Cate’s Green Thumb: Sophomore Cate Gallagher’s intrigue in gardening has made a positive impact on her personal life and others

Then-seventh grader Cate Gallagher’s dad, Ed Gallagher, told her he found something out of the ordinary — one of the Gallagher family’s avocado pits had grown a sprout out of the top of the pit.

Cate rushed to find a pot and placed the pit inside. While Cate had been introduced to the art of gardening through plants scattered around her house, she had never been as captivated by them as her plant-loving parents — until this avocado pit.

Her fascination grew and now-sophomore Cate has a four-foot tall avocado tree along with new additions of lemon trees, raspberry and kiwi sprouts and snake plants — a pointy green-and-white striped plant. Although the avocado tree is still young and hasn’t borne fruit yet, Cate is still fascinated with the phenomenon.

“After [watching the avocado tree grow I] realized, ‘Whoa, I can grow stuff out of nothing,’” Cate said. “It was so cool, and I just started getting into it.”

Cate’s mom, Lori Gallagher, isn’t surprised by her sudden interest in gardening — in fact, Cate’s gardening roots might go down deeper than she remembers.

“When [Cate] was really little, she always [had] a dream of being fully sustainable,” Lori said. “She would always do experiments in the yard, trying out different plants and growing things from seeds, [and] she has always tried to [grow her own food].”

But Cate isn’t your standard gardener working long hours outside in the sweltering sun and tending to her plants — she prefers to grow her plants in her living room and bedroom where she can keep an eye on them. 

“[My house] has a really bright, south-facing window in my dining room, so me and my dad built a little stand to rest under the center of the window,” Cate said. “That’s where I’ll put like any new plants if I’m growing stuff from seeds. Once plants get bigger, [I] put them wherever they fit around my house — my lemon trees in my room and [the rest are] scattered throughout the house.”

Cate learned her lesson with produce planted in the ground. She tried to grow radishes in a pot to keep the plant away from the swarms of squirrels, but when she went to try her freshly harvested radishes, she tasted nothing but wood.

“They did not taste anything like radishes,” Cate said. “I think it was because I tried to grow them in a tiny pot, but that was definitely a learning experience.” 

Through trial and error, Cate has learned what works best for her. Every Saturday morning, after sorting through her laundry, Cate cues an episode of the podcasts “Every Little Thing” or “Side Door,” sometimes calling her grandparents before heading straight to her plants to tend to them and keep them healthy. She replaces the water and monitors the health of each of her propagated plants in their red clay pots.

If 13-year-old Cate spotted the slightest sign of wilting, she’d drench the sick plant in a whole watering can’s worth of water. But over two years later, Cate knows better. She keeps her plants on a routine schedule each Saturday, freeing up time in the week for her other activities — Freelancer, International Club, Youth Group and occasional dance classes. 

“It adds routine to my life that I like,” Cate said. “It’s fun to look at each plant and say, ‘Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve repotted you.’ Sometimes they’ll just go through spells of being sick, and I have to make sure they get light every once in a while, so I’ll have to move it to the south window.”

Although Cate hasn’t grown enough produce to sell, she’s grown gifts for friends and family like sugar snap peas and snake plants.

“I will just cut [some of the snake plants] and within a few months, it’ll be its own plant,” Cate said. “It’s a little way to share a hobby in a positive way.”

Whether it’s replacing the water inside the pot of a plant or gifting her aunt with a snake plant last Christmas, Cate adores the magic of growing plants from essentially nothing.

“I would say a lot of people [think], ‘Oh, I can never grow plants,’ or ‘I don’t have a green thumb,’  but I think it is all completely just how much time you put into it,” Cate said. “I don’t think anyone has a green thumb or [doesn’t have] a green thumb. It’s just a matter of how much you care. You can just try cutting off a little node and sticking it in water and seeing if you could grow something because it’s just a surgical process.”