My Chilli Jalapeno plant

I have absolutely no luck when it comes to growing things. Every time someone gives me a plant or I buy one thinking "that would brighten up my place". Once I get it home I try and look after it, but no matter how much I try they always die within a few weeks. So I made a decision to never buy a plant again, because I'm just not destined to grow plants or herbs or anything really.  So you can imagine my horror when on my birthday I was given a chilli jalapeno plant from my best friends 3 year old daughter, who I had been told had grown the seedling HERSELF!!

There was no way I could let this plant die, I had to give it a chance, if only for Sana's sake (the 3yr old gardener). That's the least I can do. How would I be able to face a 3 year old and tell her that the beautiful gift she gave me lasted only a few days. So operation 'chilli jalapeno plant' came in to force.

The first thing I did in order to give this plant a fair chance in life was to re-pot the thing. I already had a big pot which had soil in it taking up space in my store cupboard. This had been given to me (on my request) by my sister-in-law two years ago when I had the foolish idea of wanting to grow herbs. (I still do, but just accepted my lack of green fingers and never did). So I re-potted the seedling and placed it on my very sunny window sill.

Nafisa, (Sana's mother), advised me to give it 3 sips of water a day. I watered it everyday, but because the pot was bigger then what I had received it in, I gave it more than three sips. More like three quarters of a cup. Then I received some advice that actually chilli plants are used to quite hot arid conditions so maybe I shouldn't water it as much. So now I only ever water it when all the water from the drip tray has disappeared.

Now when I was in Rome some magic happened, because when I returned after four days of gloriousness, the plant had grown. A LOT. I felt like Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk I was amazed, I mean seriously taken back. I couldn't believe that something had grown, and better still, keeps on growing. I measure it every day, its now standing at 23cm. I love my chilli plant, even though there are no chilli's growing on it at the moment, I still love my chilli plant. I don't know what I'll do when I see my first chilli growing on it. I think I might drive all the way to West London and show Sana. I never realised how much joy you can get from making something grow. So thank you Sana.