In 2017 I developed a passion for gardening. What started as a mild interest to cheer us up in the wet mountain monsoons has now turned into a full-on obsession. I’m at risk of turning into that crazy plant lady! Nonetheless, I’ve been waiting for the time to write this post for a long time… Hope you all enjoy!
I believe that cultivating plants is God’s gift to us for 3 purposes.
Plants purify the air in our home, they empower us to cultivate beauty in our home, and connect us with God’s creation in a tangible way.
Yesterday was a perfectly rainy, chilly afternoon to sip a cappuccino and sit at the desk overlooking the empty window box. I’ve been willing the end of winter and the spring to start so that flowers can be planted, and my gardening daydreams fulfilled.
This winter has been nasty cold. I was iced in twice with our 2 and 5-year-olds with Tyler gone, with businesses closed and driveways too treacherous to attempt. I turned my energies indoors (when in the past I would definitely have gone coo-coo-crazy with cabin fever) and spent hours cultivating my houseplants.
Our time in the US is ticking by and there are a few months left before we’ll be back overseas in a new location, new circumstances, new challenges. I dread the distance from family and the loss of ease and freedom I have as a mom here in the suburbs. And yet, my attitude has changed as I look toward a new home as opportunity.
Opportunity to “own”, to beautify, and to purify our indoor space.
Haveli Hauz Khas: Little Man enjoying breakfast in the courtyard
It’s the Indian gardens that inspired me to creating beauty and joy, no matter where I live.
Century old masterpieces that bring stillness and gravity in the midst of a hectic metropolis. Thank God for every green patch that has been preserved. Deer Park with its prancing peacocks, lush courtyards in family havelis, and sprawling green lawns around the India Gate.
But it wasn’t just the city gardens. It wasn’t just the retired ladies.
Potted Plants on an alleyway front stoop
It was the slum dwellers, the rooftop servants. It was K. and her family of 4 in one tiny room, designing a lush wilderness of flowers on their front stoop. She was cultivating it every day and shooing away school children and monkeys that got close to snatch a bloom.
Another neighbor’s stoop
It struck me: all of these men and women living in less-than-ideal circumstances, growing beauty and oxygen in whatever space they had.
Air Purification
Our window box in the Himalayas
Last year we decided to move from the mountains to the big polluted city– the most polluted city in the world. Lovely. And when friends started asking us how we were going to manage this intense pollution I finally started feeling twinges of concern. I knew we’d invest in air purifiers. But even that was not enough, I knew. To need more and more machines to make a city livable just seemed insane.
Then one day on Pinterest I found an article about NASA’s top plants for air purification. And it struck a chord of hope.
I started researching and pondering.
This year, while living in our temporary house in the Midwest, I’ve been learning to grow beauty in my own home all winter. Between leaf cuttings from Gramma and adding on one by one, I’m up to 15 plants in our home! Plants for allergies (dracaena), for oxygen at night (snake plant), and for overall air filtering (philodendron and english ivy). I’ve been learning to plan the greens, how not to kill them (whoops!), how to propagate them, and how to repurpose plastic cartons and wooden pallets.
Who is this crazy gardening lady?! Well, its all new, but it’s such a newfound source of joy. Not just for here, but for anywhere.
One of my biggest inspirations has been following Kamal Meattle, a business man in Delhi who was dying from the pollution 20 years ago. He revamped his living and office spaces through indoor plants and air purification to find health for himself and others! Here are a few of the links to Meattle’s interviews and Ted Talks here, for those in polluted cities who might be interested:
Ted Talk: How to Grow Fresh Air
Productivity benefits of air quality in your office
The bottom line– you need a lot of plants in your home to filter the air in Delhi. And that has sent me hunting for beautiful ways to decorate that don’t make my apartment look like a jungle!
But for now, here’s to hoping spring comes quickly, and we can all get to planting and beautifying our outdoor space (whether its one potted daisy or rows and rows of tomatoes), as soon as it warms up!
Happy Planting!
1 Comment
Is the top picture REALLY your back porch?! Gorgeous. Your hubby was telling us about your joint research this summer. One of the things my hubby and I wanted was to bring outdoors in. We sense a reduction in stress and anxiety when we are in nature and around things that remind us of that. And, wild spaces… Thanks for inspiring me to search for more plants, too!