Gardener's Diary

I’m so glad to get back to this space after a long hiatus, my excuse being that I was first on holiday and then just recovering from that holiday and settling down back home J. Before I go back to sharing more about my personal gardening experiences and harvests, I wanted to share an event that I am very excited about attending. The Urban Krishi Mela is being organized in the GKVK campus at Hebbal, as a partnership between the University of Agricultural Sciences (U.A.S.) and Garden City Farmers (GCF) that is the NGO behind the Organic Terrace Gardening group…

I’m so glad to get back to this space after a long hiatus, my excuse being that I was first on holiday and then just recovering from that holiday and settling down back home J. Before I go back to sharing more about my personal gardening experiences and harvests, I wanted to share an event that I am very excited about attending. The Urban Krishi Mela is being organized in the GKVK campus at Hebbal, as a partnership between the University of Agricultural Sciences (U.A.S.) and Garden City Farmers (GCF) that is the NGO behind the Organic Terrace Gardening group…

In my foray into the world of kitchen gardening, I have undergone many eye-opening changes along the way. In the early days I would buy seeds wherever I got them, and I would still recommend this to beginners as it can get a bit overwhelming at that stage to try to search for a particular type or origin of seed. With a bit more experience under my belt, I began to realize why it is important for farmers (even small time ones like us) to opt for native or heirloom varieties. The No. 1 reason for this of course being…

In my foray into the world of kitchen gardening, I have undergone many eye-opening changes along the way. In the early days I would buy seeds wherever I got them, and I would still recommend this to beginners as it can get a bit overwhelming at that stage to try to search for a particular type or origin of seed. With a bit more experience under my belt, I began to realize why it is important for farmers (even small time ones like us) to opt for native or heirloom varieties. The No. 1 reason for this of course being…

You can make out by the name that this one is going to have to be a series You would be surprised by the number of pests and insects you might encounter even in a terrace garden. In my case I have towering trees all around my terrace, so that might be an added reason, but pests are in any case one of the biggest challenges when growing in containers. The variety of beautiful insects (not all friendly to my plants) you can find in a terrace garden in the middle of the concrete jungle really amaze me! One of…

You can make out by the name that this one is going to have to be a series You would be surprised by the number of pests and insects you might encounter even in a terrace garden. In my case I have towering trees all around my terrace, so that might be an added reason, but pests are in any case one of the biggest challenges when growing in containers. The variety of beautiful insects (not all friendly to my plants) you can find in a terrace garden in the middle of the concrete jungle really amaze me! One of…

One of my early disappointments with gardening in containers was my first lot of carrots. The leaves looked lush and amazing, but when the time for harvest came the carrots had not grown at all underneath! Unfortunately at the time I didn’t yet know that carrot leaves, like those of other root veggies like beetroot and radish, could also be used for cooking, so it all went into my compost! After a few years of gardening and quite a few such experiences along the way, I have realised the following really important tips for growing root vegetables: Sow directly: Root…

One of my early disappointments with gardening in containers was my first lot of carrots. The leaves looked lush and amazing, but when the time for harvest came the carrots had not grown at all underneath! Unfortunately at the time I didn’t yet know that carrot leaves, like those of other root veggies like beetroot and radish, could also be used for cooking, so it all went into my compost! After a few years of gardening and quite a few such experiences along the way, I have realised the following really important tips for growing root vegetables: Sow directly: Root…

You might think that gardening is a lot of hard work, and I won’t disagree with that but there can be so many pleasant surprises and unexpected results that it more than makes up for the work that we put in. Here’s one that I experienced recently: I have grown cherry tomatoes from crushed up store bought tomatoes many a time, and usually got slightly elongated looking tomatoes as a result. This is because the store bought ones were probably a hybrid variety, and so would not give rise to the identical ones in the next generation. For the first…

You might think that gardening is a lot of hard work, and I won’t disagree with that but there can be so many pleasant surprises and unexpected results that it more than makes up for the work that we put in. Here’s one that I experienced recently: I have grown cherry tomatoes from crushed up store bought tomatoes many a time, and usually got slightly elongated looking tomatoes as a result. This is because the store bought ones were probably a hybrid variety, and so would not give rise to the identical ones in the next generation. For the first…