Helping the planet (General Garden)

Member Name: HeavenlyTwin

Product:	General Garden
Date:	25/03/01 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Growing plants and trees helps counteract the pollution in the air; it's nice to grow your own fruits and veggies.

Disadvantages: Sometimes, there's a lot of work involved

I am meant to be a gardener, to grow things. All I need is an acre of land, and I can make my own compost, grow fruit and veggies and be quite happy doing so. As of now, I've many houseplants growing, lovingly re-potted as they get bigger, two gardenia bushes, 3 strawberry plants, and have started grapefruit and pear trees from seed. The grapefruit are all of about 4 inches tall right now, and the pear half that. Doesn't matter. I talk to my "babies" every day. Neither does it matter that I will have to graft each of the grapefruit onto some other citrus tree when it is bigger - apparently they need a strong sour root stock. No problem, I'll do that when I need to. The jury is still out on whether I will need to do the same for my pears. I have been looking for information since they began shooting their litle green stalks out of my dampened Jiffy pellets.

About 2 weeks ago, one of our local stores had park benches on sale. $39.95 was all it took for me to become the proud owner of a bench with dark green wrought iron sides and back panel, set in an oak frame. It looks lovely. Conjures up a feeling of peace and tranquillity, sitting under the shade of an oak arbour, with the soft scent of honeysuckle wafting up my nose.

Ah, but here lies the problem. If I were rich, I'd be eccentric ...because I'm not, then I must be slightly crazy. Even my husband reminds me often, soon there will be no more room. Why? We live in an upstairs apartment, and have a small balcony. If we do not move, we will soon be living in what will look like a jungle, as these trees grow and are re-potted each time. There is only so much pruning one can do.

But my plantings give me much pleasure. Spider plants and various species of ivy will eventually trail all over the house ( I had one, years ago, when we were in Germany with the Air Force, that trailed all around my living room and always created a conversational point)
. They are also helping clean the pollution in the air. I'm doing my bit for the environment and making myself happy at the same time.

Wisdom says that people who grow plants are happier ... maybe it is the nurturing, that calms us. The joy of seeing creation in a small green shoot poking through brown soil. I know that I treasure all my "babies", and I try to share the joy with others. Three little girls below me are now carefully nurturing their own little grapefruit tree, and will soon have a pear to go with it. As they grow up, hopefully they will retain their innocent love with plants too, and play their part in the conservation of our planet.

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