Something that my mom has started doing within the past couple of years is gardening. She was going through a period of depression, and a relative had recommended that gardening would help her find her passion.

Although it might be a tad bit late to start gardening, I’m going to try my best to share our story and provide some helpful tips. Most of these I have observed from watching my mom start her garden, so I hope that they inspire you to follow your own!

My mom begins planting her vegetable seeds around March/April and keeps them growing in little containers and empty bottles. She places them near areas in the house that can provide plenty of sunlight, and observes them as they grow. 

When she first began her journey, she didn’t know how to organize her garden so the soil she used to start the first batch didn’t stay resourceful for the following year. Slowly, she started to understand how her garden worked and she divided the area with a brick outline, built her own trellis, etc. 

Usually, by the end of May, the seeds grow into plants of about 1-2 feet in length and that’s when my mom slowly transfers them into her garden outside. She’s always careful with this step because finding the right time to plant them outside depends on the temperature. One year, she transferred the plants to her garden too early when the weather was still unpredictable and a cold frost had killed all of her plants. She was devastated and vowed to not do gardening that year at all. 

After setting up everything in her garden outside, she waters the plants everyday and checks the weather app to see if it would rain (so the plants didn’t get too much water and she wouldn’t waste any). She puts a lot of nutrients in the soil to help the plants grow.

Additionally, she regularly monitors her plants to ensure that no bugs or insects eat them. She’s very careful about that. She also mulches off the sides so that unwanted weeds wouldn’t be able to grow and affect the vegetable plants. 

In mid-July, we see the first signs of vegetables in our garden! Last year, we harvested eggplants, cucumbers, okras, etc. with pumpkins sprouting later in the summer.