My 1st Plant

I took Horticulture at Fair Lawn High in my senior year back in 2009. I was basically forced into the class – I was completely against taking the course. It was only in it’s second year in progress and I wasn’t sure if it was the class for me. I didn’t have much say in the matter because my mother and guidance councilor put me in the class and by the time I found out I was in the class it was to late to take name off the roster. I’m glad I didn’t get my way in the end because if I did I may not have realized or found my love for plants and gardening. Taking the horticulture class with Ms. Meneghin showed me my love and passion for plants and nature and seeing things grow.

I new before I took that class that I wanted to work out of doors in nature but I didn’t think about being a farmer. It was in the back of my mind to be one but I didn’t think I could do it because I have never grown things, been on a farm or even touched a garden. When it came to plants I was pretty much a city boy – a New Yorker one to be exact. I was involved with 4H at that point and I met many cool people at the national events that I went too. The more events I went too the more interesting people I met; some of them were farmers and the more I heard about their fun family farm stories the more I dreamed about being a farmer. This dream has became reality since I took that horticulture class. It all started with me being given one plant to take care of, which was a red flowering geranium. The geranium is still alive to this date and looks great!

That plant started it all for me. I am now studying at Bergen Community College to be a farmer and will soon be on my way to Rutgers to finish my learning. I seem to have a green thumb for keeping plants alive and productive and having them do what they are meant to do. I still really don’t know what I am doing – there is a lot to learn for someone who has no real life experience on a farm. But I am getting practice with my new garden plot and I am getting a lot of production out of it and hope to continue having success.

I have even had success keep plants alive in my own house which is hard because we don’t have much space for keeping plants. My favorite plant – to date – is my geranium. It just keeps growing and flowering. I love it and every time it grows I fall more in love with it and plants in general. The only bad thing is that my geranium keeps needed to be transplanted . . . soon it will need to be put in a large planter outside of my house because if the pots get much larger I can’t keep it in my house. That’s how great it’s doing :-). I hope when I own my farm I will continue to have great success with my plants and feed many people in the world.