The Unplanned Terrace Garden

I was processing paper works when I noticed on my way out of an office that many of these plants were cut and piled at the side of the building. They seem for disposal. Out of nowhere, I said to the caretaker that I will ask some for free on my next visit. I was kidding in trying to be with the "trend" when so many people have gotten interest in plants during the pandemic lockdown. Her answer was,

"Why when you come back? Get yours now! There are so many."

Most people those days were complaining when others ask of their plants for free. This one was the opposite. She was so excited to give. Bless her!

"Really? Okay, sure!" I answered.

She continued,"Lucky bamboo!"

I did not know that this plant is called lucky bamboo. I just know it can live either on soil outdoor or water for indoor.

Then she helped me pick some.

I did not think of becoming an instant plantita on that day. I had no ready vases or pots but one thing is sure, I brought home a bunch of good luck! I gave some stems to my niece and cousins.

** Plantita for female, or plantito for male, the colloquial term reffering to someone who is fond of taking care of plants.

Barely three weeks later,the lucky bamboos have bear flowers. I did not plant them, I just put them on improvised vase with water. And now they have flowers! I have never seen this plant bore flower before. Now they have beautiful flowers in my house. I was so amazed.

That was almost two years ago and that gave me the idea to make the bare terrace livelier. It actually awaken my childhood life. I was born and grew up in a farm so having plants around the house somehow brings me back to freshness of and feeling close to nature.

I started looking,and losing sleep just browsing, for more plants to buy from FB marketplace. I looked for plants of the same family as lucky bamboo and found different varieties of ti plants.

Over the next months, I have been busy outside of my work-from-home corporate job looking for other plants. I found out about coleus plants which I never knew before. They are commonly called mayana. My attention went more on them because of their amazing color variegations and what seemed to be endless varieties. I may write separately about them.

After my hype on the coleus plants, I diversified with others like crotons and aglaonemas.

The beauty of having my garden right beside me is that I can work on it anytime. The challenge was that I got addicted with it that I work on it even up to midnight.

There were also other plant varieties that I acquired as I move along. I kept on accumulating untik I did not realize that I have more than enough to surround the terrace with a line of plants. That was when I considered reselling and started hauling more different plants to sell.

I learned a lot about gardening while juggling my corporate job, taking care of my plants and selling more of them. There were instances when I lost a few types of plants because I did not know how to take care of them. Like, I thought watering them daily is taking care of them but no, it was rotting them. Well, I did not plan about gardening before I started so the failures should have been expected but I realized that only after the plants disappeared. As the saying goes, lessons learned. I am still learning. The good thing is, I have already started and all I got to do is keep going.