In progress

Let me post some information on the currently growing crops and herbs.

The tomatoes have picked up the pace of fruiting now and every other day we find new fruits peeping out.

The 'trial' french bean plant has formed nice and shapely pods. This is the first time we are growing organic french beans at home. I do not know about the other varieties but this french bush bean variety has produced pods within a month of germination. That is REALLY fast and quite suitable for a household like us.

We have already picked the pods as it is important to pick the beans when they are tender. Once a pod reaches full maturity it is suggested that the plants stop producing any more pods since it has attained its goal .ie. a successful reproduction.

Having met such a success in a very short time, now we have sown the next set of bean seeds in two containers and they have germinated too. So as per calculations in approximately a month we might have a bountiful french bean harvest.

I had earlier posted about planting new Mint cuttings. The newly planted cuttings have taken very well to the soil and showing good promises in terms of new leaves.

Now to the not-so good news. Our cucumber plant was thriving until it formed the first fruit. After that the plant stopped producing anymore flowers and this small fruit also seems to have stopped the growth. I had a very careful inspection of the plant and they are no pests in the leaves or near the roots. The soil is well watered and drained and provided with compost often.

We have to wait and see how things turn up .. whether it withers or thrives is up to Almighty now.But I hope they dont become yet another one-fruit casualty.

New Beginnings

It is time to plant the next set of veggies for the upcoming season. We have planned to grow tomatoes,brinjals(eggplants), two varieties of beans (french and broad) and a few other short term plants. The main criteria used for the selection of vegetables is this : simple and easy organic gardening.

When growing the plants directly in the land, the only thing required is to sow the seeds and take care of watering the spot regularly.But when it comes to container gardening, most of the times the seeds directly sown in big containers do not take life. The main reason could be water logging, since the saplings will be very small and the roots will get drenched and drowned if over watered. Too little water and the plant dies. Hence it is preferable to get the seeds germinated in small pots and then once it grows to a height suitable for the big container, then transplant it.

So over the last few weeks, we took this task to completion. The first step to ensure good harvests is to solarize the potting soil by leaving the soil spread in the terrace(or wherever possible) exposed to sun for at least a week.We had a tub of home made compost that was just about done and ready to be mixed with the soil.This compost too was let to dry for the full week along with the potting soil.

Compost 'cooked' to perfection

On the other hand,we had the saplings growing in small boxes(mostly the small curd tubs) in the front yard. The potting mix used for germination was coco-peat+vermi compost mix.

The germination happened very quick since we had the ideal climate. The saplings were then checked often to ensure they had even moisture.


Once the soil solarization was complete, the compost was mixed with the potting soil and then filled in the selected containers. They were watered well and left overnight to let the soil cool down completely. 

The next morning, we took the saplings to the terrace and placed them in their new home.

As you can see, the saplings have grown well and it is time to take them out of their small home.The technique is to gently tap the sides of the box and pull the saplings out.They would come out as a whole along with the soil as if they are glued together.Then put them in a plate and separate them into individual plants.

My mom is the mastermind behind the planning and planting(evidently as seen in most of the pictures).I merely helped and executed her instructions carrying the pots and doing the mixing and such stuff. My sister and dad too spent few hours in the activity whenever possible.

Apart from the joy of growing, it was splendid to have spent a passionate time with my mom and family doing the things we all love to do.

Now all that we have to do is wait for the plants to conquer their new home and reproduce well.

Carrots and Radish

Our attempt at growing radishes met with moderate success this time.

Look who is peeping..

Just recently we harvested a bunch of radishes which were of various sizes, two of them being very sturdy and stout compared to others.

The seeds used were from the local market. For the third attempt I think we most probably will acquire seeds from the town seed shop and use it, aiming for a better harvest. But still compared to our first batch, this one should be considered 'anything is better than nothing'.

An aerial view of the radish leaves..

While radishes were still elusive to us in terms of good harvest, we struck gold in our first attempt at growing carrots. As anyone who had grown a carrot says, it is very easy to grow them provided the soil used is very rich and loose and sandy.

1 month old carrot plants

We grew our carrots in a small plastic container.As this is our first ever time, we did not want to take risks by planting them in big containers and leaving chances for over/under watering effects or fertilization problems. As a result of using a small container, the carrots were also very small in size,yet suitable as a snack now and then.

The moment of truth

It can't get any fresher than this

We are picking the carrots as and when we feel like it ; there are still a bunch left to be harvested. Unlike the carrots available in shops, the home grown ones are definitely sweeter and certainly the freshest. It is yet to be experimented whether carrots grow year round in our hot climate(especially during the upcoming summer days).But we are determined to try our best!

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P.S : I had scheduled this blog post to be published this Tuesday. Meanwhile we had already harvested the entire batch and had it as a nice evening time snack this weekend. The plants are already 2.5 months old and we did not want to leave it to any chances like our onion harvest.