Gardening Guide (collaboration with Science & Eco Club)

IHS Science & Eco Club x Creative Writing Club

GARDENING

GUIDE

All images used were submitted to us.

Content by: Ananya Bhargava, Sidra Nawed, Ayesha Salman, Samanvita Pathanjali, Michelle Chan, Shivani Manivasagan, Meher Mehta, Serena Yeh, Sriya Bairy Layout by: Sidra Nawed, Helen Yuan, Roland Zhang i

TABLE of

CONTENTS Green Bell Peppers…………………………… ………………………...1 Tomatoes…………………………………………………………………...3 Bamboo………………………………………………… …………………..5 Violas………………………………………………………… ……………..7 White Roses………………………………………………………………..8 Red Roses…………………………………………………… ……………..9 Money Plant…………………………………………………… ………..11 White Orchid………………………………………………… ..………..12 Alphonso Mango Tree……………………………………… ………...13 Banana Tree……………………………………………………………...14 Curry Leaf Plant…………………………………………… …………...15 Green Onions…………………………………………………………….18 Arabian Jasmine………………………………………………………...19 Loquat Trees……………………………………………………………….21 Succulents………………………………………………………………...23 Tillandsia (Air Plant)…………………………………… ..…………...25 Mint……………………………………………………. .………………...27 Roses………………………………………………….…………………...28

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Green Bell Peppers 1

By Ananya Bhargava My mother loves gardening and I never really took the time out to garden with her. At the beginning of spring, my mother was planning to make a little home garden to grow vegetables. Since I had more free time, I decided to help her.

We did not want to go outside to get supplies because of the pandemic, so we started with whatever we had: took seeds from store-bought green bell peppers, and planted them. In 2 weeks, a few seedlings started growing. We gave the plant: 6 to 8 hours of sunlight, water after the sun went down (twice on more sunny days), and organic plant food once every 15 days. I googled and found out that peppers do well if you use Epsom salt solution once a month. It's prepared by mixing 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water. This quantity was good enough for our 10 plants. Eventually, the ďŹ rst bell pepper started to appear and grew to be a healthy one. After the ďŹ rst one was harvested the plant started producing more.

This was my ďŹ rst time gardening and I loved every bit of it: seeing the plants grow and then enjoying the taste of our homegrown green bell peppers.

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Tomatoes

By Sidra Nawed I love growing plants. In 3rd grade I had a project to grow tomato plants using its pulp and seeds. I planted the seeds in a small pot and kept it near sunlight. I watered it everyday so that it could grow well. Soon it turned into a huge plant and started bearing tiny green tomatoes and so I had to transfer it into a big pot so it could flourish. After a few weeks, the tomatoes grew and became ripe and since then, we’ve used them in making our food.

Every year I plant tomato seeds in the seedbed of my backyard and enjoy fresh tomatoes. Sunny spots are best for growing tomatoes. Tomatoes need at least 6 to 8 hours of sun to bring out their best flavors. They run on warmth; plant in late spring and early summer. Fertilizers also need to be added. Waiting anxiously for my new tomatoes to grow.

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Bamboo

By Sidra Nawed

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I love Bamboo plants. The first time I got some bamboo plants, they were given to me as a table decoration by my grandmother when I moved into my new house. I just put it in water and in a few days the roots grew quickly and the leaves also became big. They look really nice and pretty. Now every year I get one or two more bamboo plants from the store and put them in water.

Lucky bamboo is an easy plant to care for which makes it great for offices and homes alike. It’s happy growing in soil or water but has the longest life when grown in soil. If growing in water, the water should be replaced every week.

If planted in soil, the soil should be kept slightly damp, so don’t overwater or let it get dry. Lucky bamboo does best in indirect light and in the temperature range of 65–95°F. It loves these somewhat tropical conditions and is considered to be in the hardiness zones of 10–11. These plants are really beautiful.

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Violas

By Ayesha Salman A few months ago, I bought some seeds on a whim and decided to grow them as a new hobby during quarantine. It took a few tries, but eventually I cultivated the seeds into the violas successfully. I water the owers regularly, but not excessively. They usually get 3-4 hours of sunlight but there hasn't been much of it to go around since winter started.

