Day 0: Placing the Seeds

Couple of weeks ago, I went to a local supermarket with my girlfriend. When we walked to the gardening section, I had a sudden urge to learn the skill. The varieties of pots and seeds piqued me.

My mother can be considered an expert in gardening. Back before we moved, she had already planted a number of fruits. From nangka (jackfruit) to watermelon, mother has tried to plant several produces, although not all are successful. Our new home has a huge yard, giving mother the perfect canvas. There is already some durian trees in the yard, but through my parents' hands, they transformed the mostly dilapidated yard into an orchard. Next to the house, there are tidy rows of pineapples. In the garage, several chilli bushes grows in a tidy column. At the back, there are even more fruits and vegetables which I do not even know we have.

After seeing all these gardening, and the gardening section in the local supermarket, I decided to venture into the field. Eventually it took me couple of weeks to finally start doing.

Yesterday, after renewing my passport, I went to the Giant supermarket near my house. The gardening section is not as big as I expected, but they still offer a selection of pots, watering cans, and seeds. Most of the seeds on display are vegetables such as tomato (well, technically it is a fruit, but let's ignore that), salad, lettuce, cucumber, and the likes. They are also rather cheap at RM2.99 per packet. At the bottom of the display are the flower seeds. I have never heard of all of the flowers on display.

The first one to catch my eye is the purple Delphinium, but after a quick search on the Internet, I found that it has some toxicity. Lacking choices, I picked the Dahlia-Flowered Zinnia, scientific name Zinnia Elegans.

Seed packet

Along the way, I also picked up a colourful stack of small plastic pots. Simply looking at them makes me wanting to grow some flowers!

Some time ago, father brought a pile of dirt and put them in front of the garage. I do not know what is the exact purpose of the dirt pile, but since no one is using it, the chickens and dogs made it their playground. They dug and rolled, and now there is a big crater in the middle where they usually lie in.

The dirt is dark and it looks "nutritious" and fertile. Taking the five colourful pots with me, I created another crater on the pile. Poor chickens, their playground is disturbed!

Colourful pots

The flower seeds are smaller than I expected. They look like dried leaves instead!

Dried leaves or seeds?

Initially I wanted to make a scientific journal to record the flower growth, in a similar way to what my friend did for his science projects; but I do not have a proper notebook to record, and also I am more familiar in typing than writing now. Digital notebook also has the ability to attach photos, which is good.

There was also small watering cans on sale in the supermarket, but I decided to cut down the cost. The 5 pots together with the seeds already cost me RM13. So, time to improvise!

Holes on the cap = instant watering can

I think a weekly update should be sufficient since plants do not grow very fast. I doubt there is anything to talk about in Day 1.