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Gardener of the Month - Featuring Sergei from Estonia
It’s time for another featured gardener from our community! This month, say hello to Sergei, our ‘March Transplanting Master’ from Estonia. He shared some thoughts on what gardening means to him and why he’s passionate about growing plants.
What does gardening mean to you and what role does it play in your life?
Gardening for me is seeing the miracle of new life happen again and again; the miracle that I experience as a reverential spectator but also as nature’s coworker, who puts a bit of time and passion into the process. Now I can reap the fruits of my labor, miraculously grown from tiny specks of organic matter.
Giving some of my time to plants is also very good for my mental well-being. It helps to keep me grounded, to let go of stress and anxieties, and gives me one more reason to look forward to getting back home, be it after a day-long absence for work or after a week or two of being on holiday.
All in all, gardening is an important and irreplaceable part of my daily life that brings me lots of joy, gives me stronger roots and makes me a much more naturally cultured human being.
When did you start growing with us and what’s been the highlight of your indoor gardening journey?
I started in December 2017, and my very first ‘wow’ moment with Click and Grow happened a few months later, when I tried my very first homegrown strawberry - it was one of the best I’ve tried in terms of taste and literally the best one ever in terms of the scent.
Living with plants is indeed a journey, and a highly sensory one - a never-ending feast for my eyes (I absolutely love taking photos of my plants), nose and mouth (in any order). Furthermore, it’s a lot of physical, immediate experiences for your hands, for your green thumbs and other fingers. The more you dig, the more gold you find.
Which plants do you enjoy growing the most and why?
A common variety of basil was the first ever plant I’d tried to grow on my windowsill, mostly because where my family and I were living, we had no basil available at all (markets, supermarkets or anywhere else). That planting experiment was a complete failure and I stopped trying until a few years later when I learned about Click and Grow and started planting with it - my very first and very tasty results were strawberries and basil.
With Click and Grow expanding their basil offerings, I proceeded to grow more and more different basils. At any given moment I have several varieties growing - right now it’s lemon, cinnamon, and Marseille basils. They were all started in Click and Grow gardens before being transplanted to pots. Plus, there’s a young tulsi (holy basil) plant growing from seed, that’s germinated and being nursed in a Click and Grow garden.
I also love growing chilies for their culinary worth (if you’re into hot Asian food like my family is, there’s nothing better than being able to take a couple of steps from the cooker to the windowsill and harvest 2-3 chilies for a soup or stir fry). Chilies also rock with their beautiful flowers.
What advice would you give new growers?
Find love in your gardening approaches. Find a plant or plants you love most. Find a way that excites you to learn new things - like being an active participant in the Facebook group, or getting answers from the expert gardeners’ online community or subscribing to someone on YouTube. Find moments of time when you don’t have to do anything but tend to your garden and find great pleasure in it. You’ll love the results, I promise you.
Thanks, Sergei, for sharing your experiences with us!
Begin your indoor gardening journey today
Explore more:
- Your Guide to Choosing a Click & Grow Smart Garden
- Indoor Gardening for Beginners: 5 Essential Tips
- Click & Grow Testimonials
All images by Sergei