Habits are like seeds. If you can grow a plant...you can grow a new habit.
Habits have behave like plants. You give them care, give them time, feed them, water them they will grow roots and bloom for you. If you ignore, forget or crowd them out...they will wither and die.
Seeds all have pure potential within. A habit is a seed with full potential of it's essence.
Each seed each habit is Unique. Some will take multiple lifetimes to grow. Every tree in an old growth forest started out as a seed. These seeds are visionary - healing seeds. Some become mother trees in forests. 80 years old trees can still be considered saplings.
There are optimal times, temperatures and places to plant your seeds and habits.
Seeds and habits grow in their own time. You can rush all you want but it will still take the time it needs.
Most habits are forsaken before they break ground. Before they can grow roots and bloom- they first must sprout.
Be mindful what you plant and where and by whom. Fir trees grow 200 feet tall. Corn likes sunshine. Tomatoes like growing next to marigolds.
Too many seeds planted in one space - lead to no harvest.
Bring in friends. Baby habits like budding up with wiser habits. Seeds and habits like growing next to supportive companions .
Give your seeds and habits a welcoming home. A place to take root and grow. Clear out brambles and weeds first. Prepare the soul.
Be mindful of how many seeds you sow. Randomly throwing seeds leads to poor harvests. Planting around too many competing plants dilutes nutrients, light and water.
Give your seeds persistent and consistent attention and care. Especially in the beginning. The average habit takes 66 days to breathe on it's own. Give your baby habit care to so grown deep roots.
Every once in a while plant a seed that will live well beyond you.
The best habits are like fruit trees. It make take time to produce fruit but when they do, they will give back for decades.
Habits follow the same life cycle as seeds. Perennial are different than annuals. Keep that in mind when planting your habit. In most cases you will want to plant a perennial habit...they don't die after the first year or harvest.
When I think of baby habits as seeds and treat them as such...I understand.
Happy Planting and Care,
Denise
As an example: Below is the complete life cycle of a watermelon. When you read it, think of a habit and you will understand why most habits falter and die before they have taken root.
1. Seeds
"Every watermelon starts life as a little brown and black seed, approximately 1.25cm in length. Inside this little seed is a tiny baby watermelon that just needs the right conditions to grow.
To start the growth process, the watermelon seed needs to be planted in soil. The soil will provide some of the important nutrients the baby plant needs, but it will also need water and sunlight in order to grow."
2. Germination
Germination is the process of the seed beginning to grow into a plant. It can take between four and 14 days for a watermelon to complete the germination process.
During this stage, the seed will sprout several different features. These are:
Hypocotyl - this will become the stem of the plant, which enables it to root itself in the soil.
Radicles - these are the first roots, that will ultimately grow into a fully-developed root system. A watermelon’s root system grows to around two metres deep!
Cotyledons - these are very small, basic leaves that are the first parts of the watermelon plant to appear above the surface. Watermelons are dicots, which means that each seed will sprout two cotyledons. Cotyledons aren’t true leaves, but they allow the plant to perform some photosynthesis to help the watermelon develop its true foliage.
The germination stage is when the watermelon plant is most vulnerable. It will need care and protection, and just the right amount of water, to go on to the next stage of development.
3. Vegetative growth
The watermelon seeds are now seedlings, as they have sprouted upwards and downwards. They’re now entering the vegetative growth stage, where they start to turn into proper plants.
At this stage, the watermelon will sprout its first true leaves. Four or five larger leaves will replace the cotyledons, enabling the plant to become more efficient at performing photosynthesis. As these true leaves have a larger surface area, they can absorb more light from the sun, which means they can produce more food for the plant. The leaves are dark green in colour, and, when they first emerge, they’re covered in a prickly coating that will disappear as the plant develops.
Over the next two weeks, these leaves will become bigger and stronger, and the watermelon plant will grow its main vine. This vine can grow to between three and four metres long! New leaves will appear along the vine as it grows, and more vines can also sprout from the main vine. This process is known as branching. The watermelon vines grow horizontally, sprawling along the ground.
4. Flower production and pollination
About 60 days after it was planted, the watermelon plant will produce its first flowers. The flowers are yellow and star-shaped, with five petals.
The male flowers appear first. These have an anther, which is where the pollen is found.
The female flowers will start to appear about 10 days after the first male flowers. Female flowers have a stigma, which will collect the pollen from the male flowers. The female flowers also have a small swollen section of the stem just below the flower. This is the ovary, the part of the plant that will develop into a watermelon if the plant is pollinated. Only female watermelon flowers can produce fruit.
At this point, pollination needs to occur. Watermelon flowers can’t pollinate themselves, so they need the help of pollinating insects such as bees. The bee lands on a male flower to feed, gathering some of the pollen from the anther as it does so. When the bee then lands on a female flower, the pollen is distributed into the stigma, fertilising the flower and enabling it to grow into a watermelon fruit.
There is only a very short window for this process to take place, as each watermelon flower only blooms for one day!
5. Fruit development and ripening
This is the really exciting part of the life cycle of a watermelon, where a brand new fruit begins to grow! If the female flower has been pollinated, the swollen part of the stem underneath the flower will start to grow larger, and begin to develop into a watermelon. It takes about a month for the fruit to grow and ripen.
The watermelon fruit is technically a berry! It has a hard, thick skin, which is called a rind. This protects the soft flesh inside.
As the watermelon develops and ripens, it will also produce seeds inside the fruit.
6. Harvesting
After about a month from pollination, the watermelon fruit will be fully grown. If you want to test its ripeness, give the fruit a tap. If it’s ripe, it will make a hollow sound. The part of the fruit that touches the ground should also be yellow in colour if the fruit is ripe.
Once you’re happy that the fruit is ripe, it’s time to harvest it by gently snipping it off the vine. And now for the fun part - eating the watermelon! You’ve seen it go through its complete life cycle, and now it’s time to enjoy the goodness that nature has produced. Don’t forget to remove the seeds and save them, though! These can be planted next season, and the life cycle of the watermelon can begin all over again.
