The Beginning

I'm a graphic design major with little horticultural background -- and by little I mean none. I have a creative background in traditional and digital art and the most "gardening" I'd ever done was with a few succulents in a glass terrarium I bought 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Let's be honest, too, I killed them all because I completely forgot about those little guys. RIP.

But I needed another natural science credit, so I looked through all the available classes and found Home Horticulture. It was on Mondays from 3-5:45 (once a week!!) and the grade distribution was pretty high, meaning I could absolutely make it by with an A or a B. Beyond that, it seemed interesting. It was all about... home gardening -- house plants, gardens, you name it. If I had to spend 3 hours of my Monday's doing something, it might as well have been learning about plants. So, I enrolled.

Almost immediately, it became my favorite class. As much as I found I loved the material itself, I have to credit so much of it to the professor. Bryce Lane is a retired professor who came back just to teach this one class... and if he doesn't do a damn good job at it. He really knows what he's talking about and he's so incredibly engaging I don't even want to scroll through Instagram during class. From my limited experience with plants in the past, in the first few weeks I learned everywhere I went wrong. I learned why the succulents I bought grew and stretched out and wilted even though I watered them and placed them near a sunny-ish window. I learned why the orchid my roommate's boyfriend gifted her died -- aside from the usual causes of death since orchids are so finicky.

Beyond all that, I learned so many things that no one in this entire world wants to know. But do you know how many people I've told the difference between a shrub and a tree to? Too many. The first person I told was more people than I should've told. But it's insane! So many of the trees we see are actually just shrubs that have been 'limbed up' to look like trees. Like? Excuse me? That seems absolutely bonkers to me.

But again, that's why I'm making this blog.

Eventually, my desire to put my newly learned knowledge of plants to good use was becoming a little overbearing on my conscious.

So I bought a plant.

Target called it a Money Tree, but after a little bit of googling I found its scientific name was Pachira aquatica. I had it on our kitchen table for roughly 15 minutes, only to look over and see my roommate's cat chowing down on a few of the leaves. More frantic googling let me know that it wasn't toxic for pets to consume, though my poor Money Tree was not so pleased. Sorry, bud, let's hope she continues to prefer the cat grass.

After that, my little plant family grew, and I only got more and more obnoxious. I mean, I wasn't buying plants left and right, but I sure had a lot to share about them. "Oh! Listen to what I learned today in class..." "Hang on I want to go cut a piece of that plant off so I can try to propagate it..." "I just ordered a plant from Etsy but I didn't buy the heat pack but it's going to be above 60 degrees when it arrives do you think it's gonna die?" ... and so on and so forth. Questions and comments no one really cared to hear but everyone put up with because I have phenomenally supportive friends. I even blasted a few stories about my newfound greenery on my instagram, I'm surprised I didn't lose half of my followers. Again, I guess I've got some really supportive friends.

But so today, after ordering a beautiful Epipremnum aureum 'N Joy' ( a variegated Pothos plant!) I decided I should probably find another outlet for all my plant enthusiasm. So I made this blog, along with a supporting Instagram. It's really embarrassing, honestly, but it's a hobby that really makes me happy... so I'm going to keep doing it. And if making all these damn social medias help me with that, so be it.

So hey, what's up, welcome to my blog.

~ M