I've found that the compost we collect from our own home works best as a natural fertilizer for the violas.

I love the deep purple color of the owers and they smell heavenly! It's not as easy as it looks to grow a plant though. I've learned through trial and error that the plants need a lot of room to grow, otherwise the roots tangle around themselves and end up looking like a cobweb. I've been meaning to move them to a bigger pot recently and just went to pick one up today! The violas have incited my sister to grow a plant as well. We have our own little collection as of right now, but we're thinking of starting a garden as soon as the rain clears up and we get a little sunshine!

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White Roses

By Sidra Nawed White roses are very pretty and my mother likes them most.

The spiritual meaning of a white rose represents change, transformation, spiritual growth, and evolution. In some cases, it can represent unconditional love and neutrality.

When used at a wedding, white roses are a symbol of happy love. White roses are not very common but they have a very beautiful scent. I got some seeds from a market and these included white roses also.

Roses bloom on and off throughout the season (from mid spring to fall), making them among the most desirable garden plants. For the best show of owers and the healthiest plants, rose bushes should receive six to eight hours of sunlight daily. They should also be planted in well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter. In especially hot climates, roses do best when they are protected from the hot afternoon sun. They have a very beautiful scent. I also love white roses.

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Red Roses

By Sidra Nawed Red roses symbolize love. They are very beautiful and have an amazing scent. In Western culture, the significance of the red rose dates back to Greek mythology and the belief that the red rose was created by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.

Legend has it that the flower grew from the ground watered with Aphrodite's tears and the blood of her ill-fated lover Adonis. I once got a pot of roses and put them in my backyard and so they started growing.

In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China.

Miniature roses require quite a bit of direct sun indoors in order to thrive. Provide at least 6 hours of direct sun.

Southern or western exposure windows are ideal. Daytime temperatures of 70-75°F and nighttime temperatures of around 60°F would be ideal. Avoid any cold drafts indoors, but if you can provide good air circulation, this will help minimize instances of diseases that roses tend to be prone to. All roses are very pretty.

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Money Plant

By Sidra Nawed

Having money plants inside our homes helps reconnect us to nature. In our current world, we spend so much time inside that we can feel disconnected from the natural world around us. Indoor plants are a great way to remedy this and help bring nature inside our spaces.

Plants also represent the wood element, which symbolizes growth, exibility, and kindness. Taking care of another living thing, including a plant, can help you cultivate compassion, and you can watch them grow and thrive as you continue to care for them. Plants are also a source of healthy, vibrant life and can uplift the energy in your home.

The money plant container must be kept near sunlight which promotes growth. The water must be changed every week without fail. When the money plant is grown in water, there is no need to add fertilizers. Money plants have no problem in sustaining both in soil or water but don't make the mistake of replacing it from soil to water and vice-versa. The money plants growing in water would have softer leaves as compared to the ones growing in soil. Money plants look very pretty in houses.

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White Orchid

By Michelle Chan

My parents got this white orchid from a friend a couple weeks ago. The ďŹ rst plant I took care of was an orchid and it ended up dying very quickly because I thought orchids needed lots of water when in reality they really do not. After that, whenever my family got orchids, they would not survive for long even though we gave them an adequate amount of sunlight and water. This time, my dad was determined to keep the plant alive for more than a few weeks. We put the plant in our bathroom where it would get lots of indirect sunlight. The orchid is watered and given fertilizer every two weeks. I also made a water log to make sure we wouldn't overwater the plant. And so far, it has been blooming very well.

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This is my family's alphonso mango tree. We usually water it every other day, but like the banana tree we have, the rain has fulďŹ lled its needs for now.

We got it shipped from Florida and my dad dug a hole, placing the tree in it.

We got it in the summer, during the quarantine period. We usually see these mangoes in our local Indian Grocery store, and our family loves them. I'll probably be in college before the ďŹ rst mango grows, unfortunately.

Regardless, I'm excited to see how these mangos will turn out.

Alphonso Mango Tree

By Samanvita Pathanjali 13

Banana Tree

By Samanvita Pathanjali

This is our family's banana tree located in our backyard.

During quarantine, our family was bored, so like many others, we started gardening.

