Hello! Welcome to Shiso Garden. I decided to start this blog to document all of my Garden findings. I’ve learned a lot in the past couple of years and wanted to share with you all of my tips and tricks. I’ve done so much research and through my experiences of what worked, what didn’t work, hopefully it will benefit you in some way.
My love for plants started with houseplants. Years ago, I lived in a tiny apartment in San Francisco and started collecting house plants. Sadly, a lot of them died because of the lack of light and humidity. I think my first plant was a cymbidium orchid, which I actually still have today. I thought orchids were too high maintenance at first, but I found out that they are much more resilient than you think!
After moving into a house with a backyard, I didn’t know where to start. It was daunting thinking about gardening outside. The inside of my house was filled with plants and yet I made no attempt to do anything outside. A few years went by and my baby became a toddler and I wanted to show her where vegetables came from. I was also hoping to find a way to grow a lot of the vegetables I heavily relied on purchasing at the Japanese supermarket. It’s not close to my house, so it was always a trip to go there. Shiso, Japanese cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, okra, daikon were some of my favorite things to purchase. I started having these thoughts, what if I could grow this in my backyard and be more self sufficient? I decided at that point that my New Years resolution for 2020 was to have a successful garden outside, and I would do whatever it takes to make sure that I have a summer harvest. As soon as the New Year started, I kept my promise and started container gardening.
I went to Home Depot to buy tomato plants. Guess what, they died the next day after I planted it. Luckily, they have a plant guarantee system and I took it back to exchange it for a new one. I wasn’t about to give up yet. After I planted the second one, I crossed my fingers and moved it to a sunnier location and I also mulched the top of the soil. It stayed alive! My plants were thriving and suddenly in March 2021, we started shelter in place due to the pandemic. Everything was so scary at that time. I was so grateful that I started a garden and I had something to look forward to in my backyard. Something that I started as a New Year’s resolution was helping me grow. I realized that gardening was turning into therapy.
They say that the 3rd year in your garden is going to be the change. I’m on year 2 and this year, my goal was to start most of my plants from seeds. I hardly bought any plants this year and I am really proud that I kept my gardening goal for 2021. In a few months, it will be year 3 for me. I cannot wait.
