How I Became a Gardener (Just Five Years Ago)

This is how I went from being a graphic design student to a gardening nut, only five years ago. I recently stumbled across an old sketchbook filled with ideas for turning my balcony into a chic and modern garden. My wife and I (we were living in sin back then) had just moved into our apartment together and I was going to school to be a designer. It was around that time that our hikes in South Florida and a book on houseplants coalesced into a gardening obsession.

One of the sights that first inspired me: looking up at a pink tabebuia in bloom while eating French pastries with my wifey-to-be on one of our trips.

This sketchbook brought back so many great memories of feverishly drawing up plans for imaginary gardens and magnificent living sculptures - memories of buying my first sea grape tree and my first houseplant. I was still working at the bookstore back then as a manager and became transfixed by the books about houseplants, buying up several in the span of a couple weeks. Books like "Beyond the Windowsill" slowly began to merge my appreciation of interior design with my love of nature. The same fiddle leaf fig and Dracaena 'Limelight' that I saw in those pages are staples in our apartment to this very day.

The plant against the wall is supposed to be a Cassia alata. Sadly, it didn't like our shady conditions.

My college textbooks slowly began to mingle with the likes of Jamie Durie, Debra Lee Baldwin, Andy Goldsworthy and Will Giles, and my notes in class were contaminated with sketches of what Jamie Durie called "Dream Gardens." I spent the time between classes admiring the unusual plants around the University of North Florida campus. It was there that I first saw bromeliads grown outdoors in north Florida, and there where the landscaper saw me hypnotized by an architectural Cassia alata and shared some of their ribbed seedpods with me. I promptly drew them next to my drawings of gothic architecture and noticed a pleasing similarity to flying buttresses and vaulted ceilings. Maybe those architects were inspired by a similar seedpod centuries ago. It was also around that time that I realized just how much I loved writing. I was an incredibly shy guy, but writing gave my thoughts wings and made it possible for me to say all the things going on in my head.



Here's a drawing of my first houseplant, a bird's nest fern purchased at Target. This guy sparked a bit of my epiphyte enthusiasm.

I got a little excited on the next page of the sketchbook and designed an imaginary epiphyte tree wrapped with sphagnum moss and chicken wire. Maybe this is how my Rainforest Drop idea came about.

I thought of ways to create benches and seating on our balcony without wasting space that could be used on plants. This is one of the ideas I came up with. I didn't finish the drawing, but you get the idea.

I also thought of inventive planters to build, including a tiered one that would have storage space underneath and one that would have different divisions like a bento box in which different textures of plants could be mixed and matched.

Can you believe that this sudden burst of inspiration happened just five years ago? Mind you, my only gardening experience before this was planting marigold seeds for my mom or keeping a little barrel cactus as a kid. Sure, it's a shame that I didn't get bitten by the gardening bug sooner since I would have become a landscape architect by now if I had the chance. On the other hand, my limited education as a designer must be of some use to me as a garden writer someday. At least I have some nifty business cards!
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