Attack of Aphids and First Cucumber Harvest

Probably pests are the single biggest challenge any organic gardener will ever face. Pests are capable of destroying standing crops in matter of days. I got first hand taste of in the past few weeks.

My first encounter with pest in my garden was in form Aphids.

Aphids they were, first in very little numbers attacking my hibiscus plants.


While I was still at it trying to find a non-chemical organic answer to them, their attention turned to my cucumber plants. In matter of days lot of my tiny cucumber were eaten up (sucked??) by the aphids.


They were all over the place, attacking the flowers buds as soon as they started to show up.


But finally I found answer ( may be non-organic but home based)

That's mixing a liter of water in roughly 1 tbs detergent powder and edible oil (normal refine) and spraying it on the plant. Not sure if this was organic. Next time i will try with neem oil.

But I must admit it was a pain to flush out the pests by spraying this mix on each affected part. I wonder what organic options would a farmer doing farming in acres of land have against these pests.

Finally all is well that ends well. I harvested the first cucumber. It tasted yummy, the crunchiest i have tasted in a long time :) And what a journey it was from those tiny seeds to seedlings to now these tiny cucumbers and then to my family's tummy... all in just 2 month's time.
Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Few Updates from the Garden

It's been close to 2 month's now since I started working on my garden. Feels like the time just flew by, I would have loved to get more stuff done by now but few things didn't work out as expected.

In my over eagerness to start work in the garden I overlooked few things and paid a price for it. As mentioned in my earlier posts, almost 2 feet of red soil was filled in the garden. Soon after the soil filling I had done few seed starting and li'l seedlings of them were doing well. There were few downpours after that, which made me realize, the soil filling wasn't enough as there was water logging in the garden. So, more soil had to be filled. More soil, meant an untimely burial for the few tiny plants which had grown by then :(. We tried to salvage few green leafy ones by transplanting them into containers, but that didn't succeed as they were not of the transplantable variety and also too small for it anyway.

Apart from that of course, there is plenty to cheer about from my garden (Or Kitchen Garden, as I like it to be).

First on the show is this papaya plant which had come home in a tiny plastic bag from a neighborhood nursery almost 40 days back. In the nursery it was there along with not less than 100 more of it's variety. In the first few days it looked very lost. But now you can say, from the look of it, it calls my home as it's own.
[caption id="attachment_88" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Papaya Plant"][/caption]

Next on the ramp are these tiny onion plants. The credit for these ones goes to my wife, because she spotted these small green shoots coming out of the tiny onions (Nati variety and not the larger ones) we had got from the market. I planted them in a small patch and look at them, they are hardly a month old. They are giving us a regular harvest :)

[caption id="attachment_87" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Onion plants"][/caption]

Next are these tomato plants, they have now been transplanted from the tiny plastic glasses in to the soil. Transplant was pretty neat, basically just cut open the plastic glass.

[caption id="attachment_89" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tomato"][/caption]

Take a closer look. I think in few more days it should start flowering.

[caption id="attachment_90" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tomato - a closer look, should start flowering soon"][/caption]

Next on the show is this cute little Pudina plant. I had got it from Department of Horticulture,Hulimavu. Already we are able to get few leaves out of it once in few days. Looks like in few more days it can meet the full time demand of a two member family. Else one more will have to be planted :)
[caption id="attachment_91" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Pudina"][/caption]

Next is something, which I had planted just as an experiment, and never quite believed it can yield. But this little plant or two are trying to prove a point here. In the healthier one, there are already signs of 4-5 peas, the weaker one has just given one healthy pea. But am inspired by this show from the peas plants and by this article by Mr. D.V.Sridharan of Good New India Fame and have now seed started quite a few of peas plant directly in the soil. Leguminous plant like pea have excellent utility as a pioneer crop (first crop in a hitherto barren land), because of their capability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Pea in a container"][/caption]

Next on the show are these cucumber plants. Seeds of cucumber, are so very frail looking that I couldn't stop myself from putting quite a few of them in the same place. They don't seem to complain even a bit about it and are enjoying the camaraderie. Some of them have taken the aerial route and trying to climb the ropes on to the wall while few others have started crawling on the elevated platform given to them by me on a network of ropes and sticks.

