Passing the time digging up the dirt, removing weeds and trimming plants may not be your first choice for spending a cool Saturday afternoon, but the rewards of doing so are immense. I have enjoyed gardening ever since the first time I had my own house in New Jersey, and decided to improve its appearance by planting some flowers in the small patch of ground in front of the deck. The first attempt ended up in a return trip to Home Depot, as the plants I had picked up were meant for shade, whereas it was apparent that the front of the house received full sun for most of the day. I checked the second batch to make sure they were the right type, and after getting the necessary tools and some gloves, promptly dug up the ground, took the plants out of their plastic containers and steadied them into the soil. 15 minutes later, I was looking at a colorful melange of yellows, blues and reds and patting myself on the back for a job well done.
A few weeks later, the plants seemed to be wilting despite my adhering to a strict watering schedule and helpfully adding some plant food that I had also picked up. It seemed that the soil itself wasn't very good, so the plants had run out of nutrients and couldn't get their roots deep enough. I promptly went back to Home Depot, got a few big bags of soil with nutrients and proceeded to replace the top 2 ft of earth!
Since winter was fast approaching, I couldn't really consider planting anything that would die in the frost. That's when I discovered the world of bulbs - truly nature's gift to gardeners who want results, but aren't prepared to do it the old fashioned way through seeds. For about $5, you got 20 odd daffodils, tulips, crocuses or other similar flowers that were big enough to place in a specific location, and that lasted year after year! So I bought 10 yellow and 10 red tulips, dug the required 6" into the earth, placed them carefully at the bottom of the hole and covered them back up. They would remain there for another 5 months, with no oversight on my part required to ensure their survival.
Come March of the following year, and I was eager to see how the bulbs were doing. Most of the snow had melted, and you could see the earth again. So one day I decided to take a closer look at my patch of flowers - I bent down close to the ground and lo and behold - I spotted one, no two, no five little green shoots sticking bravely out, no more than a half inch, pushing their way through the soil to liberate the beautiful flower that lay inside. Thrilled would be an understatement - I was ecstatic! I had given life to this beautiful thing, or so I felt. That's the joy you get from gardening.
Over the course of the next month, the tulips all grew to full size and put on quite a show for a few weeks before they bent over and collapsed. But of course, I was assured that they would be back the following year, and not just the same number - no, these things actually multiplied under ground, so you would get increasing numbers as time went on! With the success of the tulips, I branched out into daffodils and was rewarded with a golden carpet not unlike the one that Wordsworth probably saw, and hyacinths which had the most heavenly smell at night. The colors of all these were unbelievable - the shades would put any artist to shame.
I was still keen on growing plants from seeds, however, as I felt this represented the ultimate in gardening nirvana. So I went out and bought a bunch of assorted flower pack and some little containers in which to grow them. At first, I figured I would put one seed in each container, but I quickly got lazy and started to toss a few in at a time. The problem with seeds is that they are so tiny, it is hard to place them in a specific location and instead you just hope that they end up in the right place. Watering is also a challenge, as you can't drown them in water, but have to put a few drops in at a time.
To cut a long story short, the flowers that took root and did a good job that first year were the marigolds - and now I am starting to master this art as well. I didn't realize that the marigold seeds were located inside the bud at the base of the flower - pop it open and there are about 30-40 small flakes about a centimeter long - extremely fragile, but very hardy! I took a few dozen and then planted them the following year, and again most of them took root and did well - till I went out to the front yard and found a few of them growing wild out of the ground! It turns out that some seeds from the prior year had fallen in and stayed dormant, with 4 feet of snow on top, till the time was right!
That's the other thing gardening teaches you - humility. You realize very quickly that nature, with 4 billion years behind it, can easily outdo anything that man can conceive. The fact that these seeds can just lie around and then sprout when the time is right is an example of the awesome power of nature. The other great thing is you begin to understand what value creation really is - its not what Wall street does, but what you get from the soil. Consider the marigold example - one seed gives rise to a plant that produces anywhere from 10-30 flowers. Let's say its 20 for the sake of discussion. Now each of these 20 flowers have about 20 seeds in them. So that means one marigold seed can in theory produce 400 (20 x 20) plants in the next generation. Even if only 10% survive, you still have 40 plants. The multiplicative power is so enormous that if you're not careful, you could be drowning in marigolds before you know it!
So if you're ever looking to try something new, give gardening a shot. You don't need a green thumb, but just a curiosity as to how nature works its magic. The learnings will be well worth the time spent.
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