TEEN SCENE
Welcome to Teen Scene. Each month our young
educate and inform fellow students and parents. If
This month’s author is 15-year-old Anna
nature is putting on a spectacular show of
vegetables. The constant renewal found
outdoors gives us hope for the future and the
tranquility we need to heal and feel whole.
Anna has grown up with outdoor gardens.
discovered that nature had a few more lessons
to share. Here is Anna’s story:
My family and I have always loved gardening.
Some of my earliest memories are of me running
around in my backyard looking at the sun-
owers that seemed a mile high, picking cherry tomatoes
off of their vines and chasing my mom with worms. Every morning before
school, I would stand in my backyard, look up at the sky, hear the birds chirping
and feel the breeze in my hair. This always brought a wave of calm over
me. As I got older, I felt more stress and pressure to do well in school. This
made it harder for me to relax, and I seemed to almost always be stressing
out about something school-related. When I started high school, I knew I
needed to nd a way to stay calm. I was already meditating and doing yoga
every morning. And while these generally helped me start on a positive note,
by mid-day I was beginning to be on edge again. One of the places I felt
completely at ease was in the outdoors, surrounded by the calming presence
of nature. However, sitting outside the whole day was not really a practical
option. That’s when I decided to bring a small piece of nature inside by starting
an indoor garden in my bedroom.
Even though both of my parents love gardening and have a beautiful
vegetable and ower garden in our yard, they didn’t really know much about
caring for houseplants. I quickly realized I was on my own with this project.
Due to my limited funds and a general lack of knowledge in this area,
the rst plant I decided to grow was sedum, one of the easiest succulents to
take care of. My mom had a lot of sedum growing outside so I dug some of it,
put it in a recycled yogurt container with some water, and placed it next to a
window. After many weeks of experimenting with how much water and sunlight
it needed, it began to thrive. As I gained more condence, my indoor
garden slowly grew to include more succulents, a pregnant onion, some cacti
and a lucky bamboo plant.
By Lori Draz and anna nigro
However, for every
plant that is thriving now,
I have probably killed one.
Especially in the beginning, it
was disheartening when one
of my plants would wither and
die. I wanted a beautiful corner
of my room overowing with
green foliage, like the pictures I
had seen on Instagram. It never
occurred to me that the people
who grew those gardens had
probably killed some plants as
well. I didn’t see all of their failed
attempts, the years of trial and
error. All I saw was the result, not
the process.
Only when I let go of the unrealistic
idea of instant perfection
was I able to truly benet from
my garden. Instead of seeing everything
that was wrong with my
plants, I started to notice all of their
good qualities. I was able to learn
from the mistakes I made and better
care for my green roommates.
I turned gardening into a time for mindfulness and meditation. Instead of
scrolling through social media comparing myself and my work to others, I
put in a small amount of effort to care for my garden and in return I gain
knowledge and peace. Now, whenever I have a hard day, I can see my plants
and immediately be put at ease.
Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can still start a garden. Don’t be
afraid of experimenting and please, above all, don’t be afraid of failure. It’s okay
if it’s not perfect. It’s okay if your plants die. You can learn so much from failure.
I made a goal that for every plant I killed, I would learn at least one thing I could
use to better care for my surviving plants. This has made me a much better
gardener, and I have adopted this goal for other areas of my life as well.
I have a Crispy Wave fern that is in distress right now, and I cannot, for
the life of me, gure out why. I have tried almost everything to save it, but I
can’t. And I am okay with that. There will be other plants. I have learned just
as much from my dead plants as I have from my thriving ones.
Not only are my plants beautiful, but they are a representation of a simple
principle: if you put in a little work each day, you can ultimately reach
your goals. Gardening has helped me learn that mistakes are okay, imperfections
are okay, complete and utter failure is okay. Even though my indoor
garden isn’t as elaborate or as perfect as I might like it to be, seeing it grow a
little bit every day has helped me cope with stress. I really hope that you give
indoor gardening a try. I believe that even one small plant can make a big
impact on how you think about yourself and the world around you.
64 APRIL 2020 | TheJournalNJ.com HOME IMPROVEMENT GUIDE 2020
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