Life is in the home garden and happiness is in harvesting homegrown vegetables & fruits. The vegetable market can feed your family. But your homegrown vegetables & fruits can feed your soul. The taste of homegrown vegetables is far better than the vegetables which are bought from the local market. But in case you restrain yourself to grow on food because you think it is hard and you will do a lot of mistakes then you should know that the wise man said that there are no gardening mistakes only experiments. Here is a list of easy home garden vegetables & fruits that I am growing in June 2020.
A few years back, people used to say that gardening is just a hobby. But today many people believe that it is a necessity. If a person has the opportunity to develop a garden in the backyard or on the rooftop then he should start it today. It is said that people should be self-sufficient in food as well as wastage management.
Homegrown vegetables & fruits for self sufficiency
Brinjal / eggplant / Baingan
I had a goal that I would be self-sufficient on all vegetables I need throughout the year. If it is not possible then I would produce atleast 70% of vegetables that I need for us. I planted 6 seedlings last winter and in this summer season, those plants produced plenty of vegetables. I did not even buy brinjal for almost two & a half months. But last month, this region encountered with a super cyclone Amphan and that cyclone badly affected my plants. So after that, those plants were taking time to recover. Now all my plants look healthy, so I hope I will get more brinjals in future.
Bitter gourd / Karela
Two types of plants were not affected seriously by the cyclone, one is okra (lady’s finger) and another one is bitter gourd plants. All my matured bitter gourd vines were perfectly okay. Now you can see the growth of my three karela plants. Every week those plants are producing approx 8-10 bitter gourds which are enough for my family. So I can say I am self-sufficient on my bitter gourd.
Cucumber / Kheera
My cucumber plants were seriously affected by the super cyclone. But still, those produced 8-9 fruits in last 4 weeks even after that cyclone. Now sowed a few more plants and those are growing now. I have also planted a few new seedlings. Actually, I sowed a few seeds and after a week now those seeds are germinated.
Okra / Lady’s finger / Bhindi
I am super happy with the performance of my okra plants. Those plants are continuously supplying okra/bhindi for last three months. I planted a few more plants for coming days till the winter come. From my experience, 4-5 plants are enough per person in a family. One healthy plant can produce 3-4 okra per week.
Yardlong beans / borboti
I am growing yardlong beans for the first time in the container. I thought that these plants will climb and spread a huge area. But I was wrong. because only one plant climbed 8-9 feet. But other plants hardly reached 4 feet height. I do not why this happened. Is it because of the variety of the plant? or was the size of the container not enough for this plant? But still, those plants are producing a handful of yardlong beans after every alternate day.
Leafy vegetables
Leafy vegetables are important for our health. So we should include a few greens in our diet. This season I am growing malabar spinach / Pui (Poi) and water spinach. Both are very easy to grow. I am growing all those in containers. So in case, you think that it is not possible then I am sorry because you will never believe unless you try it at your garden. I am growing malabar spinach just in 3 pots and that was enough for a small family to make pui ghonto two or three times in a month. You can also try pui pakoda too.
Chillies
chilli plants are essential in every garden and most new gardeners start their gardening journey from chilli plants. But I believe it is very difficult to grow chilli plants in the garden because these plants are very prone to insects/pest attack. So regular pesticide application is needed. Otherwise, you should not grow these plants. The condition of my chilli plants is very poor because I could apply pesticide for 2-3 weeks due to super cyclone and lockdown (due to Coronavirus pandemic).
Herbs
Herbs are essential plants to grow in a container garden because you can grow those in small containers too. This summer season, I am growing pudina/mint, summer Coriander (bilati dhania), brahmi, gotu kola, kadi patta, Neem. All those herbs need very little care. Pudina, kadi patta etc are regularly used in various dishes. I love gotu kola juices, so I am growing gotu kola (thankuni in Bengali)/ Indian pennywort in the container since 2018.
Fruits
I am growing a few fruit plants these are pomegranate, star fruit and lemon. I have three pomegranate plants that I grew from seeds. All fruiting trees are producing fruits for the first time in my garden. So I hope next year I will get a good amount of fruits.
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