[caption id="attachment_93" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cucumber plants"][/caption]

Cucumber have also taught me few things I didn't knew before. There are two kind of cucumber flowers, one which start with a tiny Cucumber at their back and there ones which never fruit and just dry after a day of bloom. Take a look

[caption id="attachment_94" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="These cucumber flowers won\'t yield"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_95" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="This cucumber flower comes with yield"][/caption]

Next are these gladiolus plants, no flowers yet, but doesn't seem too far.
[caption id="attachment_98" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Gladiolus plants"][/caption]

This period of 2 month's have given me good amount of time to ruminate on what I want to do with my garden. I am now more and more inclined to keep my garden as predominantly a kitchen garden with few flowers and decorative plants in between. The taste of the harvests I have had till now and the joy one gets out of growing vegetable plants have made my resolve stronger. Here are they for your viewing pleasure.

[caption id="attachment_96" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Harvest of Palak and Onion leafs"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_97" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Harvest of Poi Saga, normally used in curry with Fish head"][/caption]

I have also realized that the red soil in my garden, (now top soil for my garden) was probably dug from somewhere deep down the earth from some construction site. I guess, as a result this soil doesn't have much of nutrient in it. So, I am supplying a fair amount of compost to it almost on a fortnightly basis. I am mostly depending on the local Gobara compost available in my neighborhood. Sometime back I had been able to get a few kgs of Vermi-Compost from DoH. One major difference I could feel among the compost from DoH and Compost Factory is texture of the compost from DoH feels very soft and soil like where as the one from Compost Factory feels very coarse and has a kind of chemical smell, not sure why. So, for the time being I have decided to rely on my instinct and avoid the compost from the Factory.

One more interesting development is, Mr. Raghu, of Agriclture Man Ecology Foundation has got in touch with me through this blog. He has offered to do a soil analysis for some fees. He also informed me of some courses which they are conducting on Organic Kitchen gardening, I may attend one of those given that the time and cost are right for me :)

Over mail Mr. Raghu was able to help me out with answer for one of the problems am facing. i.e., What can be grown in the places that doesn't get direct sunlight (Bright Shade)? Here is what he had to say about it. Hope it help many others:

"Vegetables normally do best in full sun. But since you have bright shade, but no direct sun, you could try and grow stuff that normally (in Bangalore conditions) are grown under shade net. This could be cherry tomatoes, baby corn, capsicum (bell peppers), you could also try and grow betel leaves and pepper (you'll have to provide humidity by spraying water) and the leafy green vegetables. You could also grow turmeric, ginger, galangal, etc. - all medicinal -there is quite a range!! If you want to grow ornamentals you could try coleus (colourful leaves), impatiens (flowers), and other stuff... All the best!"

BSA Hercules Duathlon 09

I participated and somehow managed to complete my first ever Duathlon yesterday. BSA Hercules Duathlon 09 also happens to be India's first event of it's kind.
There were two categories in the event, 2.5k run + 10k cycling + 2.5k run and 5k run + 20k cycling + 5k run. I participated in the latter and timed a not so satisfying 2:48:23.

Why I say not so satisfying, is because, a better timing was possible with my current level of fitenss but I did few sure shot avoidable mistakes:

1. Had a very very heavy breakfast in the morning, I could almost feel the stuff jumping around in my tummy while I was running.
2. Took lot's of water in the morning as I normally do, and didn't have have enough time gap between the water intake and the event. Reason: I woke up late, Lazy me :(
3. My bicycle brakes were not in order, once pressed they were sticking a bit to the rim of the wheel thereby slowing the pace. Overlooked the problem and that made the ride tough over long distance.
4. I had checked pressure in the wheels on friday evening, the tyres were a bit flat on sunday morning (Is there a small leak ??).
[caption id="attachment_80" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="First 5k lap of Duathlon"][/caption]
Few things beyond my control also contributed to my bad timing, there was a little bit of pain in my left knee at the start of race. Probably that was because of my 10k+ ride to drop my MTB at the track and trail store(koramangala) the previous evening. Guess i should have done it on Friday itself and took proper rest on the pre-race day.

Otherwise the event was just superbly managed. Bought back fond memories of school days when I used to ride to school 5-6 kms each way. Also bought back memories of a cycle expedition which we (Swodeep, Rajshekhar, Kamesh and me) had taken to Akhandalamani temple from Swodeep's native. That was right after the 10th CBSE exams, may be this is the longest distance I have cycled after that.

