Project: Sprout & About

Hello friends! Great to have you here and nice to e-meet you! I am Karo, and in this post I tell something little about myself and what this project is about. I also give a short story of where this idea’s seed was essentially sown. Read along!

Who’s writing

I am a 29-year-old world citizen, a kid at heart, and a bubbly person figuring life out. You know when you are getting closer to the thirties, you start thinking about everything you did and didn’t achieve until this point in life. And then you start a blog, because maybe that will make sense of it all, and life will be just OK. So that’s me, a curious-heart kid, trying to just live in the moment and enjoy the present (lessons from yoga, which I love). I am someone who likes a fun challenge, seeks adventure, and enjoys trying out new things. How would a life be without a little jump in the unknown every now and then, uh? So as you can imagine, blogging and the greenhouse project are DEFINITELY something new to me.
Maybe it goes without saying that I have no idea what I am doing and I am literally figuring this thing out, too! So bear with me ❤

When it comes to all-things-green, I have always enjoyed moving in nature and I certainly have always appreciated the fact of how much Mother Earth has to offer us, thanks to the family for this. However, this curiosity in caring for plants really started to grow in me in Mexico in 2022 (and this story does not count in my first two mini-cacti I bought in a Chinese store in Madrid a year before just because they were too cute to resist). I had moved to this cool newish apartment near Mexico City, but the place was quite simple in interior. I felt it needed something to bring it alive, like a cozy, homey touch. I knew I couldn’t start putting up paintings on the wall, and other decor ideas just didn’t feel quite smart either. As you can imagine, the weather in that part of the world is perfect for all sorts of plants to blossom and bloom. You can just endlessly admire the natural beauty there, literally anywhere you go. To my luck, this local town plant store had quite a selection of different trees and flowers for sale, too. Somehow I knew that was going to be my move. I picked three plants for my home from which two survived. I guess that was because of an amateur mistake: me, overly excited new plant owner, probably just overwatered the poor pink flowers. I just didn’t understand those flowers back then, but it was a tragedy. Plant people must know. Funnily enough, the snake plant and the parlour palm surprisingly made it and I cherished them oh-so-much for the time I was living there. I guess this was the moment where the seed was sown for my interest in plants… And no worries, them snake plant and the little palm got a good new home after I left.

So you see, those plants brought me so much joy and added some green life in the apartment, that after I moved back to the North, I started buying more plants and even experimented on some exotic seeds at home. You know, the avocado-from-seed type of experiments inspired by others’ success stories from YouTube. (It was successful for me, too). In general, I find it so interesting to see how plants grow or seeds develop their new roots – there is so much life in there and taking care of them is a beautiful journey and a continuing process. I will have to have another post where I touch more on this aspect… But now, after I have more or less successfully cared for many plants inside my home for a few years, I thought I’d level it up because hey, where’s the challenge?

What is Project: Sprout & About?

Like said earlier, my adventurous side decided that it was a good idea to start a blog about something NEW, something I am curious about. My place in the North has quite a big greenhouse in the garden, but for the past two years it has rather been given only occasional care. I can recall from my childhood the beautiful tomato and cucumber plants, the aromatic herbs, and the freshness of our own grown fruits and veggies on the dining table, ahhh. It was the best. Homegrown goodies are incomparable to those bought from a supermarket, just saying. So what if…

Looking at the greenhouse standing there alone with dead leafy greens inside it, I thought I would make it a challenge for myself to breathe life back into it. To be honest, the dead leaves are there because last Winter I was too ignorant to clean it up (and in my defense, I had not come up with the Project idea back then). But having enjoyed so much these small sprout experiments inside, I asked myself maybe I could take it a step further – let’s take it outside! Let’s try to actually get them to flourish and to bear fruit!

In a nutshell: the project’s ambitious aim is to give the greenhouse a good glow up; do some cleaning, plant seeds, care for the sprouts, and hopefully collect fruits by the Summer. An important part of the project is for me to share it here, unfiltered, the ups and downs, no cheating, no ChatGPT, raw evidence of the process. During this process, Project: Sprout & About will reveal what happens in that greenhouse along the way and aims to answer this: Did it become a green paradise or a total disaster?

It must be obvious by now, that I am a total novice in anything related to gardening or agriculture. And perhaps my slightly impatient nature is not going to be the most valuable asset here either. Gardening, blogging, writing, documenting the process in pictures and maybe even videos – honestly, I couldn’t say that I am experienced in any of those areas, but for the sake of a fun adventure, I will give it a shot! Let’s jump in the unknown 🙂