Growing Vegetables, Growing Happiness: My Passion That Brings Color to Life and Keeps Stress Away

Hello everyone!💚

Gardening is more than just a hobby for me. It is something I enjoy. I love planting different kinds of vegetables, flowers, herbs, and other plants in our backyard. Sometimes I plant without a clear plan, but that is the fun part for me. I see an empty space, and I immediately think, What can I plant here?

My garden may not be perfectly arranged, but it is always growing. I enjoy seeing small seeds turn into healthy plants. Every new leaf, flower, and fruit makes me happy. There is something special about growing your own food and watching it develop every day.

One of the plants I always want in my garden is squash. I have different varieties of squash, and I enjoy watching their vines spread around the garden. I also love their flowers. Every morning, I can pick fresh squash flowers and use them for our laswa. It feels good to walk into the garden and already have something fresh that I can use for cooking. Big help to save that to buy in the market.

I also grow different leafy vegetables such as kangkong, sweet potato tops, alugbati, and saluyot. I have eggplant and many other vegetables too. I may only plant a few pieces of each kind, but I want to have many varieties in my garden. My goal is to slowly build a garden where I can get most of the vegetables we need for our daily meals.

Flowers are also an important part of my garden. Cosmos and marigold are always present because they add color and beauty to the vegetable garden. I want to plant even more flowering plants in the future. I love the idea of having a backyard filled with green leaves, colorful flowers, and fresh vegetables.

Gardening also teaches me patience. Plants do not grow overnight. They need water, sunlight, good soil, care, and attention. Sometimes there are pests, weeds, heavy rain, or very hot weather. There are days when the grass even grows taller than my vegetables! But I continue because gardening is a learning process.

Because I also have many responsibilities, I usually spend about one hour in the garden when I am busy. Sometimes, even watering my plants is something I cannot do because of my busy schedule. Good thing, most of my plants are already growing well and can manage for a while. When I have more free time, I enjoy staying longer in the garden removing weeds, checking for pests, harvesting vegetables, watering the plants, and preparing the soil for new plants. For me, even a short time spent in the garden is already worth it because I know I am taking care of something that will soon give us fresh and healthy food.

My next gardening plan is to grow more herbs and spices. I want to slowly complete my backyard garden with vegetables, herbs, spices, and flowering plants.

I may not have a perfect garden, but I have a growing garden that gives me happiness, fresh food, and a reason to spend more time with nature. For me, every plant I grow is a small achievement and every harvest makes all the hard work worth it.

Thank you for reading my story. The lead photo was edited in Canva.

Have a nice day!