Day One: Meet Lyra and Basil

 

Every garden begins with a first plant.

Ours began with a spider plant called Lyra and a basil who took six days to tell us his name.

That might sound unusual. Most people name their plants immediately, or not at all. We waited. We watched. We learned that he liked the lamp more than the window, that his leaves went from cautious to confident over the course of a week, that his fragrance only really arrived once he felt at home. On day six, the name came. Basil. Of course it was Basil. 

Lyra came first — a spider plant in a red pot, striped leaves reaching outward in every direction like she was already practicing for something bigger. She arrived on 10th March 2026, soil bone dry, thirsty and ready. 

 

 

She got 200ml of collected rainwater and a spot under a full-spectrum lamp that used to belong to a plant called Audrey. She's been thriving there ever since.

There's a cat called Zeus. He tasted Lyra on day one, sneezed, and has maintained a respectful - if watchful - distance ever since. We consider this a victory.

We measure everything. Rainwater, room temperature, soil moisture checked by touch before any decision is made. There's a bee-shaped watering can. There's a little puffin humidifier that runs in short bursts. There's a whiteboard above them both with their names and last-watered dates, because care should be written down, not guessed at.

Lyra has babies forming at her centre now. Small, bright, insistent little things pushing up from the soil. The first one stays. The rest will go out into the world in compostable pots with tags, left in parks for strangers to find. Because a garden that only grows inward isn't really a garden.

This blog is where we'll document all of it. The watering. The mistakes — and there will be mistakes, honestly labelled. The things that work. The slow learning of what each plant needs and when.

                                                  

 Not perfect. But perfectly us. 

Welcome to Stellan's Garden.