Hello friends, how are you? What are you growing in this season? But I think most of you are facing a lot of difficulties to take care of your garden because most of you are facing scarcity of fertilizer due to nationwide (or worldwide?) lockdown. Somebody may need to buy pesticide or fungicide. Somebody may badly need multivitamins for their plants. So during this situation what is your story of homegrown vegetables?
I have also facing scarcity of fertilizer. But somehow I am managing it by using kitchen wastage like rice boiled water and composts of fruits & vegetables peels. I think almost everybody is facing difficulties but still they are managing and maintaining their garden.
Though I have small amount of mustard cake, horn meal, bone dust & chemical fertilizer in my inventory but those are not enough for next 3 or 4 weeks because I have almost 140 pots/containers along with a few plants grown on ground. Till last week, I was using chemical fertilizer only to flowering plants but from this week, I am using that to all of my plants because I have very small amount of organic fertilizers.
I am also using rice boiled water and store it for a few days and apply to my plants.
Okay, this was my struggle to maintain my garden during lockdown period. I believe that you are also struggling and trying to find an alternative way to keep your plants healthy & happy. So now let’s have have a tour of my rooftop kitchen garden
Homegrown vegetables April ’20
Brinjal/eggplant
I have 6 brinjal/eggplant plants in my rooftop garden. All of those are 4-5 months old and producing enough brinjals for us. There are 3 types of brinjals in my kitchen garden. These plants are heavy feeder plants, so it needs regular fertilizer. I apply liquid fertilizer per week to those plants.
Yummy brinjal/eggplant based dishes: Bengali style lamba begun bhaja, Beguni (Brinjal fritters), Yummy baingan curry, North Indian style spicy Baingan bharta (mashed roasted brinjal/eggplant), Bengali style begun pora
Okra/bhindi/lady’s finger
This is a popular summer vegetable in India. People make various okra based popular dishes like bhindi masala, achari bhindi, bhindi stir fry, boiled okra etc. I grew 12 plants in this season. But one plant died and now I have only 11 plants. & of those plants already started producing okra. It provides approx 25-30 okra per week. I hope I will get more okra when other 4 plants will start producing okra.
Chillies
Chilli is such a plant what every newbie want to grow in his garden. It is an important spice in every Indian kitchen. Without adding chilli, we simply can not imagine a dish. Is this not true? So guys, you also have a few chilli plants in your garden. Right? I also have approx 12 chilli plants and all those are 4-5 months old. But unfortunately only 2-3 plants are producing chillies that too not enough for us. This is such a plant what always made me unhappy. I tried to grow chilli several times. But this plant is very disease prone. I am working on it and apply various pesticides, I hope in the next month I will be able to show my chilli plants with plenty of chillies.
Long beans/borboti/lobia
I am growing long beans for the first time. When I was a child I saw long beans plant in our backyard but that was two decades ago. I can not even remember properly. So I can say it is my first time and I am growing it for experience. I hope still I will get good amount of long beans because many people said it is very easy to grow. I am growing those plants in plastic bags. I have 6 plants in 5 bags. These plants are almost 6 weeks old. It is being 7-8 weeks passed after I sowed those seeds. These plants already started flowering.
Bottle gours/lauki/lau
Did you ever grow bottle gourd in container/pot/bag? It sounds something impossible but yes, you can expect 4-5 bottle gourds from your plant if you have used 14 inch size pot or even bigger pot. I am growing one plant in pot and it already produced 4 medium size bottle gourds and one more is about to harvest. Yessss!!!
Malabar spinach
Maccher raja rui aar shaaker raja pui. It is a popular words in West Bengal. It means rui (rohu) is the king of all fishes and pui (malabar spinach) is the king of all leafy vegetables. Malabar spinach is a very popular leafy vegetable not just in West Bengal but also in Bangladesh. I do not know how people like this malabar spinach in other parts of the country. I sowed many seeds of malabar spinach and a few germinated too. I collected 3 plants and repotted those. One of those is 1 month old and other two are 10 days old.
