Growing plants and vegetables nourishes both body and mind

Nature has always fascinated me, and there is nothing better to brighten up the urban environment that many of us find ourselves in these days than some attractive plants and flowers.

Growing up, I was always fortunate to be around well-tended and cared-for gardens either at my parents' or grandparents' homes. My grandfather could actually have been considered to be quite "green-fingered", as there were always impressive blooms in his garden, and, in fact, he won a number of prizes in his community for keeping such a nice garden.

Not only was it a nice garden in the visual sense, but the vegetables and fruit that he grew in it were also often on the dinner table at his home, so it was also a very practical garden. This was a result of the times he and millions others grew up in difficult circumstances during the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which vegetables grown in gardens and allotments helped people supplement their meager incomes.

I had just been a passive admirer of the work done by him and gardeners generally until quite recently, when I decided to turn my hand to cultivating some plants.

Unlike my grandfather, I don't have a large garden to do this. Like millions of other people, I only have a small balcony on which to conduct my horticultural activities, but that has not discouraged me in the slightest.

It's possible to make a nice "garden" even in the most limited space, but one must also limit one's ambitions to a certain extent.

I had already attempted to grow some flowers, but couldn't tell the difference between those and weeds, so my attention and efforts then turned to something much more practical: vegetables.

The next time you eat a tomato, just consider what's inside it when you cut it open: a multitude of little seeds, a ready-made source of new life.

So, I decided to take the seeds of one humble little tomato and plant them in a number of pots. After several weeks, I was amazed by the results. I now have about 15 tomato plants on my balcony in different stages of growth.

It's a rewarding sight to see this greenery on my balcony. Not only does it look nice, it's also a good feeling that I have made my own little contribution to nature, and I keep my fingers crossed that one day this little bit of nature in my home will give me something very practical indeed: some nice tasty tomatoes.

And in this day and age in which we have such fast-paced lives and rely on modern technology for so much, it's very rewarding to be engaging in a practice which is as old as time itself, as plant life is essentially the most basic and oldest "technology" on our planet.

Even if you don't consider yourself to have "green fingers", it is something that's well worth having a try of－you could be amazed by the results.