I must say that the beginning was a very shameful period of my indoor gardening days. Some of you readers may be able to relate it to your own experience or may have heard it from a friend or a close relative. Perhaps you had a crazier experience. As for me, none of my plants were able to last a couple of months before dying. As a matter of fact, after moving in with me some of the plants even died within a couple of weeks. I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Being young and egoistical, I didn't even bother to ask for advice. Big Mistake... That went on for a few couple of months until I decided that it had to stop... Since... I had been harvesting ‘grow pots’ of different sizes...
I did not start out as a plant enthusiast. I was at IKEA one day and just decided to bring home a succulent. It was smaller than a palm size. I didn't know why I bought it at that time. It must have been the colour or shape that caught my eye. It was as if it was calling out to me to bring it home.
"Dude, I will look good on the TV console, trust me"
At least that's what I thought I heard it speak to my mind. When I arrived home, I decided to put it on the coffee table instead. Since it looks much better there and also much easier for the world to see. I didn't even do much for it and just let it sit there for a few days.
I had family members and friends coming over the next following days. Of course, the little guy was impossible to miss. Everybody was commenting on how cute and lovely it was and how much better it would look if there are more. Some even thought that I did a great job in taking care of it and wanted to get some of their own. I felt somewhat proud of the compliment even though I didn't do a thing and soon decided to take their advice to add more to my collection. Well, how hard could it be, right?
I went to IKEA again and instead of just succulents, bought a few other different species of plants as well. I didn't really like the 'bark-y' look of the 'Adenium' so I left that out, but got most of the others. I didn't really think about where I should put them. Well, as always I should just go with the flow. I even got a few cool looking potters and some soil from a nearby store. I didn't really mind the grow pots but I figured I should show some interest, at least... You should know what happened next. Excited... Got home... Removed from grow pot... Re-potted... etc, etc... Since I didn't have a backyard, I had to mess up my kitchen. No tools? No problem! Sacrificed some spoons, spatula, some other utensils and even an old wok which I seldom use anyway. I didn't really think it through.
I was very sure that I took good care of the little guys. They were well in the first few days. I mean, all plants need sunlight and water right? I even put them under the wonderfully bright sunshine for a few hours and even generously watered it with cool running tap water every single day. All those experienced plant owners would definitely see where this is going. That's right... Disaster.... Sort of.
You may have guessed it. It was rather daunting for me. One by one they began to change. First was the colour change. What came next were the drying and the wilting. As those were happening, I thought to myself that maybe I didn't water enough and eventually they died.
"Why did it die? Where did I go wrong?"
Not ready to give up yet, I bought new ones to replace the dead ones and somehow or rather for a period of time, managed to "maintain my desired living room garden". That process repeated itself for half a year.
Of course I realised that that would not be healthy for my wallet in the long run and almost gave up. Some of you lovely readers here may have had similar experiences which had prompted you to learn and understand the various needs every species of plants have.
This come to the end of my story. I am very curious about how other plant experts' experiences sounds like. If you don't mind sharing, I would like to hear your story. Do comment.
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