Coriander after a long time

"A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them."- Liberty Hyde Bailey

In my child hood days, we had a small garden which my parents maintained.My dad is the main sower and what ever he sows literally flourishes. I remember a huge coriander patch from those days whose smell still lingers in my thoughts.I recall loads of chillies and brinjals hanging in the plants. I am trying to recreate the same scenario in our garden but boy, it is difficult.Now I understand how much my parents cared for the plants that they flourished so much.

Last year,I tried many times to grow coriander and every time it failed. I had tried sowing in the pots and in the ground and using various seeds sourced from different vendors and each one of those attempts ended in vain.Most of the seeds never took life.. Only one or two seeds would sprout and grow and when they are mature we would never have the heart to pluck them and so we'll let them to seed.

I figured the main problem in my failed attempts is the quality of the seeds. My father used to use the coriander seeds directly from the kitchen cupboard and I followed his method. Maybe it is because nowadays most of the vendors sell processed dhaniya/coriander seeds to last longer. After so many attempts,I finally resorted to buy coriander from a dedicated seed vendor - the ones which cannot be used in kitchen and should be used only in the garden.

Mix of corinader,palak,carrot,beetroot seeds

This time I prepared three pots and did not sow just coriander alone.I mixed few palak/spinach, carrot,fennel, beetroot seeds as well and sowed them in early January. Against our odds at luck,this time almost all the seeds sprouted. 

Then came the watering woes.As the micro greens were very thin legged and ready to fall over even at the slightest of a disturbance,we had to follow a strict watering process ...just a sprinkling of a handful of water in an angle such that the roots were not disturbed. We water early in the morning and the pots were kept in the shade most of the days.

This is the current state.

Palak peeping out in between the coriander sprouts

Another look at palak

Beetroot's true leaves coming out

Still there is a long way to go to get them to maturity and we are very determined to get them there as long as the plants co-operate :)..Our plan is that the coriander will mature within 20 days, so once they are harvested there will be plenty of space for palak and beetroot to grow. And we do not expect any beetroot tubers-we would be happy to get only their healthy purple leaves.It is such a relish and very hard to come by.

Fingers crossed.

Bean Marathon

Looks like our avarakai plants are running the great Marathon.The harvesting that started in late November is still growing strong and we are harvesting the pods every single day compared to our twice a week harvests. It is a great joy to see the bean pods completely covering the plant and waiting for us there. Especially the purple color gives the patch an exclusive look. I am not simply exaggerating things here..here is a picture to prove my saying.

Thats over 3 kilograms of beans harvested in four days..And here is a look at the plant.

It is very pleasing to know that organic farming works and yields high too.. We also have the green avarakais just starting so expecting the harvests to last till late February. All smiles :).

Mums are at it again

This year too our chrysanthemums have put on a great show. Out of the three plants that we initially brought home only two survived. The purple one had always been a healthy plant and did not have any fuss growing and proliferating. But the yellow one had many problems to overcome..first the mealy bugs which infested it top to bottom. The bugs never budged for any of our organic insecticides & sprays and so as the last attempt we cut the entire plant off leaving only a 2 inch long stem. When the plant started re-growing there came our vacation time and it had to face a drought and again succumbed. But from September on,we gave very good care for the plant and so it had come up to the same league as the purple one.Also the heavy rains in December helped them a lot I should day. 

The lane where the plants are hosted have certainly become colorful and one good thing in growing chrysanthemums is that the flowers last in the plant a lot longer compared to any other flowering plants. Its been a month since they started flowering and not one withered so far and they have continued to keep its vibrant color tact. These flowers certainly add a lot of value to our morning walks through the garden.

Here are a few pics for the gallery.

The Pongal harvest

Earlier last year I had posted about planting turmeric in our garden. The planting was planned so that we could harvest the mature rhizomes during Pongal festival. Well last week was Pongal day and so it was time to check what the plant had produced. 

All these six months the turmeric plant had always surprised and stunned us in its luxurious growth and vigour. So we were expecting a good harvest and we were not disappointed at all. In fact we were overjoyed for having produced such superior quality rhizomes and reasonable quantity from one single plant. Apart from the initial manure added in the pit, we did not add any additional fertilizer and the only thing we did is to ensure that it was always watered. 

All goes to show that a good seed definitely produces a good harvest. Having had such good harvest I did not want the rhizomes to go wasted.Normally we do not use the rhizomes as such in our household.So I pestered my mom to allow me to make them into turmeric powder. I knew the process but the general feeling was 'why go for all the trouble for such small quantity'. But my argument to have this as a trial run won over and so I started the process of powdering the rhizomes based on information I had gathered from the various organic food related websites.

The steps are as follows:

1.Clean the rhizomes thoroughly

2. Boil the rhizomes in hot water for over atleast 45-60 mins

3. Cool down and cut the rhizomes into small pieces

4. Dry the pieces in direct sun till they are completely dry and then grind them using a mixer until they become a very fine powder.

It took us over 4-5 days to get all the steps done and finally after 4-5 runs in the mixie here is the (completely organic) turmeric powder we achieved.

It had a very strong aroma (the entire house was filled in its divine smell) .. and on our trial attempt just a small pinch was enough to flavor the curry. Now we are all inspired and have already planted four bulbs from the harvest batch for the upcoming year. 

Wish you all a very happy new year 2016..

Last month went just very fast and with my data card not working I was not able to blog as much as I wished to. So here is a picture post recalling the month December ... and boy am I proud to display the harvests we did last month. I was overjoyed to see most of our hard work giving fruits .. Lets just say it was an absolutely good decision to start gardening at the time we did.

So over to the harvest photos..

Had around a kilogram of Purple avarakais.. only a sample here for the pic

Sadly thats not the case for the ridge guards..we had just one from the plant..only one.. problem was the heavy rain and no pollination

A Half dozen snake guards.. 

Steady supply of fresh mint

Around a dozen guavas

A few ladies fingers and mithi paavakais

A bunch of manathakkali(black nightshade berries).. This is a relish that is hard to by in the rainy season.. blessed to have them in the garden

So thats how our year ended in the garden ..here's hoping to a good new year with great harvests.. Happy gardening.