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!!