Experimenting with Veggies!

The moment the 'Gardening bug' bit me I went all out in ensuring that my empty pots were filled up with plants.Doing so,I ended up duplicating one particular variety to a great extent.But for terrace gardeners,the wonderful gardening dream can come crashing down if the available space is not managed properly.And let us be realistic,every gardener wants to have the maximum variety of plants that can be accomodated in the available space.Trying to build on this idealistic dream I wanted to grow my own vegetables.And believe me people,there are many out there who are experts in 'Container Farming'.Anyways,to start with my vegeatble garden I bought the 'Lady's Finger' seeds from the local grocery store.But after directly planting these seeds in the pot I soon realized that only the fittest(barely one or two of them are fit) survived.Also the saplings which were healthy started to wilt or just refused to grow anymore.Well,without losing heart I plucked out all the remainants of the 'Lady's Finger' plant and shifted my attention to sowing 'Brinjal' seeds.Taking my grandmother's advice seriously,I have planted the seeds in a makeshift container.But I must say the waiting time until the seeds sprout is absolutely agonizing.I just hope that the sprouts start showing their faces or I'll be heading back to square one,where duplication(of the existing plants) is the best option!
    

A boon for terrace gardeners

Choosing between plants and a vacation can be daunting,especially when you want to take off from a hectic schedule.But you keep feeling guilty about leaving your beloved plants with no one to water them while you are away.Well,I constantly face the same problem too and I must say that the weather in Mumbai is never co-operative and drying of plants in the intense afternoon heat is imminent.A simple solution to this problem is to create 'Self Watering Containers'.If you google more about this concept,you will see that a number of people growing plants in pots are opting for this kind of a concept,the primary reason being that Self Watering Containers know better than us as to how much of moisture is required by the soil.I did a little bit of digging(I mean the internet) and found out that, we many a times,unknowingly over water our plants and the primary reason for this being the fact that we are not blessed with some sort of X-ray vision to look deep into our pots.Ok,let me cut the theoratical crap and get to the practical part of this concept.I have shown below a step-by-step procedure to create a Self-Watering Container.

Firstly,you'll need to gather an old 'pet' bottle,a pair of scissors,a knife,a small bag of mud and an acrylic or cotton string about half a meter long(try getting an old shoe lace).

Now,using the knife cut across the neck of the bottle and seperate the two parts.The cutting should be gauged properly so that,the cut upper-half should be deep enough.

Now,insert the tip of the knife into the cap of the bottle to make a hole,large enough for the acrylic thread to pass through.Ensure that the thread is longer on the outside of the cap.

Invert the upper half into the bottom half.If you closely observe,the upper part of the bottle forms the pot and the lower part forms the water storage facility.

Since the container has been successfully created it can be used to plant any sappling of your choice.For this fill three-fourths of the inverted upper half with mud(the newly formed pot) as shown below.

I have chosen a 'Chrysanthemum' sapling to be planted in the 'Self Watering Container' since the roots of this plant do not spread around wildly and the plant is also a rapid grower.

Make sure you pour water into the lower half such that the water doesn't touch the cap.

After a few hours you will notice that a small part of the thread that is jetting out from the upper half(from the mud) will be completely wet.This indicates that the water absorption from the facility at the bottom has started and be assured that your plants will do the rest.Make sure you change the water at the bottom from time to time to prevent growth of algae.

Voila!We have successfully created a 'Self Watering Container'.The reason this setup works is because it ensures that the plants get the right amount of water they need and hence prevents unecessary rotting of roots due to over watering.Certain studies show that plants become more susceptible to diseases mainly because of wrong watering.

So folks,that is all I have to say today,I'll come back with some more thoughts and gardening tips later.

     

Coming Back Home

I must say it feels really good to be back home after so many days.The pleasure of technically doing nothing during a vacation really brings a smile on my face,especially saying a goodbye to those wreched engineering text books ,even if, for a brief period seems amazing.But the two things that made me happy on coming home were,seeing my mom after such a long time and secondly,coming back to my garden.Ofcourse nobody can ever pamper a person better than his mother.That holding true,I must also say that,hogging into some of the most amazing gastronomical delights that mummy cooks has a feeling which is absolutely special.Now,coming back to my garden,I must say that growing plants in an apartment is really tough.In the confined space allotted to me,I have around twenty plants,consisting of a combination of roses,shoe flowers,jasmines,chrysanthemums and some lovely flower bearing plants,whose names I do not know.Nevertheless,the weird connection I share with my plants is something I can never describe.However I just cannot thank my mother enough,for she takes such good care of my plants in my absense.I have loads to write but I'll save it up for my subsequent blog posts.Remembering what my best friend always says,"Blogging is really addictive!",its me signing off.