Indoor gardening can be as delicate and complex a process as growing plants outside--soil choice, natural lighting, water level, and other factors affect whether or not seeds sprout and later on, thrive. This being said, I much prefer indoor gardening for its obvious verdure aesthetics, as well as for the convenient ease of obtaining plant trimmings.
What perhaps is most interesting to me about my indoor gardening experience, besides whether or not seeds sprout and plants grow and thrive, is my strong personal preference for growing specific plants from seed rather than from already established seedlings.
For instance...
Spring and summer 2013:
Arugula roquette (rocket) seedlings, grown from seed and transplanted--unfortunately, these guys didn't make it through winter. Also grew lemon balm, oregano, and chives from seed, all of which continue to thrive.
Spring and summer 2014:
New plants grown from seed this year are shiso (pictured), chervil, and miscellaneous lavender--still crossing my fingers for the asparagus fern.
Of course, it's much
easier to nurture an already established plant, so why do I have such a strong preference, year after year, for growing only a few choice plant varieties from seed? I guess it's the nurturing aspect of this delicate growth process that I really enjoy, the chance to track on a daily basis tiny spurts of growth from seed to sprout to seedling, and--if I'm lucky--to full-grown plant. Calling this a true bonding experience is an accurate description of the situation at hand (have you read Michael Pollan's
The Botany of Desire?), for I never tire of these select plants, and continue to ensure their lush indoor growth as best I can--just short of whispering to them. Soon I'll surely have an indoor jungle, but that's fine with me. Maybe I should have called my
new main website The Indoor Gardener? However, that doesn't have the same ring to it as
The Introverted Writer, I think!
