Gardening - part 1

I ran out of the house (after my dog) without a jacket today, and for once, it felt good.

Good like I didn't go "crap-why-did-I-not-wear-my-jacket-cause-it's-freezing-cold-out-here" kinda good.

They always brag about getting four months of ABSOLUTELY perfect weather in this area. I think I'm just about almost done enduring the remaining eight months they sneakily didn't tell you about.

Well, either way... HELLO SPRING! I have waited a long time for you.

Things have started to warm up and cherry blossoms have bloomed.

This shot of Mr. Charcoal Boy was at taken at Udub with the flowers in full blossom. I would totally plant a cherry blossom tree at home but we don't really have the space (nor patience) for it.

We do, however, have a small porch and no kids.

So I decided that I should get my hands dirty with gardening since I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to do so when I move back to my three-room HDB in Singapore. Especially if I would be lugging my future crying babies along.

To start my gardening journey, I went to Home Depot for some inspiration and help.

Isn't this a pretty sight? There are blossoms everywhere.

And there is an entire section dedicated to gardening.

Well, well, what shall we grow???

There weren't many types of seedlings available (the shortcut method) so I decided to go look for seeds instead. Besides, people online recommend growing stuff from scratch for cost efficiency.

Wow. And that is just one side of seed heaven, wait till you see the other three.

Spoilt for choices you think?

Not really. Although there were many types of different seeds available, choosing what I wanted to sow was rather easy - I went for the edibles.

I mean, what's the point of sweating it all out when you can't reap the rewards of your labour and put them in your mouth? To me, that's the best form of gratification!

Ok, so I got the seeds. Now what?

The only plant I had ever grown was the taogay (noun: Bean Sprouts) we had to grow in Primary school - in a small plastic cup with a damp cotton wool. I wish that all plants grow this way but I guess that is just me being lazy.

I spent half an hour walking around the garden section like a lost sheep until a kind lady from Home Depot took pity on me. She explained the 101s and told me to get started with pellets.

So these were my loots from Home Depot.

I had to get Chilli Padi, Mark eats them with everything (except maybe ice cream).

The pellets were really easy to use and it was kind of enchanting to watch them grow when you soak them in water. Just like those water monsters kids play with.

I never liked those though, they are always kinda creepy.

Without much trouble, I had the seeds planted in no time. I kept a close eye on them for the first three days and then I gave up. They were taking too long to grow.

Oh, how I wish I had special beans like Jack!

I thought that maybe I had done something wrong and killed the poor seeds but after a few weeks...

They were ready for transplanting!

Yeah, you're probably wondering which plant is which.

Well, me too. So let me know if you got them figured out.

You see, I thought I was being a genius when I sowed them in alphabetical order from left to right. Like labelling is for noobs who can't come up with a systematic way of keeping track of things right?

WRONG. I had to turn the box around every day so that the plants will grow straight up, disrupting my sound system of sowing seeds. Haha.

See lah, act smart lah. Now have to tikam tikam (verb: guess).

Let's hope that the plants continue to grow so that I can continue with a Part 2. Lol.

Love,

Isabelle