Will get a certificate and medal for this effort :)

Cycling was part of daily life right since class 5th till I completed graduation. Sometimes it was mundane and had to be done and sometimes it meant freedom to go to places one wanted to go in a small town like Puri. One could actually cover the periphery of the whole town on a cycle in less than an hour!! Adolescent years, one always longed for a bike of own. Probably it seemed macho!! Of course sometime around class 10th time, cycling became glamorous with Aamir competing and winning the cycle race in movie 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'. The determination and struggle of Aamir, the under dog, made it very desirable to have a cycle. Then who doesn't love a story of under dog beating the fancied...

Life seems to have turned a full circle, there is now a desire to ride a cycle to all places possible, motor bike looks boring. Wish I could go round B'lore in less than an hour. Have been thinking of going to Office on my MTB for sometime now, but somehow not able to gather the courage to do the nearly 20 km ride each way. Hopefully someday I'll get rid of this fear and just do it, at least few times a week.

At the duathlon event i was bowled over by this Bianchi Spillo quarzo gent, Rakesh of Track and Trail Koramangala was kind enough to give me his Bianchi for a test ride and I just loved it. Technology involved in making a bike has evolved considerably since our school days, and am complete novice. But I have read few blogs and analysis on this hybrid bicycle and it seems to be worth it's price tag of 31,000/-. You read the price tag right!! Need to save for it :)

Sunfeast Open 10k

This was my first ever participation in an 10k event. Of course I have ran 10 kms in few RFL weekend runs before, but they are different ball game, with much less crowd and more greener environs like Cubbon park or Bellandur and mostly not on asphalt.

Unfortunately I was so tied up in so many other things I could manage only 2 days of training in last 2 month's(You can read it as a lame excuse for not training). So, there was lot self doubt. Then, this is one of the showcase events of Bangalore and possibly India 'The Sunfeast Open 10k', and I didn't want to miss it anyways.

I showed up at the Kanteerava Stadium some 40 minutes before the scheduled start time of 8:10 a.m on May 31st. There was an unmistakable buzz around the event zone right from the Cubbon Park Gate near to Jewel De Paragon. Traffic was being so directed to avoid inconvenience to the runners, there were hoardings all around congratulating and encouraging runners (The corporates don't want to miss any chance to increase their brand recall). I headed straight inside the stadium gallery via the entry gate meant for Open 10k participants 'without the timing chip'. Wow!! There were at least 2-3k participants in that gallery itself. Once inside the gallery I caught some rare glimpse of the first batch of elite runners entering the stadium and crossing the finishing line, they had started at 7:10. Time on the stadium stop watch read 29 minutes and few odd seconds !! No wonder most of the guys who finished below 30 minutes were from African countries (Ithiopia, Kenya etc...) These guys were running the last few meters inside the stadium like it were a 100m sprint.

The Open 10k started on time at 8:10, I assume (I didn't carry any time keeper with me). First to start were the ones who had taken the timing chips from the organizers. There were no audible announcements for us without timing chip wallahs, so we were still in the gallery till that time. But then, slowly the realization sunk in that there were no proper exit for entering the race track from this gallery and people had started going to the track via a small exit door which had capacity of just 2-3 people at a time and that exit gate too passed via another gallery. Talk of Indian Habit of Bottlenecks!! So, people (mainly the younger lot) started losing patience and started jumping over the fence of the gallery to reach the track. Not a good sight, I must say. It was just short of a little stampede out there, and we were lucky not to have any serious casualties. A Big area of improvement for the organizers for the next season i guess. You cannot afford to have 5k people enclosed in one area with a exit gate which allows just 2-3 people to exit at a time!!

Baring that particular aspect, the event was mostly well organized. So, yours truly managed to reach the starting line going via the proper exit at 8:18 a.m ( I checked the time from another participant) and started the run. It was pleasant weather, road mostly covered by tress. The number of participants was just overwhelming and was difficult to keep track of how many people one crossed or was crossed by. So, it was all about oneself, listening to the body, when it demands intermediate walk breaks and when it urges back to run. I tried to go by 1:1 splits of run/walk but then there was no official strategy and took it just easy, enjoying the crowd. There were plenty of water stalls on the 5k route (close to 7??), plenty more than what I have found till date in any other event, probably because of the sheer number of participants!! and there were some pretty cheerleaders too!! Seen plenty of them on the IPL, but this was the first time yours truly was on the other side :) err.... I meant being cheered, assuming they cheer the sportsmen and not the audience.

