“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?”
What is about plants that makes everyone go green (pun not so intended) Okay, not everyone, but many people? I see it every time and everywhere. You talk about plants and flowers and blooming buds and flower beds and then someone always comes up with a story that outshines the other. Sometimes, it’s not just the talk, just the sight of someone’s beautiful garden or potted plants that gets people envious and makes them dig deep to find their soil and plant loving souls!
Take for instance, the flats on my floor. A new family moved in last year, and four months ago she placed a potted plant outside her door. Two months later, my landlady does and today morning, when I stepped out of the house, the other lady outdoes them all with two potted plants and a new doormat! How’s that for really taking the bet and raising the stakes! Now it’s just a matter of time before the last remaining neighbour discovers her newfound love for plants. I couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of me. It took me back to the colony I lived in as a child. My mom loves her gardening, though you can hardly call that given the limited space in apartments. However, we did have a balcony that had around 40 potted plants of varying sizes and shapes. Every week, she would tend to the plants, bathing them, snipping off dead leaves, reshaping some and even rearranging their placements. What was interesting was that the apartment opposite us would reflect whatever style my mother chose to display her plants. Now, that neighbor loved his plants as well, and in a way he was competing with my mom. Whenever she bought a new variety, he would get a similar one or another variety a few days later, if she hung a few plants up, the next day he would do the same; they would come down, if mom got rid of them.
Mercifully, I feel I am immune to this whole love for plants craze but then the two potted plants sitting prettily on my window sill would definitely beg to differ!
