think about that!
This is lovely! I’m a latecomer to gardening too. My mum was an avid gardener. Her father did it professionally. I fear it may have skipped a generation with me. I’m a pot gardener too, really.
I have high expectations and dreams for my garden, but am scared of cocking it up. Plus, it’s the “blank sheet of paper”-ness of having a new-build garden!
My grandad was a big gardener but he was a fruit and veg, grow to eat gardener. Don’t be scared. Worst thing that happens is you waste some money on something that doesn’t thrive.
Such a lovely piece! I’m slightly strange as I’ve gardened since my late twenties but the older I get the more I realise I deeply need gardening to keep me from going over the edge. You’ll be growing things from seed next - and then you’ll be well and truly hooked!
Have you read Alice Vincent’s work? She got the bug in her 20s too
Yes I love her writing
I have a pair of succulents that are thriving even though I ignore them 95% of the time. I'm beginning to think of repotting them to give them a bit more growing room. There is hope!
To answer the end question: my real happy place is my "creation station," a writing desk that contains collaging supplies on one side and snail mail supplies on the other, and a bunch of art supplies on top of it. I get my joy from manipulating images and letters the same way others manipulate flowers in a vase or seeds deliberately planted in the soil.
Gardening for sure (mostly in pots since I’m in a condo). Hydrangea are a joy! And aside from needing a scant bit of epsom salts annually to keep their leaves green, all they need is water. (My kind of plant). I’m also wild about begonias right now, since they bloom all summer if one waters them. I plant them in pots with some fluffy lobelia around the edges to soften them a bit.
I'm so glad you've found joy in gardening. I took on an allotment at the end of last year having only ever grown a few geraniums. Then my mum, a keen gardener, died. Then I ran two back to back election campaigns. Meanwhile my allotment ran totally wild! Thankfully one of my allotment neighbours offered to strim it for a tenner. (Strim doesn't really do justice to the cutting down required). And now I have a blank canvas from which to start creating. But first, I'm covering it with cardboard to suppress the weeds and learning about the No Dig method - which sounds a lot better than digging to me - and figuring how to create a fruit guild. A bit of a mad story, but I'm with you on finding sanity in soil. Check out the peony tulips on Sarah Raven's website!
I spend much too much time and money with Sarah Raven! I love the sound of your allotment, you should document it.
Thank you, I might just do that! I'm planning a very bougie writing, come potting shed next to what may or may not be a damson tree. Hopefully all will be revealed when I get my pollinators going. The lovely thing about allotments is the people. One found me a rake; another gave me Jerusalem artichokes! Jo Thompson has a lovely Substack on gardening BTW.
I’ll have a look, thank you
Sam, I enjoyed this post so much (and have added the Alice Vincent book to my ‘want to read’ list). If you are interested, I recently wrote a post (with lots of pictures) about my allotment and my struggles with chronic ill health.
*waves* Hello Denyse - fellow allotmenteer here! How is your allotment going? I’ve had one for about seven years now, and, due to chronic health issues, I’ve let it lapse back into a wild state a couple of times. I recently wrote a post on my Substack about my allotment, and chronic ill health, (with lots of pictures) if you are interested.
Hi Emma! I'll hop over and take a look at your Substack.
I've covered a large chunk of my allotment with weed suppressant so that it's out of sight, out of mind. I've started working on it in chunks and have the beginnings of a fruit guild, and I've planted my currant bushes. I also started my composting operation.
I've 20 million rogue raspberry canes to dig up (I exaggerate obviously) which I'm slowly able to do now that it's rained and softened the ground.
So while I'm a long way from my allotment dreams, it's a long way forward compared to the state it was in. Meaning I won't get "the letter."
It sounds like you have made a great start! Definitely best to avoid "the letter" (speaking as someone who got "the letter" earlier this year! 🙈).
Covering as much as possible and working on it in chunks is what I did a few years ago when I was struggling. And currant bushes were what I got in first too. That sounds about right with the raspberries! Good luck with them, and with the allotment in general! 💪
I’m doing my best to give “the letter” the slip!
Did you cut your currant bushes down as recommended? I like the idea of the cuttings but it seems quite brutal, even if top gardeners recommend this.
Why I’m being so reticent I don’t know! Somebody strimmed my allotment, raspberry canes and all, and a few weeks later, they’re coming back strong!
Did you know Huw Richards is on here?
Regarding the currant bushes, do you mean when I planted them originally? I think so (it was 7-8 years ago now). If I remember correctly, I planted two blackcurrants, a whitecurrant and three redcurrants, and then chopped them all to the ground. The redcurrants didn't survive, for whatever reason, but the others were fine. And the cuttings seem to root very easily (although sadly I didn't know that when I originally planted them).
Do you know if your raspberries are summer or autumn fruiting ones? Autumn fruiting you cut right to the ground each year; summer fruiting ones are a little bit more complicated.
I love Huw Richards! I will go and find him. I assume you know Charles Dowding too. Have you come across Liz Zorab? I like her YouTube channel too.https://www.youtube.com/@LizZorab Oh, and JB (although he's been a bit quiet recently...) https://www.youtube.com/@JBNat
Sorry Sam! Taking over your comments section with allotment talk!
Hard to tell with the raspberry canes because not one fruit was produced!
I will do what’s recommended to my currant bushes and make cuttings.