So, I ran:walked and completed the 10k run (Na, don't want to call it a marathon, I still want to complete one full marathon sometime this year). At the finish line I checked the time again from another random participant, and it was 9:38 a.m. My unofficial timing for the 10k open now is 1 hour 20 minutes not taking into account the few minutes discrepancy these two gentlemen might have adjusted their watch to accommodate their own version of IST.

Oh yes on a side note, I ran this Open 10k for CUPA which is a NGO and does very good work in the field of animal welfare. They have been an inspiration for me in adopting our doggie Zoya, more on that later. I Got a very rich goody bag from the organizers containing things like Sugar Free, small Fiama De Willis Shampoo and conditioner bottles, Mint O Fresh, Few sunfeast biscuit packets, Some capsules and tonic from some health care company (Don't remember the name of the company) and a water bottle. Am not sure if every participant got the same things. I wish the goody bag wasn't this rich, and companies had instead donated this money to charities like CUPA.

Now am looking forward to my next event i.e., the first ever duathlon in India on June 14th. I have set myself a target of completing 10k run + 20k cycling. For the time being I'll be happy to just complete it. Wish me Luck!!

Beginning of new running season...

Yesterday I started my training for the current running season. The season will end sometime in Feb10 with the Auroville Marathon, before summer of 2010 sets in. Feeling lucky to be in bangalore as the rains have already arrived here and it drizzles almost daily in the evening making it cool to do practice runs and jog.

I have shifted to a new place with no parks nearby :( and will miss Agara Lake badly, where i did most of my training of the last running season. So, I thought of exploring locations near to my new place where one can at least run 3-4 kms in one loop. A loop of 3-4 km works out well for me, as on the days when am feeling lazy I can just run one loop of 3-4 kms and if energy levels are higher I can go for 8 kms in 2 loops. Mostly, I don't run more than that in one go.

The first route I explored was the road going from kudlu village towards hosa road junction. The road is without any street lights, the only and intermittent lights were from the speeding vehicles. Most of the vehicles on this route in the evening time are from Electronics City towards the Sarjapura junction as this road helps to cut the distance between these two points almost by half in comparison to the more crowded route via Silk board and Hsr layout. Also the traffic at these hours on this road is next to nil and that prompts the drivers to speed. It can't be safe for a lone runner on an unlit road with such speeding vehicles even though I was keeping to the extreme left of the road. So, i turned back after a km or so.

Then I tried the route from Kudlu village towards Sarjapura junction, this road is relatively better lit, ran a distance of almost 1 km or so on this route before taking a left turn near the IDEB Sprinville project, this turn connects straight to Kudlu panchayat office and then to my place. Guess this loop from Kudlu village via IDEB sprinville back to my home will be close to 2.5kms, will take a correct measurement someday on bike.

Meanwhile I am looking forward to run in the Sunfeast open 10k on 31st May and participate in the BSA hercules duathlon (5K running + 20K cycling +5K running) on 14th June.

Duathlon will be my first event involving a cycle but I don't have a cycle helmet as of today. Plan to purchase one sometime next month. I have very high ambition of completing atleast one full marathon this season along with few half marathons. Best of Luck to me!!

First harvest of greens

On 25th May 09 we had the first harvest from our little kitchen garden.

The harvest was of these tiny leafy vegetables, what we call in Oriya as Kosala Saaga. I had sown the kosala seeds on 3rd of May and considering the time gap of 22 days the growth wasn't that impressive, probably the reason being the water logging that we had in the garden during the past few days and also the lack of any kind of manure/compost etc in the soil...

[caption id="attachment_64" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tiny leafy greens - First harvest from the kitchen garden"][/caption]

I was guilty of rushing through the sowing of these seeds even before the builder had completed the soil filling in the garden. The first round of soil filling was followed by plenty of rain and the soil settled a lot more than i had imagined. Hence more soil had to be filled into the garden and for the soil filling to happen, I was forced to remove these tiny leafy greens, else they would have all gone down under the soil.

