Potted Wonders

Well it all started as a playful thing, when, I plucked a leaf from the money plant creeping along the garden’s fence. I placed it with its leafstalk touching the water in a small bottle and kept it in the window sill .I wanted to see for how long it could stay fresh once detached from the creeper. To my surprise, it lasted for a week with tiny hanging roots emerging from the leafstalk. I then placed it in the pot and saw it grow into a bigger plant. It still sits in my window sill and instills energy in me whenever I see it because it grew into a new plant just with water, air and sunlight. This defied what I learnt from the science text books that soil, water, air and sunlight are necessary for a plant’s growth. Through this, I learnt that Nature has its own way of supporting and sustaining life.

Then I have experimented growing turmeric in pots. During Pongal, a harvest festival for Tamilians celebrated on 14^th January, we use turmeric as a symbol of harvest and goodwill.  So I decided to try to grow it at home. I believe my father has a green thumb and so I asked him to plant it in another pot. Expectantly, I used to look at the pot for any signs of shoot but none for 2 months. When I had lost hope of seeing it grow in my pot, I saw a tiny green stem emerging from the soil. Within 2 days, I saw a small leaf blade in its place and gradually the turmeric plant grew in that pot. We used it for the festival the next year and it gave me immense joy. It has become a ritual to replant a tiny turmeric root the next day after Pongal so that it yields the following year.

Recently, I made my father sow the tomato seeds in another pot and after about two weeks we saw the seedling sprout. Now it is eight inch tall and I shall observe its life cycle too.

Nature has taught me the importance of patience and the ‘never lose hope’ spirit in life. Many a times , the intentionally sown seeds grow into plants but also a few times , I have seen plants of unknown type take root in the soil through bird’s droppings. Again, nature demonstrates its own mechanism of maintaining the life balance.

For instance, there are always a couple of earthworms in the pots during monsoon but I don’t spot them after the showering period. Similarly for the last couple of years , the new guests apart from the earthworms are a bunch of snails making their way to the bottom of the pots. One of the leisure activities that I engage in is to look how my plants are growing and to look at which seasonal guests have stopped by my potted friends during their life’s transit.

I am sure everyone has seen mushrooms erupt suddenly from the edges of the door, again a common occurrence during the monsoon. No one has planted them purposely but we still see these saprophytes occasionally. Sometimes, near the crevices between the kitchen sink and the wall there are tiny saplings that pop up randomly and last for a week’s span. What could have triggered it is, while washing and chopping vegetables a little bit of soil and a seed or two could have logged in that tiny gap and given rise to a new life.

While cutting the vegetables one must have noticed the worms that sometimes find abode in them. Similarly I found a small worm while I was cutting the lady finger. It was a slender green worm that was lucky enough to escape going under my knife. I kept aside the slice and the worm and continued chopping the rest of them. I noticed how cleverly it circled the small slice of lady finger. I was amazed at how it survived all this while inside that undamaged lady finger. Well , this is nature’s way of keeping the organisms alive and out of harm’s way.

Nature always has its own way of doing things and we must appreciate its wonders. If we can’t help in raising what nature has created, we must at least not destroy it.