Yes, I watch their videos. Also Lovely Greens and Mossy Bottom. The latter is truly a delight.
Easy plants are still plants! I've been a sucker for house plants for most of my adult life, but when I moved from the West Coast to the East Coast of the U.S. all my plants died because I was now living in old, East Coast houses that got very little natural light indoors. Unlike my house in Seattle that had a picture window in the living room as big as a car.
I've now gotten back to having a horde of houseplants, and also a yard that I tend (minimally). But I'm a single mom with three jobs, so fussy plants are right out. Do I rely on pothos and spider plants and hostas in my garden beds? YES. Did I convert one of my raised veg garden beds to a perennial pie bed, full of rhubarb and strawberries? YES. God bless all the people who love high-maintenance plants and gardening. I just want green things around me that fit my haphazard attention and over-obligated schedule.
I am so proud that I understand this comment and even know the plant names. I am so the same. I live in a basement flat with hardly any natural light except two rooms. Houseplant hell.
Here's the combo that has finally helped my house plants to survive me: One, I put them outside on my porch as soon as the threat of frost has passed in the spring and leave them there until the threat of frost returns in the fall. That infusion of light and fresh air strengthens them for winter indoors. Your backyard might be a perfect place to host not only easy bulbs and such, but some indoor plants for the season.
Two, I found individual grow-lights on timers that I can put in my plants that don't fit kissed up against my few well-lit windows all winter. The timers mean that I can plug them in and they just turn on and off without my effort (did I mention haphazard and over-obligated?), and my plants get plenty of light. I'll also admit that in the dead of winter when I'm sitting in my chair in the early, dark morning hours drinking my coffee and all the plant lights pop on one by one it warms my heart. Like my own light, which often feels damped down and beleaguered in the depths of winter is winking at me and saying, Still here! Hold on!
Here are the ones I got (There are lots of other options out there): https://www.amazon.com/yadoker-Growing-Spectrum-Adjustable-Automatic/dp/B0BWXXLKPJ/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kf6MAXhGuZE8V3pj9kBKD84NjmSOv-HCi9zq4SGVkMge71oLvctQH9N2Fi4QJ8B0YgZgktdAFLZ4IcaD75zzr5zRLy4PyDbITo7grF1nEfjomWGBlUSJpbdBgkNeGY8ZPAC_U-_vFbNMZ6SK2wniLOJF4awQwQRKdmNW7p3-7ObxqwuF8tzUkKHRjIclNlkHD8n987p8proDffTf6D3nyUp9QcLG2rTCLepDR-hfwvco2TxchmqW2mnIv76WZdIDBBfi-wGJUY6TVM0p9g2mP1oQf7txshfbqc89n1NmBHU.KXMkjLvnOdPhLXL8ejkMym9FzP9M6kR5ZMEDh_YMU3I&dib_tag=se&hvadid=604535075278&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9005779&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=8495845240583950530&hvtargid=kwd-1638351695899&hydadcr=20080_13319400&keywords=amazon%2Bgrow%2Blights%2Bindoor%2Bplants&qid=1722520550&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1
Ah thank you. I’ve been experimenting with house plants outside this summer. So far so good. I’m going to check out the grow lights now.
On how I love this! My mum is an obsessive brilliant gardener as was my grandmother and I, almost deliberately, have turned my back on it all. Like you said, I’m happy to admire a beautiful garden but that’s as far as it goes. However …. 2 months post-divorce with an offer accepted on a house with a small but rather lovely garden, I find that I’m ridiculously excited about it. And I recognise that it’s about how I move on from a really painful few years and getting grounded etc. it’s even got a little stream at the bottom of it! I rather enjoy growing herbs in pots and the current owners have an extraordinarily large pot of basil growing in the kitchen which I’m keen to try. Basil hates me, just dies immediately. Really lovely to read this, thank you.
Basil hates me too! I love this and so identify. If you'd told me ten years ago that I'd give a toss about a plant I would have sneered in your face.
This was so interesting to read. From watching my mom, I knew that gardening was therapeutic, but I like how you became more and more fascinated as time went on with the gardening.
What a terrific piece of writing. You are a natural. I could write a book about what gardens/plants mean to me. Started as a 4yr old with my own little border. It was my ‘safe’ place to hide from two older siblings, who were exceptionally inventive at finding new ways to torment me. Throughout my life, when the chips are down, I pull on some gloves and go and plant/move something. It always gives meaning to life and living, even through the most traumatic times. I can’t recommend it enough and have occasionally succeeded in getting a friend hooked. Others - - not so much 🌺 I will seriously consider subscribing 💫
Thank you. I wish I had discovered the healing power of planting sooner, but glad I have now x
I find my sanity in the routine of others. I myself find it hard to keep my own. Day dream believing.
It looks great!!
I've recently begun grounding, which is essentially what you're doing by planting and playing with soil. I have a client who is an alternative wellness expert--wowzers! I had no idea there was so much science that solidifies why we need to connect with the soil.
I am pretty bad at growing plants, but I'm trying! I currently have basil, mint, a mini banana plant, lavender and green onion. So far, so good! :)
I’ve read a lot lately about it being a deeply engrained need to literally earth yourself in soil. Feels like there’s something in it.
For sure! I've been taking humic and fulvic, too, which is something crucial that's found in soil.