Anyways, after the initial rounds of ooh and aahs we settled upon making a nice little curry out of these greens along with some potatoes and brinjals. And believe me the curry was very tasty inspite of not so impressive size of the greens. In my bro in laws words the curry was mainly of potatoes and brinjal with leafy flavour :)

In my heart I am very happy about my move from being a pure consumer to little bit of creator category. This shift means a lot to me specially after reading Mr. Sridharan's thoughts on http://goodnewsindia.com/pointreturn/online/why-is-goodnewsindia-not-being-updated/

I loved this quote from his site: Blessed is she in whom the creator and consumer are within reach of an embrance.

This man, it appears, is doing lot of good work and his site is a pleasure to read.

Visit to Dept of Horticulture & introduction of medicinal plants in KG

Working to prepare a garden from scratch is surely a lovely experience and am only a beginner in the field of gardening. So, the idea of visiting new nurseries, seed stores etc. are very inviting..

I have been greatly inspired by one blogger http://geekgardener.wordpress.com/ in his experiments with container gardening and inspired by his visit to Department of Horticulture, Hulimavu, I had made up my mind to make a visit there someday.

Finally I could make it there on May 20th (Took a day off from the work;) ).

I went there along with my mother, she is an avid plant lover (Being from the Adivasi Hinterland of Orissa has its effect), and in my heart I knew she would love to visit this place...

Department of Horticulture,Hulimavu is just few meters before the Meenakshi temple, beside the Cocunut Development Board, if one is approaching it from bannerghatta road. It's easy to miss it, as there are no big eye catching billboards or crowd, very unlike a lalbagh for example.

We made an registry entry with the security at the main entrance and he instructed us to drive down 0.5 kms down the road to the main office. Both sides of this driveway are chiku orchards and many a green houses.

I wanted to buy few seeds of few cultivars of lettuce. So, I went straight into the office and asked the officials there, for a list of available seed varieties, and he guided us to the notice board. To my amazement there were more than 200 varieties of seeds in the list, and i was hearing the names of most of them for the first time in my life.

I noted down the names of few cultivars of cherry tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and zuchinni. Most of the seed varities here are priced around Rs.5 per gm. That was really a welcome change, because by now I am used to packets of seeds from different nurseries like Nursery Men Co-operative Society in Lalbagh where they are almost heftily priced in comparison to the price here. Also in those nurseries one has no control over the quantity of seeds to buy. Mostly the packets have some x quantity in them and 90% of the seeds from these packets are of no use for a small kitchengardener like me.

Chandrakala, attends to seed purchase request at the DoH and normally, once the orders are placed, it takes half an hour for her to procure them from the seed store(clod store unit). We thought of using this time to just look around the place and that is when we came to know the actual treasure DoH has in store.

We came across one of those shaded enclosures where DoH has a collection of different varities of medicinal and aromatic plants. The collection is just awsome!! with over 40 varities of mdecinal plants available readily for purchase. We had no idea about the usefulness of so many varities of plants available there. Thankfully the attendant offered to help us with a pamplet. The pamplet clearly detailed the name and usage of different medicinal plants in both english and kannada. Overjoyed, we went on a shopping spree and here is a list of few of the plants we bought.

1. Insluin Plant - 2 leaves a day (Morning and Evening for 1 months helps control diabetes)
2. Aloe Vera -
3. Brahmi
4. Clove Basil
5. Camphor Basil
6. Chakramani (Multivitamin plant)
7. Mehendi
8. Mint
9. Balsam
10. Lemon Grass
11. Hipli (Long pepper ??)

Here is snapshot of all the plant's taking a break before they settle in their new home...

[caption id="attachment_48" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="All plants bought from DoH, Hulimavu"][/caption]

Apart from these medicinal plants we also bought
1. jasmine
2. Blood Flower
3. Sandalwood

And to my surprise each of the above plants are priced in the range of Rs. 3-6. That's unbelievable in city of B'lore.!!
With the shopping done, we happily headed home promising ourselves to return here more often.

In the meantime, here are few more pics from my garden.

