In my garage is a fish tank. Once filled with creatures with fins and claws, swimming through live grasses, it now sits empty, waiting for what’s next.

What’s next turned out to be plants. My girls and I got a wee bit overzealous in the garden store, and became the proud new caretakers of a LOT of plants.

We decided to experiment.

Most of the strawberries and lettuces were planted in the black earth of the garden, fueled by sprinklers and bountiful sunshine.

A few were kept in the fish tank. The light grew underwater grasses, we reasoned. So much so that we had to regularly clip the submerged vegetation otherwise the fish wouldn’t have anywhere to swim.

We placed the strawberries in the tank (not submerged), and turned the light on. We made sure they had enough water by hooking a spray bottle to the tank, watering as needed.

A few weeks later, the receipts were in. While the plants outside were flowering, their leaves a deep green, the garage aquarium plants had developed a mold.

By the time I noticed it, the leaves were coated in a brown, filamentous substance.

“We’ll just make sure we’re not spraying the leaves,” I reasoned, thinking that the water was somehow responsible for the mold. I made sure that it was just the soil that was getting watered, and only when it needed it.

The mold persisted, and underneath, the leaves turned began to turn a sickly yellow. Finally, I took them outside.

A few weeks in, we still do not have flowers (yet), but the leaves are a dark, healthy green, and the mold is gone. The lettuces all have new growth, and I pruned the pale, sickly looking leaves.

It makes me think about us, and our own environments. On the surface, things can look perfect: my plants had light, water, and soil, after all. But it wasn’t the right fit.

The same thing can happen to us.

Maybe it’s something as straightforward as a list of untouched projects that needs to be tackled, started with the messy closet, or the stool you keep tripping over.

Or perhaps, it requires digging a little deeper into our sense of place, and creating an environment that we truly thrive in, that fills our cups, provides a sense of peace— and it may look totally different from what worked in the past.

I’m curious: have you had a moment where a shift or a change in your environment has allowed you to bloom?

Big hugs,

P.S. I now have a lovely empty 30 gallon fish tank— free to a good home!

Quote I'm pondering

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”
​— Lady Bird Johnson

Photo of the week

Blooming flowers

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