We watered it daily, although now the rain has adequately ďŹ lled the tree's needs. In India, there are a lot of banana trees, so we wanted to grow our own. It's probably going to take a really long time, but it'll be satisfying when I can eat one of the bananas or put it on my oatmeal. I expect them to be small and thin (not really like the huge bananas we see at grocery stores).

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Last winter, one of my mother's friends gave us a baby curry leaf plant that we've nurtured for the past year. Curry leaf plants need a lot of sunlight, especially when they are seedlings. Since we received the plant in winter, when our backyard doesn't get much sunlight, my mother placed the plant under LED lights indoors throughout the nighttime and turned it off during the day. After the weather improved, we moved the plant outdoors into a bigger pot and noticed that it grew much faster under direct sunlight, as opposed to the LED lights. We water the plant every day with the starchy water leftover from cooking rice, which functions as a natural fertilizer and pesticide. Whenever we make vegetable juice, we add some of the pulp into the pot as fertilizer; we noticed the curry leaf plant grow a lot when we did that! My mom carefully removes a small branch of leaves from the plant whenever she wants to use it in her cooking, as it's often used in various South Indian rice dishes. We're really looking forward to seeing our plant grow taller over these next few years, and it'll eventually grow into a curry leaf tree!

Curry Leaf Plant

By Shivani Manivasagan 15

Green Onions

By Shivani Manivasagan I've seen so many pictures of people growing green onions by placing the roots in water, so when my mother bought scallions from our local Farmers' Market, I thought it would be the perfect plant to try growing at home. Before putting them in the fridge, I cut off the ends and planted the roots in soil. They started to grow really fast; scallions like a lot of sun and water, and in these conditions over the summer, they grew back to their original size within a week! A really cool attribute of green onions, as I discovered, is that they regrow multiple times even after they're cut. After my plants grew around six to eight inches tall, I would trim the stalks down to around an inch above the soil. Within a week or two, they'd grow to near their original heights again. I was really excited to have an inďŹ nite supply of green onions (but realistically, I've read that each plant regenerates itself three to four times; after that, you would have to plant new bulbs). Over the summer, I was able to get four harvests of green onions over two months, and they were a delicious addition to our soups and noodles. So the next time you buy scallions, I deďŹ nitely recommend planting the roots in soil, and you can get multiple harvests out of that one-time purchase!

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Arabian Jasmine

By Meher Mehta A couple of years back, I stared at my bare backyard and decided I wanted to grow a garden. I asked my mother who thought it was a great idea and bought a variety of plants I could plant in the garden. One of my favorites is the Arabian Jasmine, which has been growing in my backyard for 2 years now. I water it every other day and make sure the soil pH stays between 5.5-6.0, which is optimal for this plant. Loose, light humus-y soil is ideal for it to be able to get its nutrients and water properly. One thing to watch out for is frost; I always cover the plant with a tarp during the nights when it gets cold because frost can kill this plant. I love the Arabian Jasmine because its owery scent reminds me of my home country: India.

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Loquat Trees

By Serena Yeh I feel like there’s no medium point between a small sapling you buy from Home Depot and a forest of fruit trees in your backyard. My backyard has been likened to a forest at times—there has got to be at least twenty trees. A majority of these trees are loquat trees, a juicy fruit originating in China.

They’re usually yellow, but the more ripe fruits are more orange. Their skin is a little thick and furry, and the fruit can be sour or sweet, like any other fruits. Inside the fruit are a couple polished, chestnut-brown seeds.

Even though most people may have never tried loquats before, they are quick to like them. Because of the warm climate and the compatible soil, our backyard is full of loquat trees. My parents planted the trees after buying our house almost a decade ago, and many of our trees are more than ten feet high. Their leaves are large, glossy, and green.

Loquats seem to grow slowly, but once they hit the height to grow fruit, the branches with flowers on them can attract many honey bees and other pollinators. We usually don’t fertilize our trees because they grow well enough without it, but we do have a compost pile in a corner or our backyard that’s accessible to us whenever we need it. It might be hard to get your hands on a loquat seedling, but they’ll be able to thrive quickly in weed-free, slightly watered soil. We usually have a surplus of loquats in the spring—and that’s when we start making loquat preserves, a process that takes a lot of time but has a tasty reward.