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Hibiscus"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_51" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Peas seedling transplanted into container from plastic glass"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_52" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tomato seedlings"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_53" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Poi Saaga (Not sure of English name). Used in Oriya non-veg delicacies"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_55" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="gladiolus bulbs have turned into these beautiful plants in just 15 days!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_56" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The little papaya plant looks little settled now"][/caption]

I got the containers

I needed few containers which can be put up in the space which gets nice and direct sunlgiht but unfortunately covered by concrete in the form of boundary wall foundation and storm water drain. Human is always greedy for more :)
So, I was on the look out for economical containers in good numbers which can be put on these two places. I had enguired with few nurseries and at Lalbagh. The average cost for a decent size container was some where around Rs. 100/-.
I had to get them quickly, so that those can be filled with the red soil before the garden contractor from the builder side is gone. My guess was it's always going to get more difficult to get the soil filled up in the container after that.

Finally, yesterday I found the gold mine. Builder was selling off the old/used paint containers to one guy. And it so happened, I reached the right place at the right time, or so i think till now :) I bought few of those containers... Here are they seating pretty in my garden, waiting to be filled up with soil.

[caption id="attachment_41" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Containers seating pretty on the boundry foundation wall"][/caption]

I bought all of 20 pcs for 1k, not a bad bargain i guess, given that these containers are huge in size and can have fairly large plants in them. Very happy at this development. Next i'll try to get few rectangular cement pots, for putting on  the storm water drain, normally available with the road side vendors around hsr layout. They too cost around Rs. 100/- each.

Apart from these development, here is an update from my Garden. Spinach (or is it coriander ??) have started sprouting. Papaya is shedding it's bottom 2 leafs and two new leafs are coming up :) My mom is very excited about this. As kids we had a papaya plant in our front yard which use to give plenty of vegetable for her curries. She has fond memories of those. So, she insists i plant one more of papaya plant and i'll oblige soon.

The jasmine i had bought from the nursery is in full bloom. 6 gladiolus bulbs which i had bought from Lalbagh last weekend for 60 rs and out of which one was rotten have also been placed properly in front area of drawing room. In the interim 4 days I had placed them in the plastic glasses, and surprisingly today while planting them in soil I observed they already have roots.

[caption id="attachment_42" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Gladiolus Bulbs goes there"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_43" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Jasmine "][/caption]

That's it for now. More updates will follow

KitchenGardener

New Seed starting and update on last one

Last few days have taught me few lessons on patience and perseverance. Seed starting which I had initiated on 3rd May have started giving results. Some very encouraging and some disappointing.  Cucumber, Kosala Saag and Okra have done reasonably well while bitter gourd, ridge gourd and coriander are showing no signs of sprouts. Here are the pic of what succeeded.

[caption id="attachment_35" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="True leafs of cucumber - 9th day after sowing."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_36" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Okra seedlings, only 4 out of 6 germinated."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_37" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kosala Saag - So many sprouts!! :)"][/caption]

Out of what hasn't succeeded till now, bitter gourd still has a faint chance of sprouting. So, that seed bed is left untouched. Coriander seed have now been declared to be of bad quality and hence the seed bed has been allotted to spinach. Ridge gourd hasn't shows any sign of life, but we are still watering it hoping for a miracle!!

Last weekend was a action filled day for the gardener in me. I made a trip to Lalbagh, Nursery Men's Co-operative Association. It warmed my heart to see so many garden enthusiasts there, all making some purchase for their gardens. I too purchased seeds for the following vegetables: Tomato, Brinjal, Peas, Beans, Carrot, Chilli and Bell Pepper. I also bought 3 different varities of flower seeds: Petunia, gladiolus and another variety for which i don't remember the name right now. It cost me a total of Rs. 200/- of course excluding the entree fee and parking fee :)

Last weekend I also made trip to Kudlu Compost Factory. I think the job at the compost factory is definitely worth a slot in Discovery's 'Dirty Jobs' show. I bought a 25kg bag of 'Agro Rich Compost' (plain aero compost i believe) from them for just Rs. 100/-. They were very happy to get rid of it. I believe not many retail buyers go there for buying compost. They even offered free home delivery on a call. Here is there number: 5730649 in case someone needs it (They also sell vermi-compost at 120 per 20kg bag).

I have thought of doing little improvisation in the seed starting process this time. Last time i had put all the seeds on the soil in different beds. That led to problems like; few options for providing desired shade and protection from heavy sun/rain to the seeds. Also in the event of some seeds not germinating from a group like in my case it was Okra, it leaves open space in the bed making it look not so organized.

