Introduction

I wanted to grow a plant because it is considered the simplest way to help the environment. So I went to a nursery and purchased a small potted plant to grow as a small project. However, I didn’t take some factors like the winter temperature and the seasonal changes into account, which made the condition of the plant deteriorate. 

L1

I felt that it would be best to take small efforts to water the plant regularly, however, it was really difficult to keep track of as I kept forgetting to water the plant sometimes and just assumed I did it. It eventually was one of the things that contributed to the loss of the plant. I knew that I was bad with keeping track of long and large tasks, so I tried to micromanage myself, using reminders and such for the watering. This somewhat helped me in the beginning, but after 4-5 weeks, I turned off the alarms, which was a mistake.

L2

The watering problems aside, Tending to the plant was also difficult because I didn’t know anything about growing plants, so I had to consult the internet, and mostly found what I was looking for. Due to a lack of proper knowledge, the plant grew very slowly, and that demotivated me to put more effort into the project. I discovered that Gardening is difficult and that I took this skill for granted and thus, didn’t prepare for it.

L3

For the planning, it was minimal because I thought “how difficult would it be to grow ONE plant” and thus, the decisions were mostly spontaneous. I thought that most of the work would be watering, but other things like maintaining the soil, making sure that the plant is always in sunlight. If I would’ve planned the time intervals, it would’ve been a lot easier, and better for both, me and the plant. 

L4

It took over 3 months to cater to the plant, in these 3 months, there were a lot of times when I was unsure I would complete the project, I expected it to last 5-6 months, however, I forgot to water the plant many times and thus, the plant was slow to grow, I also didn’t have any support structure like a stick, so the plant was always drooped down. If I had been more committed and had researched a bit more into the field and tools required, I don’t think this would have happened.

L6

I tried growing a plant to support action against climate change, which is said to be one of the biggest problems of the next generation. Growing a plant makes me feel like I’m contributing to solving a global issue. The global issue should be met with a global initiative.

L7

The ethical decision to help the planet was a fairly obvious one, as we are all already being affected directly by climate change, as the temperatures are slowly rising and becoming unbearable. The fact that there is no increasing weightage of climate action in government planning despite many requests from the entire scientific community, makes me feel very sad. My opinion about climate change hasn’t changed during this activity, as I still feel that most of the work must be done by individuals through lifestyle changes instead of the government inducing these changes and meeting opposition.

Conclusion – 

I learned a lot of things about gardening from this experience, while it wasn’t as fun as I had expected it to be, it was still fulfilling to know that I’m contributing to repel a great catastrophe also known as climate change. While the success criteria were not achieved in this process, I found many things that I can do to improve my habits, for example, I learned that setting a vague daily schedule helps you structure your day much more productively. The time it takes to finish a task usually depends on my mood, which will change many times throughout the day, and having a rigid schedule only makes it worse for me.

EVIDENCE –