Monday, March 22, 2010

Fresh and Green

We live in a neighborhood where all residents have a small green patch around the house. Most of us happen to be interested in a kitchen garden as well. We sometimes share our produce with neighbors and friends like olden days. We've already got some raw bananas, banana flower, white raddish, a bagful of tomatoes from couple of our neighbors - both the ripe and the green variety. I particularly love the green tomatoes which are rare to come by in the market. We've got some papayas as well - again the raw and ripe variety. Raw papaya is also not found commonly in the market and we love making subzi out of it. Our own chillies and tomatoes have just started bearing fruit and the papayas are becoming fatter. We harvested Methi leaves, pudina, the red keerai, manathakkali, some avarakkai (flat bean variety) and brinjal.

While on this, if you are interested in organic fruits and vegetables, do visit this site. We've been ordering one box a month from here which typically lasts us a week or so.

I owe our garden to my MIL and her green thumb (touch wood!) who single handedly plants, waters, tends, cares and toils, out there, come sun or rain. She's going to be away for a month - the plants will miss her immensely I'm sure! But I'm going to make a sincere attempt to care for them... atleast enough to maintain it the way it is right now - I hope that’s not too ambitious...

10 comments:

Jayashree said...

You have red keerai in your garden??? That's my absolute favourite. I love gardens, but don't have space for it, where I live.

Momo's Ma said...

hey, is it a garden or seems more like a farm to me.wow.lucky you to have such space. while we make do with some potted plants in a quasi balcony..sigh...

Uma said...

Jayashree - Really? We had loads of it the first time around and distributed it to the whole neighborhood! Will send some across to you next time around... just waiting for the next batch of seeds from Kerala.

Momo's Ma - :) the space is quite small. Like I said, my MIL makes sure to turn practically every inch of soil green...

Swapna Raghu Sanand said...

That's really awesome. I am one of those unfortunate people who can't grasp the ABC of gardening but I sure wish I could, particularly after reading this post.

Lavanya Sriram said...

I am so jealous of you :) while i donno ABC of gardening, i have also wished to do some had I my own space :(. lucky you :)..
Atleast i can try if I had some space.. but no chance for that as well :(

The Print Lover said...

I love these home utility gardens. Post a pic if thats ok..

rrmom said...

I would love to spend as much time in the garden but wasn't able to. My resolution this summer is to grow a good produce in my backyard.

Uma said...

Swapna - I'm still an armchair gardener and my MIL is the one who works hard... It takes passion...really!

Lavanya - there are people who manage a nice little kitchen garden even in apartments - for instance, pudina, methi, corriander, keerai, tomatoes, brinjal - all of these can be grown in pots. Here are some links: http://www.bharatestates.com/blog/index.php/tips-on-kitchen-garden-in-apartments/
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/kitchen/5-inspiring-kitchen-gardens-for-small-spaces-roundup-110463

TPL - Will definitely do...

rrmom - Go for it... and do share tips. I can say one thing for sure (given my limited experience) - Gardening is therapeutic!

Asha said...

OMG uma, u are living in a paradise. I;m visualising the garden.The place where i lived before was a colony belonging to a group of people working in an international org. they had huge lawns but all they had planted were crotons and ornamental flowers but it is something to have your own kitchen garden. well, have a great time caring for your garden this summer.

Uma said...

Asha - living in Chennai and to have a patch of green, I should consider myself lucky! Hope to keep it green this summer...lets see...