some greens or should I say, leafy veggies

Hi,

Sorry, I broke all my new year resolutions- fertilizing my plants regularly, watching out for pests, posting updates regularly and all that.

What with something or the other cropping up, I just had enough energy to make sure that my plants don't die on me. Still lost a few this year :(

But, in spite of an irregular regimen and less sunlight, (now that my terrace has been covered with a corrugated sheet), some of my plants hung on and seemed to be telling me, "Hey, don't give up, we are there for you!"

To keep my perennials company, I sowed some veggies seeds and now have something to be happy about :)

Over to my new plants :))

Malabar spinach

Malabar spinach is extremely easy to grow.I grew it first from cuttings bought as the vegetable and then got my own seeds from those plants. 

Cook it as a dry sabji with besan or make fritters

Also called पूई (pui) in hindi, मयाळू (mayalu) in marathi

Spinach/ palak

Spinach/ पालक (hindi) grows very well in winter and in shade on my terrace, here it is mixed up with some other greens- green amaranth

I had planted mint in the same pot as I did not have a pot ready, thought I will remove the mint when it roots well; but the palak took over too fast.

Red amaranth

लाल साग (Lal saag) in hindi, लाल  माठ (lal math) in Marathi.

These plants have loads of nutrients available to them from the soil. I started filling the pot with kitchen waste + newspaper, topped it with some soil and sprinkled the seeds.

One month later the leaves are ready for harvest and the compost should be ready too!

Stir fried with potato and onion, yummy!

Will I have the will to harvest when it is time?(pun intended)

Happy Gardening!

harvesting turmeric

Hi,

I had just finished transplanting some tomato plants and was about to clean up when I decided to take the plunge and empty the turmeric pot. The plant had been showing signs of drying up even with regular watering. So in went my spade to loosen the soil. Well, I was not very careless as no gardener ever gives up hope.
The dried plant came out in my hands with all the gingers attached to it. I gave out a whoop, and couldn't contain myself at seeing the turmeric; certainly my kids did not understand why their mother was looking at a clump of dirt with such joy.
The rhizomes were cleaned and weighed at the local grocery shop. The owner was wondering what a customer wanted to do with HIS weighing machine! The lengths we go to....!

haldi harvest 2013

Over a 100g; that was the quantity I got after washing. It is not a very big lot, but when I consider that I got it from a shallow 8 inch pot with no regular regimen of fertilizing and the leaves being perpetually attacked by caterpillars it is a good harvest.




I made an instant pickle out of this using lemon juice. That's another dish which gave double satisfaction of having grown the raw material on my own terrace.

 The stub of the plant with one root attached went back into the same pot after refreshing the soil with cow dung and cocosoil. The soil had become compacted hence I added some cocosoil.
Another year to go for the next turmeric harvest!

happy new year

Yes yes, I know..
Its been almost one month since the new year started, but for my garden, the year started late.
I cleared out many overgrown and straggly plants, mostly thai basil and holy basil. I did not have the heart to remove them when they were seedlings, hence had to pay the price of them taking over my rose pots.
I have saved my rose plants, I think. Till I see new growth, I am never sure whether I have managed to kill my plants. Hope the day soon comes when I can be confident about transplanting roses...
I sowed some seeds - Tomato (marmanade and st. pierre), capsicum (chocolate), bird's eye chilli; all seeds from geekgardener/ garden guru. Good germination, though the peppers were slower. I also sowed a hybrid brinjal variety from amar seeds, picture on the cover showed a long green and white brinjal
I have now transplanted them into suitable containers and hope to get a good harvest. :-)
For that I will  need to follow a more disciplined schedule of fertilizing and maintaining my plants.
That reminds me of my new year resolution for 2013. This year I propose to make resolutions which I am decently able to keep, foremost being to fertilize every fortnight, not to allow stray plants, mulch and keep posting.
Sounds like a tall order..
Only time will tell..
A few pics of my prized possessions- their status keeps changing...

Rosemary, yet to be used in any specific dish, has a lovely smell and taste, can be munched on whenever in the garden

Thai basil, one of the strays which was saved and planted into its own home

tomatoes, which variety? probably wild

brinjal, this was supposed to be white variety
however I get pale green fruits frm this plant. I also have another plant which was supposed to be long purple, however, I get very small ones. I am not complaining though, that plant is a veteran of my kitchen garden for at least six - eight months - giving at least 4-5 brinjals at each harvest

capsicum, will turn yellow when ripe if I can hang on till then

rajnigandha, the double whorled variety. this is comparatively less fragrant than the single one,

the gandhraj/ cape jasmine flowered for the first time, now I understand why some ladies wear this flower in their hair even when it has turned yellow; it has a heady fragrance;  the flower was on the plant for a week when it turned from white to yellow






and finally the exotic (in my garden) red amaryllis lily which is flowering now

amaryllis lily with my garden protector- the spider

On that beautiful note, I take leave of my blog till my next post
Happy gardening!