By M.N.

While working in the garden, I noticed the peas.

It was interesting to see how each offshoot was like a vine. It reminded me of a summer when I was totally broke. I knew I could not afford to buy big pots full of handing flower. No bedding plants, either! All I had was two packages of morning glory seeds.

I did have two oblong pots, and there was potting soil. I knew that morning glories are vines, but I realized they could be planted and trained to climb in the future.

The seeds were planted.

They came up in about six days. They grew up quickly, and I needed to find a mini-trellis when the plants were about three weeks old. Money was still a problem. I went to the wooded lot closest to my house. I found small tree limbs which were not rotten. I placed them in the pots. It was not hard to encourage the vines. They usually stayed on the branch once they were placed there.

Once the vines were headed upward, they grew much more rapidly. In the wild, morning glories thrive whether water is plentiful or not. In the pots, they needed to be water fairly often. I misted the leaves so they wouldn’t get brown at all. The plants bloomed when they were about five and half weeks old. The flowers were a beautiful royal blue. The contrast between the flowers and the stark branches appealed to me a great deal. The vines could be wrapped any way I chose to.

The only problem I encountered was running out of room. I was sure if I tried to unwrap the vines, I would break them. Instead, the vines were pulled toward the next branch. They wrapped around another vine and extended towards the desired spot.

This post is part of our Field Notes series written by survivors of intimate partner abuse.