This is the year that everyone found or embraced their hobby.  It’s amazing what you are capable of when you have nowhere to go or nothing to.  2020 was a year unlike any other in most of our lifetimes.  Entire countries on locked down.  Being forced to quarantine for days, weeks, and months on end.  Some of us continued to work, some didn’t have the choice of continuing to work but all of us somehow ended up with time at home with a choice, watch t.v. or pick up a hobby (assuming your kids didn’t need your help with virtual school).  I have always been a firm believer that you should never stop learning.  There is no way to know everything and there is always something new to learn.  Like many other people, I discovered gardening during our lockdowns.  I never prided myself on having a green thumb, more like a black one.  I would kill a house plant like it was meant to be in my home for its hospice.  But the joys of living in a warm climate is that pretty much everything grows here so I too have started a garden.

Let me start by saying I surprised myself with how easy it is to plant kitchen scraps to grow in your garden and how upsetting it is to me that I have not always recycled my food this way.  Seeds from bell peppers, scraps of green onions, the list could go on.  If you purchase seeds from your local home improvement store the price is very cheap.  No need to dredge up your back yard, container gardens are all the rage right now, or raised garden beds to contain your newfound self-grown bounty.  Good soil, a pot that drains the water through, time, and a sunny location (depending on what you are growing).  How have I been on the planet this many years and considered myself a nature lover and not have done this before? For shame.

Simple little seeds from lemon and spicy peppers can be replanted in a warm sunny spot in your home and regrow and yield fruit.  The excitement of seeing the first little seedling pop out of the soil so innocent yet miraculous.  This part doesn’t take as much time as you would expect (a week or two).  Watching the plants from week to week get taller, remembering to water them regularly.  Time is what is needed to encourage growth.  The first sight of a little bud or flower knowing that soon that fruit will bear.  Walking outside every few days to make sure all is well.  Sure panic ensues if the rains have not yet come and the little green stems have shriveled in weakness of no nutrients.  Water is the key!  Gardening is a sustainable hobby that feeds you in more ways than one.  It teaches you to be tolerant of time and of yourself.  And knowing how to grow your own food could save your life one day or at the very least save your recipes.