Week 2 of Growing Herbs: Maybe Growth Doesn’t Always Look Like Growth
When I started growing herbs, I thought it would be fairly easy. Put some seeds in soil, give them sunlight and water, and wait for them to grow. I knew I wouldn’t suddenly become an expert gardener, but I thought I would at least see something happening within a few days. Two weeks in, I’m realising that growing herbs doesn’t quite work according to the timeline I had in my head.
This week, there were small signs of growth, but also quite a few moments where I wasn’t sure what was happening. My coriander had one small plant with two fresh leaves, while the other seeds hadn’t appeared yet. Mint had one stem that remained healthy while others stayed dry. Rosemary was somewhere in between, with one stem completely dried, another partially dry and another with just one dried leaf while the rest remained healthy. There was no visible new growth from the rosemary yet, but it hadn’t died either. Tulsi and basil still showed no growth at all.
The coriander that surprised me
The coriander gave me the biggest surprise of the week. I noticed a small stone sitting right where one of the plants was trying to grow, and I thought it might be blocking it. So I removed the stone. The next day, the little coriander plant had died. I was genuinely sad about it, and almost immediately started wondering if I had caused it by moving the stone. I still don’t know if the two things were connected, but at the time I couldn’t help regretting that I had interfered.
Then, the next day, another coriander plant appeared very close to where the first one had died.
The tiny new sprout was unexpectedly uplifting. I had been thinking that perhaps nothing else would grow, especially after seeing how slowly everything was happening, and suddenly there was another little plant. By the end of the week, several new coriander plants had emerged. It made me realise that the first plant dying wasn’t necessarily the end of the story. Something else was still happening in the soil, even though I couldn’t see it yet.
Not everything grows at the same time
The more I watched the coriander, the more I started thinking about how differently the seeds were behaving even though they had all been given essentially the same conditions. They had the same soil, sunlight, water, weather and care, but they didn’t all sprout at the same time. One seed appeared early, while the others took several more days, and some still haven’t appeared. There wasn’t really a race between them. Each one seemed to be following its own timeline.
Some were growing, some were just holding on
That was probably one of the simplest but most meaningful things I noticed this week. I had been expecting growth to happen at a certain speed, but the plants didn’t seem particularly interested in my expectations.
Mint has also been teaching me to look a little closer. The one healthy stem has a very small trace of new leaves growing at the top. I had been expecting new leaves to appear from the sides of the stem, so I found myself checking it every day to see how much it had changed. Rosemary has been different. There hasn’t been any visible growth yet, but some of the stems are still healthy and holding on. I don’t know if they will eventually grow, but for now, the fact that they haven’t completely dried out feels like something worth noticing.
Tulsi and basil have been harder to stay patient with. There is still no visible growth, and I did feel disappointed. I’ve seen so many people online showing how easily they grew basil, so part of me wondered why it wasn’t happening for me. I don’t really have an answer yet. I can only keep observing and trying again if I need to.
I also tried growing coriander stems in water. They developed new stems quite well, but they stayed short. I eventually moved them into soil, and unfortunately, all of those stems died. Once again, I wasn’t completely sure what went wrong. I think that has been one of the humbling parts of this experiment. There are things I can research and learn, but there are also things I simply don’t know yet.
I started noticing more
One thing that has changed, though, is the way I look at the plants. Before starting this month, I probably would have looked at a pot and thought about whether something was growing or not. Now I notice much smaller things. I look at the moisture of the soil, where the sunlight falls, the direction the leaves are facing, whether a plant looks thirsty and how much has changed from one day to another. I noticed that the first two leaves coriander look different from its later leaves. I noticed that the new mint leaves were growing from the top. I started noticing how slowly rosemary was changing, even when I couldn’t see any obvious new growth.
I think that is one of the unexpected things about spending time with something. The longer you look, the more there is to notice.
I wasn’t sure if I should keep going
There were definitely moments this week when I felt confused and even wanted to give up. I didn’t know why some plants dried, why the coriander plant died after I moved the stone, or why the tulsi and basil hadn’t grown. But instead of stopping, I decided to stick with it and see what happens in the end. In a strange way, that reminded me of Slowly Curated itself. There have been moments when I’ve wondered if something is working and felt like giving up, but instead of completely abandoning it, I’ve tried changing things and adjusting along the way.
Maybe growing something requires some of the same patience.
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Maybe growth is sometimes invisible
By the end of Week 2, I don’t think I’ve become a better gardener yet. I still have questions, and several of my herbs haven’t grown at all. But I do feel like I’m becoming more patient with not knowing. I’m learning that growth doesn’t always happen at the same pace, even when everything around the plants looks the same. Some seeds appear quickly, some take longer and some may never appear, Some stems dry completely, while others hold on and quietly continue.
When I started herb gardening, I thought I was doing it because I wanted to grow fresh herbs and learn how to grow something from scratch. I still want those things, but now there’s another reason too. The plants are giving me a reason to slow down and pay attention. I don’t have to make something happen every time I look at them. Sometimes I can just observe and wait.
I think that’s what Week 2 taught me most: everything takes its own time to grow, and there is nothing wrong with being slow. Even when there is no visible growth, there may still be something happening that I can’t see yet.
And perhaps that’s worth remembering outside the garden too.
Week 2 takeaway: Maybe growth doesn’t always look like growth.