Tomatoes
Last winter I grew 5 tomato plants and each one produced plenty of tomatoes. Almost every week I harvested approx 1 kg of tomatoes. I never expected that. So this season, I have also sowed seeds and then repotted 5 healthy plants in separate grow bags. If those are really summer tomato plants then I will definitely get a good amount of fruits. In this season I am also applying very little amount of chemical fertilizer because I am facing scarcity of organic fertilizer.
Bitter gourd/karela
Another amazing summer vegetable is bitter gourd (karela). As its name suggests that it is really bitter in taste but it contains various nutritional values. Many western people even did not see this vegetable. But most Indian people like this vegetable despite of its bitter taste. I love to eat various bitter gourd vegetable based dishes like boiled bitter gourd, karela stir fry, karela pakoda etc. I planted two plants in grow bag, one of those plants already started flowering. I will also sow a few more seeds because 4 karela plants will be perfect for my family.
Try these: Crispy karela pakoda, Bitter gourd fry recipes
Cucumber/kheera
I have two cucumber plants. Those are just two weeks old. So it will take time to start producing fruits. I will also grow two more cucumber vines in this month. Cucumber is most essential fruits for summer days. It is used to make various salads & other dishes. It contains a good amount of water that is why it is an excellent fruit for summer season.
For cucumber lovers: Cucumber mint raita, Cucumber lemon mint water, Bitter cucumber salad, Perfect cucumber tomato salad, Easy cucumber salad, Refreshing cucumber lemonade
Homegrown fruits April 2020
Star fruits/karambola/kamranga
A few months back I bought this plant. I planted this plant in plastic bucket and withing two months it started flowering. So I crossed my fingers and waiting for juicy, sweet & sour star fruits. I used to add only organic fertilizer till last week but from this week, I am applying chemical fertilizer too. I did not notice any pests, insects etc on this plant. So still waiting and I will definitely so if I get fruit from this star fruit tree.
Pomegranate/anar/dalim
I have three one year old pomegranate plants which I grew from seeds. We ate a lot of pomegranate fruits during winter and stored all wastage in a broken pot. I found a few seedlings there. It is said that pomegranate tree produced fruit after 1.5-2 years. So I did not uproot those, rather I repotted those in separate pots. I hope from the next season I will get a few fruit from those plants. All of those plants are grown organically, no chemical fertilizers are applied till this week.
Pineapple
I have only one pineapple plant what I planted last year July 2019. I are a pineapple bought from the local market. It was so sweet, so I cut the crown and removed leaves from the bottom and kept it within 1 inch depth water in a small bowl. I replaced its water every one or two days. After 25-30 days I saw a few roots coming out from that crown. Then I planted it in a pot with organic potting mix.
Watermelon
Last year, I sowed a few watermelon seeds and then successfully germinated a few seedlings. Those seedlings were rapid grower and produced one fruit from each of the seven watermelon vines. I was so happy that is why I kept a few seeds from one homegrown watermelon fruit. Though last year I grew 7 watermelon vines in the same plastic bag. But this year I did not the same mistake. So I am growing one vine in one pot. 4 pots are dedicated where after 3 weeks I am sowing seeds in every pot so that I can get a continuous supply of watermelons.
Watermelon based drinks: Delicious watermelon ice cream, Refreshing watermelon mocktail, Watermelon mojito smoothie drinks
Lemon/Nimbu/Pati lebu
I also have a small lemon tree grown in my rooftop kitchen garden. You can see a few fruits hanging on the tree. I bought this tree in 2019 and within 4-5 months I am about to get 6-7 lemons from this tree.
Apart from those homegrown vegetables & fruits, I have also bottle gourd plants, pumpkin plant, ash gourd plant, guava trees, Indian fig (dumur/anjeer), drumstick tree, banana plants, mango plant and lemon plant in our yard garden.
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