Journal 5.5: Be green, Be clean!

The list of plants corresponding to list of members assigned for the respective plant, was finally ready. I was incharge of the Aloe Vera and so I had to read about some characteristics of the plant and the guide on how to nurture it.

Though we regularly watered the saplings, turn by turn, some of them had their leaves dried! Especially, the Gerbera Daisy – the flowers had wilted, almost entirely. Puzzled, we asked each other how could it happen. Later on, we learned that it was mainly because of the A/Cs in the cabins and lack of soil. Originally, the soil that the plants had was slightly different from what we had at school. Hence, one of our crew member arranged for the required soil by afternoon. Once it arrived, we had to carry that hefty sack all the way from the reception area to our spot, upstairs and that indeed was tedious.

Next, we used a shovel to transfer the soil to the pots. Patiently, we plucked out the moss that had grown on the surface of the soil (of the plant). As I was removing the mini rocks (stones), one of them told me that it is necessary for the soil to have them and so I dropped them right back into the pot.

Finally, using a cutting tool, we gingerly cut out the dried leaves from each plant and watered them before placing them under direct sunlight.

Duration: 3 hours