I am a thorough city bred, born and brought up in a city of 17
million where real estate price has shot up over the last decade and a
half is beyond imagination. So other than small strips of balcony there
was not much where one can pot around!
For me growing plants and flowers were restricted to a handful of
houses in the city with gardens, the rich farm houses or a the few half
dried parks and gardens we had in our city. I am talking of Delhi in the
late 70s and 80s.
Once I left India and came to settle in Europe it all changed. Come
spring all around us we would see flower laden baskets on balconies,
people potting around their little, big or not so big garden patches.
Come spring everyone would be making a dash to the huge garden centers
which could make any of our poor gardeners back home tipsy. This was
almost infectious and I too got drawn into the gardening phenomenon.
It was easy thanks to the various garden related digital magazines and online women’s magazines
to decide where to make a start. I started with safe potted plants.
Geraniums, Marigold, Dahlia, Aster and Petunia. Choosing the right soil
& fertilizers was easy, garden centers were a great source for help
and advice. As for taking care again the digital magazines, gardening magazines online
were full of practical tips and advices. Slowly this turned into a
hobby and a passion. I ventured into the difficult ones, Hortensia,
Rose, Buxus, and this time it was planting in the garden, not pots. It
was initially difficult and frustrating when the plants didn’t survive,
or got infected with disease. But there was help always, thanks to the
numerous magazines online dealing with gardening matters.
Gardening as a hobby is a brilliant stress buster, and also a great exercise. When you are out tilling, cutting, cleaning your flower pots and plants it can be back breaking.
Nowadays each season I try out new plants, learn about them and take
care. When they bloom and grow it is indeed a great joy. However there
are some plants no matter how hard Itry just won’t grow in my house, the
beautiful Petunia being one of them. Almost as if they don’t like me.
There is so much to know and do, in gardening. My suggestion would be
take it up, start with the simple things, enjoy . Thanks to the digital magazines
dealing with gardening you have enough information at hand.You can
teach yourself what is the best for you. Whether it is room pants,
outdoor flower pots or a garden patch.
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