I blame the African violet.

My mom has one, and it is growing so beautifully. Its leaves are dark and gorgeous. Its flowers are a fiery orange and yellow (see featured image, above).

With my brother, she has been watching over the growth of her pothos. We have snake plants here and there. Then we have some plants from our laundry lady.

I suppose I absorbed their enthusiasm, and now here I am!

My brother said his motivation is survival. He wants to be able to grow edible plants, so that if the world ends, he’ll have something to eat.

I guess my motivation is similar. I love vegetables of different kinds, and sometimes it frustrates me that some vegetables are hard to find, or hard to find in good quality. I love experimenting with new recipes, and sometimes it sucks that the ingredients I need are not available in nearby stores. Or I just need a few leaves, and the store will only sell a giant bunch. It’s wasteful!

So, when I saw my brother’s enthusiasm, and when I was done teasing him for it, I set aside some bell pepper seeds, and started my own plant obsession.

Bell peppers

I planted these on Good Friday, April 2. As you can see, they sprouted pretty quickly!

I don’t remember how much water I used. I just remember making sure they had water in the morning and in the afternoon. While they were still sprouting, I kept them in the back of our house, which gets a little sunlight but is mostly shaded.

When the plants were a few inches tall, I transplanted them to bigger boxes and moved them to the garden.

It’s so interesting to see them grow, to figure out the conditions in which they might thrive, to determine where to transfer them. I noticed that the ones I had planted in the soil directly were thriving much more than the ones I had planted in boxes. The leaves seemed more lush, just more. The ones in the boxes didn’t seem to be growing as well or as quickly.

So this morning, I moved the little bell pepper plants. Some had been in little cups, and I transferred each plant into a bigger container. Others had been in a box, and I put those directly in the ground, in the same plot of soil as the lush plants. Fingers crossed!

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