Herb Harvest

The very first thing we did while starting the garden was to plant some herbs. Herbs are very easy to grow and requires only very less space and minimal maintenance effort. We had grown புதினா (Pudina) called as Mint in English for many years now.Our source for growing Mint was from the Mint stem cuttings that were bought from market for cooking. Of course only the stems were planted after the leaves were removed for making chutney.

Mint plants in the ground

Some months back,while in need to make the soil more fertile we cleared the mint bushes and left only the roots behind. My parents told that the plants will regrow from these roots with the help of rain. But we did not have to wait until the rainy season.

Ready for the Pudina Chutney

The mint roots took life just from the continuous watering and we had harvested 2-3 batches of mint leaves in the last month alone.Now Mint is growing in three areas in our garden now.

Next is our recent favorite Fenugreek Leaves called as 'வெந்தயம் (Vendhayam)' in Tamil and 'Methi' in Hindi. The process of growing Fenugreek is very simple. We just have to plant the Fenugreek seeds just a few millimeters into the soil(any type of soil) and then to make sure the planted seeds were watered well.

Fenugreek just two days after germination. Fennel plant in the front.

Fenugreek leaves will be ready to harvest in just two weeks and if we leave the plant further I think we may get the flowers and seeds in another couple of weeks. But we never go to the second stage.

Fenugreek when two weeks old

On the counter, ready to be cooked

We are now hooked on to the tastes of Fenugreek leaves and so far we had tried it with Potatoes (the dish is called Aloo Methi) and with Toor Dhal (this dish is called Dhal Methi) both very tasteful and healthy indeed.

The second batch of Fenugreek leaves plucked fresh from earth

The next harvest was the Amaranths leaves (called as 'முளை  கீரை ' Mulai Keerai in Tamil). We had planted plenty of Amaranths seeds in a separate pot but they are very slow to grow. For reasons unknown it has been 30 days since planting and still the growth is just about 50%.But a very few seeds that were thrown into the rose plant's pot grew well and already harvested and eaten too :).

Amaranths in the pot

Just a few but very satisfactory harvest

Thats about the harvest for now.One final picture of the fenugreek plants .. A personal favorite snap.