
Introduction:
In addition to #writing, I love #gardening! Gardening is not just a hobby for me; it's a passion that brings me immense joy and #peace. As a #teacher (and now a business owner), I find solace and inspiration in tending to my #vegetable and #fruit #garden during the spring and summer months. In this blog post, I will delve into the various aspects of my gardening journey, highlighting the unique experiences and lessons I've learned along the way.
Section 1: Gardening Is Life
I never thought I would be one to be messing around in the dirt. I think I have #anxiety, although it hasn’t been diagnosed, but during #Covid, I got scared! People were buying up the necessities and anything that the masses were saying was important to have. I really started worrying about the country running out of #food. Therefore, I went to Lowe’s and bought a #seedstartingkit. I’d never planted a single thing in my life.
In addition to buying the kit, I bought #seeds: cucumbers, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, mustard greens, lettuce, bell peppers, and maybe something else that I’m forgetting at the moment. I watched #YouTube videos on how to #plant the seeds indoors because it was the end of March (2020) in Ohio (#Zone6).
At this time, schools were closed, due to Covid, and we were teaching online. None of us had ever done this before. It was definitely a challenge, but I enjoyed it, although I missed my kids. Fortunately, I had just taken some #GoogleApplication courses through #AshlandUniversity, in order to renew my teaching license. Those classes saved my virtual teaching life. Everything that I learned in January to March, I was able to apply immediately.
Back to gardening, I learned so much in those few months from seed to harvest. I took pride in the fact that I was able to produce every fruit and vegetable that I’d planted. I learned that I should learn what I’m doing before I do it. For example, I took a handful of tomato seeds and threw them in one of my new flower pots of dirt. I was so excited when I saw 30+ seedlings sprouting about a week later. Then, I watched a video about planting tomato seeds and learned that I shouldn’t have thrown all those seeds in the pot and that they needed to be separated because they couldn’t grow like that. I watched multiple videos, and almost all of them told me that I’d need to “thin” them to make room for growth. The #thinning process involves removing some of the plants, even if they’re healthy. I couldn’t just throw them out, though. Therefore, I got a bunch of disposable cups and attempted to separate all 32. Most of them survived, so I had to give away most of them, of course.

After watching more YouTube and #Instagram videos to learn more about what I was doing, I bought a nice-sized plastic #greenhouse off of #Amazon to protect my plants as they transitioned from indoors to outdoors. I bought trellises for my cucumbers and tomato cages for my tomato plants. I bought decorations and pavers for the ground in the garden. I bought all kinds of accessories and necessities for my new little garden.
One of the best things that I learned from YouTube was how to hand-pollinate the cucumber plants. Cucumber plants have male and female plants. The bees and other insects help transfer the #maleplant stuff into the #femaleplant, and that’s how we get the little cucumbers. It’s crazy and amazing because the male and female
parts resemble human male and female #genitalia. There were two ways to hand-pollinate. 1) I took a small paintbrush or cotton swab (depending on the day), wiggled it inside the flower of the male plant, and, then, wiggled the paintbrush inside of the female flower. 2) I broke off the male flower and pressed it inside of the female flower. Either way, we get cucumber babies most of the time. The female flower is the flower that has the little cucumber on it. Although the little cucumber is already there on the female plant, it needs the male flower’s pollen to pollinate (or impregnate) it. Isn’t that amazing?!

Those plants were like my kids. I nurtured them and even talked to them. My mother would laugh about me being out in the garden talking to the plants. I think it works! I’d had quite a few surgical procedures on my left breast area, so the muscles are often tight, especially back in 2020. (It’s not as bad, now.) However, when I was in that garden, I didn’t feel anything! If I had a headache, it went away as soon as I got out into the garden - no lie. I thought that maybe it was just me and that I was crazy, but two other people came out there and told me the same thing about their pain being relieved in the garden.
I have had some failures in the garden. There were some things I tried two and three years in a row that just didn’t work for me, such as cantaloupe and lettuce. Every year, my cucumbers THRIVE for about a month and a half; then, they just die! It’s heartbreaking because I’ll be feeling like the cucumber master, and then, they just catch disease. I don’t know what it is in the soil, but it’s something because I know of other people in Zone 6 whose cucumbers thrive all season. I’ve also grown corn. It’s neat to watch them grow, but I quit growing them, too, because they take up too much space to only give me one ear of corn per plant. Then, I couldn't really check the progress of the corn cobs (or whatever) because they were all wrapped up in the husk. of course. (I don’t like that any of that.) Other planting failures include me mistaking broccoli plants for cantaloupe plants, and when I realized the mix-ups, the broccoli had already started to #bolt. There were other times when I forgot to water the plants in the pots/containers, which caused damage or death of the plant. This is also why I prefer planting in-ground, as opposed to planting in containers, although I have a bunch of containers that I use to plant.
Section 2: Cultivating a Business
In addition to gardening and teaching, I am also the proud owner of KNotED by Kimani, an editing business that provides professional services to clients. While seemingly unrelated, my passion for gardening has played a significant role in shaping my entrepreneurial journey. Through gardening, I have learned and sharpened very important skills such as patience, perseverance, and problem-solving. Much of this summer was spent, working on my business and content to showcase my expertise.
Section 3: Finding Balance and Joy
Gardening has become my place of peace, where I can escape the demands of teaching and business ownership. It allows me to reconnect with nature, find solace in the simple act of nurturing plants, and recharge my energy. It allows me to create new connections with people whom I may have never connected. I find myself talking to elderly ladies and gentlemen in the plant stores (because I have a bunch of indoor plants now, too) and Lowe’s. We talk about the plants and maintaining them; we talk about which fruits and vegetables are in our gardens. It’s a whole new world.
My family gets in on the gardening action, too. The first year, I would refer to my #husband as my “assistant”. When he saw that I had dug up a patch of the garden to start planting, he jumped in to clean up my hatchet job and make it nice and pretty. My mother-in-law (God rest her soul) was a gardener. She had collard greens and tomato plants, so our garden was immediately familiar to him. My #daughter, who was in virtual pre-K at the time that I started gardening in 2020 refused to let me garden alone. Although I initially viewed it as my thing, I had to make sure that I included her. She had her own gardening tools (gloves, pail, a shovel, and an apron).

By summer 2023, we had a nice little operation going. My husband is fully involved, maybe even with a little takeover spirit - LOL! He’s even researching and watching his own gardening videos. We’ve expanded the garden in the backyard and purchased more raised garden beds and containers for planting. My daughter isn’t as interested as she was, so she sticks to watering the grass and plants and removing the cucumbers from the vines. This summer, my #son planted his own seeds as a #therapeutic interest. I was excited when he finally expressed interest. He forgot about them most days, but some days, he didn’t. Unfortunately, I didn't save any videos or take many pictures of our gardening this summer. (I'll have to have my husband send me what he has.) I'll include the only picture in my phone for you from this summer, though! LOL!
Conclusion:
Because I started my business in the spring of 2023, I didn’t spend as much time in the garden this summer as I did in 2020 through 2022. I’m okay with that, though, because I’ve really been enjoying editing, writing and learning the business. Regardless of where I spend the majority of my time, I genuinely enjoy gardening from the educational benefits that it offers to the lessons that it imparts on entrepreneurship and personal well-being. Gardening has truly had a huge impact on my life and, especially, myself.
I invite you to join me on this journey, to explore the wonders of gardening, and to discover the blooming passions that await you!!!
Kimani
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