So, i decided to buy some seed starting containers. Inquired at Lalbagh and they quoted Rs.10/- for each. I require a bigger number (at least 25). So, i thought of trying out some cheaper options and settled for the normal plastic glass (Sugar Cane juice size). It cost me Rs. 40/- for 100 pieces. Let's see how this experiment works out.

I made a mix of compost and red soil in the ratio of 1:5 ratio for seed starting. Hoping it's ok. My wife labeled all the glasses (She has asked to give her full credit for it - and here it is) and we sowed seeds of all the vegetable varieties in them (Date - 10-05-09). Here is how it look finally.

[caption id="attachment_38" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Seed starting in plastic glasses (Sugar cane juice size)"][/caption]

One problem with my lawn is, it doesn't get sunlight all day and only half of it gets sunlight during the day. Also, from the half which gets sunlight, a major part is taken away by the rain water drain and the foundation of the wall (All concrete). So, i have to go for lot's of containers for my plants. I have already put the 2 10kg fevicol dabbas (Which were bought for interior work) to use. One of them now plants the jasmine, bought from a nursery some time back and other one is waiting for a plant.

With the seed starting done, i was wondering what to do with so many seeds that are stil lying with me. Some time back i read on GeekGardener's (A container gardener from bangalore) blog about seed swapping. Would be wonderful if we can get something like that going. After all each gardener would like to see all the seed with him taking the form of a plant (Even if it's not in his own place).

At this stage I'm full of dreams, dreams of lush green garden in my backyard with so many varities of vegetables in them and being self sufficient in terms of my vegetable requiement. Too big a dream for City Life ??!!

Started work on my kitchen Garden

We have shifted to our new house on 2nd of May 09. God has been kind enough, we have a private lawn with the flat. Since the time i have booked this flat, I have been waiting for this day partly because I wanted to redevelop my interest in gardening.

While the builder was putting the red soil on my lawn i fought with him to first remove the construction debris and then put soil on the lawn. In spite of all my requests there is still some cement,sand mix that is left over in my lawn. Still, I have managed to get almost 12-18 inches of clean red soil on the lawn. Little more than what other lawns in my apt have got ;)

On 3rd May 09 i have sown 5 different type of seeds in the lawn (All soaked overnight). They are Cucumber, Karela, Ridge Gourd, Kosala Saag, Coriander & Bhindi. All seeds were brought by my mother from Orissa and the vegetable vareity is li'l different the one we get here in B'lore. My mother does have a green thumb. Plant's do really well with her and she cares for them like her son/daughter.

Coriander, Kosala are sown just half inch below the surface. While other 4 are sown at least 2" below the soil. Am little apprehensive about the depth of 2". Is it too deep for the seed sprouts to come up ??

Weather God has been very kind in the last 4 days. It rains moderately in the evening while the days are sunny. I believe this is a very good weather for the plants to germinate. Water and Warm !!

Today 7th of May (4 Days after sowing) we are able to see some sprouts of Kosala Saag and one sprout of cucumber plant. Very Happy!!
Last 4 days we have all been waiting for this patiently!!

Today planted few branches of Pudina which we have got from the normal vegetable market, heard they are easy to grow. Will shift these Pudina to containers soon, they grow very bushy and given a open space will just spread to large area.

Morning I noticed few ant's on the outer ring of the area where seeds are sown, was worried if the ant's are actually eating up the seeds. Sprinkled li'l bit of turmeric powder Haldi (5-10gms) in a ring formation around the place of sowing. Hope it helps!! I am reading more and more on organic farming and am inclined to keep my Kitchen Garden organic.

Today morning been to nursery on the sarjapura road. I found the guy there to be very helpful and knowledgable got one papaya and one mallige(Jasmine) plant each costing Rs. 20/-.
Also got to know from him that Karnataka Compost Factory near to my home actually sells vermi compost for just 7-10 rupees a kg. Plan to visit them soon and get some compost for the lawn.
The other item's for which i found the price but didn't buy are:

Dwarf coconut plant:125/-
Alphonso Mango: 120/-
Medium size black color plastic container: 100/-
Organic Manure and pesticide 5kg bag: 100/- (Is it really organic ??)
Most of the other flower plants i enquired of were in the range of Rs. 25/- (Pretty reasonable i believe!! Or is it because this was my first experience of nursery)

Hello world!

My interests are Long Distance running, Swimming, Cycling and Organic Kitchen Garden. Apart from these i sometimes have views on almost anything that i come across :)