What Happened After We Came Back Home | New Plants, Preserving Food & Settling In

The ground was looking a little dry, so it seemed like there hadn't been much rain while I was away, but the plants themselves were still looking fresh.

My little container garden had actually continued growing without me.

The tomato plant that I didn't even intentionally plant had become much bigger. The pepper had grown too, and I'm still wondering whether it is actually a hot pepper or a green pepper.

The way the leaves and flowers are looking makes me think it might be a green pepper, but we'll see.

Even the little cocoyams I had thrown into the container had started producing leaves.

I was so happy to see all of that.

After checking the plants, I had to deal with some of the food I had brought back with me.

I had harvested quite a lot of sweet bitter leaf from my grandmother's garden, so I needed to prepare it before putting it away.

I washed the leaves properly, sliced them, washed them again and packed them into smaller portions before putting them in the freezer.

That was one thing I was particularly happy to have brought back because I had harvested quite a lot.

The herbs I had mentioned in my previous post also arrived safely. 

They were looking a little withered, which was expected after travelling, but they were fine.

I had also brought back some sticks and seedlings that I wanted to try planting.

I've tried planting some of these before, and they didn't work, but I thought, let me try again.

There were also some flowers that I brought back with me.

I didn't plant everything immediately because, honestly, there was quite a lot to do when I returned.

Between sorting the bitter leaf, dealing with everything else I had brought back, and trying to get back into my normal routine, I was tired.

So I eventually got around to planting everything a few days later.

And that's when I realised I had a small problem.

I didn't have enough soil.

The soil I was counting on using was in the bucket where I had planted my yam.

The yam had been looking like it was dying before I travelled, so I had already started thinking that I could eventually use the soil in that bucket for some of the new plants.

But when I came back, the yam had decided to surprise me.

It had started producing leaves again.

Of course.

Just when I had plans for its soil, it decided that it wasn't finished yet. 😂

I was looking at it like, So now what am I supposed to do with you?

I eventually decided to remove the soil bit by bit and use it to plant some of the new plants.

I had brought back several pieces of the same plants, so I first put them together and tried to figure out which ones could share a container and which ones needed their own space.

Then I started planting.

Some of them were simply experiments. I don't know whether they will grow, but I wanted to try.

By the time I was done, the poor yam had almost no soil left.

And eventually, it dried up completely this week.

So I guess that's the end of my yam experiment for now. 

At least I tried.