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Succulents

By Serena Yeh Many of our succulents come from generic big-box stores like Walmart. When we bought them years ago, they were just a couple dollars, and quite small as well. Over time, with some watering (not enough to make the water muddy, but enough to keep its leaves plump), they’ve thrived and had to upgrade from smaller pots to the bigger pots.

One misconception that has threatened to sabotage the life of other plants is that because they originate from desert environments, they don’t need water. Please, please do water your succulents! I learned this the hard way as well. I was gifted a small succulent keychain, with a live succulent in a plastic dome, like the rose in Beauty and the Beast. I left it unattended on my window sill, not watering it much or doing anything. By the time I realized the plant needed water, it was too late, and its stem was completely brown.

After that, I took more care growing my little plants, like the little succulent in my rainbow chrome llama pot. Some advice for any prospective window sill growers: put some masking tape over the part of the pot that isn’t occupied by the succulent. I’ve made the mistake of tipping over the open pot to my carpet floor more than once. Sometimes I’d open my window so quickly that I completely knock over my llama pot to the ground. In fact, there’s probably still dirt on my carpet right now.

Most of our succulents do well in indirect sunlight (like underneath some trees), but it really depends on the plant. If a plant seems droopy, try moving it into direct sunlight, or moving it into complete shade.

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Tillandsia (Air Plant)

By Serena Yeh

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Occupying the precious window sill real estate along with my baby succulent is my air plant. I bought a white ceramic pot some time ago, and its head actually had a small sack of grass seeds. It didn’t work out with the grass seeds though—I probably drowned it with too much water. The pot didn’t have a drainage hole either, so I initially thought there wasn’t much I could do with the pot. Until I had a moment of insight- I could plant an air plant in it!

I bought a small air plant years ago at a specialty shop in Half Moon Bay. It was only a couple dollars, and it seemed so cool to me. It had no roots, so you could put it anywhere. The shop displayed it inside some sea urchin shells, and showed how you could put it up anywhere. After that, I placed it outside, and it multiplied and grew quickly. Just like most succulents, it’s easy to have these air plants reproduce. When it reaches about the size of the fist, I gently separate the parts of the air plants. Also like most succulents, it's easy to forget about watering them. Even though they’re called air plants, they do need water to live! Online, they give tips about soaking your air plants in water once a week, but I’ve found that spritzing some water once a week works just as well. Of course, they shouldn’t be drowning in water for their lifetime, but just enough to keep their leaves plump. Because they have no roots, it makes for cool decoration inside and outside. They can be found inside my metal flamingo shaped pot, on a bird’s watering plate, and more. Occasionally, they flower too. They have thin purple buds that only last a couple days, but its short lifetime makes it more special.

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Mint

By Sriya Bairy My mother got a few sprigs of mint from her friend 7 years ago and planted them in our soil, introducing this plant into our garden. She mixed compost with regular gardening soil before planting them. I look after this plant by watering it twice a day and putting fertilizer and compost into the soil 2-3 times per month. Additionally, our mint plant is kept in sunlight for about half of the day and in shade for the other half. We have also given it a large space to grow.

When we ďŹ rst planted mint, we thought it would not even grow. However, after a few weeks, it spread across the planter box. It is still very difďŹ cult to control the growth of this plant, which gives us a good incentive to put it to use. Before we had this plant, my family rarely used mint in our cooking.

However, we now incorporate it into our home cooking and often explore new recipes and uses for this ingredient.

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Rose

By Sriya Bairy My family started growing roses 8 years ago when we bought a few small saplings from Costco and planted them in soil. Now these saplings are big bushes! To allow this plant to develop and thrive, I make sure to give it 5 hours of direct sunlight and shade for the rest of the day.

In addition, I fertilize it 3-4 times per month and water it 1-2 times per day. I found that combining gardening soil with compost before planting the roses resulted in healthier plants.

My family’s rose bushes give many roses on a regular basis, and the color of these flowers range from a bright reddish-orange to a hot pink. Once, I tried to use the roses in my garden to make tea, and unexpectedly, it turned out to be a family favorite. Ever since then, it’s been in popular demand for my family, and we drink rose tea often. I personally enjoy it on a cold winter evening, as it’s really warm and comforting.

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