And finally a "before and after" happens !

 "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."
Mahatma Gandhi

I'm so glad I learnt to dig the earth and tend to the soil, all because my Granny and then my Mum didn't forget to... I owe my passion for gardening and growing vegetables to both of these wonderfully awesome women !

And today I'm so excited, I'm able to do a before and after with my new " LGP, my little green patch"

Of this 9'/40' space, I've been able to use only the length along the compound wall. I've been able to make four beds of about 3'/7'. And that's where almost all of my vegetables are growing. And then I have the narrow ledge along the wall, where I've housed my pots and containers. The length alongside the house cannot be used as the ground there is very hard and full of stones and building rubble. I have to yet clear it up, level it and probably pave it to use it for my potted vegetables and as a space to sit when I have my workshops. I have a limited budget this time too and am making do with available resources. Though we shifted here in mid January, I began work in my LGP, only in March after my vacations started. It's been a slow and steady progress because, apart from the first time when I got two guys to help dig, I have done everything on my own. One bed at a time... Two months later, and lashing rains and bandicoot attacks apart, I am more than proud to showcase my new LGP ! I have been harvesting loads from my volunteer A & T patch and quite a bit from my pots and containers, but from my ground patch, it's just been a few greens here and a couple of vegetables there till now. I am yet to see big harvests, as most of the plants are in the growing stage and quite a few that I have just planted/sowed... My ground patch is in the growing stage and I have all the patience to wait...


And now, let me allow the pictures to do the rest of the talking...

Before... View from the backyardOf this 9'/40' space, I've been able to use only the length along the compound wall. I've been able to make four beds of about 3'/7'. And that's where almost all of my vegetables are growing. And then I have the narrow ledge along the wall, where I've housed my pots and containers.

 Before... View from the front

 After !
Two months later...

Today's bunch of tomatoes...!

 Can't stop feeling blessed...

The first of the bhendis/okra/ladies finger in my ground garden !!

Yipeeeee !! The first of the bhendis/okra/ladies finger in my ground garden !!

And what a wonderful sight they make...!! More so, because they survived a lashing from some rogue rains as little seedlings in trays, then survived being uprooted by bandicoots and re planted twice and then another lashing by some heavy rains as semi adults last week... These two plants are part of a small bunch that survived from a huge group of about 22 seedlings that I had planted. I was hoping, with so many plants, I could get a decent enough number of bhendis from one harvest. But, it was not to be so... Anyways, I am more than happy with what I am going to get from these few plants that have survived all odds and are growing well. At least as of now... And I have just sown some more seeds directly in the places where I lost the other bhendi plants...

Pardon me for repeating ad nauseam, but I just can't help it... my LGP in it's new avatar is teaching me so many lessons, apart from the most important one of patience and not losing hope... I'm sure all of you fellow-gardeners would agree with me on this... And then, the most I can do is, submit myself and be a willing student to the best teacher of all times- nature

Bhuvan and his methi-in-a-bottle...

Bhuvan, my buddy, posing mighty proudly with his methi in a recycled plastic bottle.

6.00 am and Bhuvan is in my patch, ready to help me water, take out weeds, dig up new beds, add the kitchen waste to the compost pot, collect dry leaves or even harvest amaranth or tomatoes... He took just two visits to learn the names of and identify all the vegetables and herbs growing in my patch. And many a times, when he brings along a new friend, it is fun to stand away and watch him happily introduce his guest to the vegetable...

Many of the seeds that he has helped me sow, have germinated and are growing very well. But this little bottle of methi is his own ! He cleaned and cut up the bottle, borrowed some soil and compost from me, some methi seeds from his Amma's masala dabba, and sowed them all on his own. A couple of days later when they germinated and pushed their little determined selves out of the soil, that morning, he ran to me shouting in excitement... "Aunty ! Aunty ! Look !! My methi has germinated !!!" And now, he brings his methi-in-a bottle to me every morning to acknowledge the growth. And I don't forget to appreciate both, his effort and the tenacity with which these few methi seeds are growing. This morning, Bhuvan insisted I taste one of the methi micro-greens and said... "Aunty, it may be a bit bitter, but it is very good for health ! You should eat them everyday, it will be very good for your health !" I was touched by his concern for me and his excitement and didn't let out the fact that there was a time, I was harvesting loads and loads of micro-greens and having them all day, for breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea-time and dinner. But I went along with his excitement, appreciated his concern and promised him I'd begin growing more methi and having some micro-greens everyday... :D 

And folks, he's also taking his methi-in-a-bottle all around the neighbourhood, showing it off to his friends, with the hope that more kids would join him in his fledgling green journey. I feel blessed to have him as a friend and to see him sincerely and excitedly go about with the first steps of his green journey, his little effort to do something for the earth...  

There always is a silver lining...

Rain, beautiful rain... When it comes, it always comes with two sides... Along with the cool cool rain yesterday evening, came a new problem. Looks like it's testing time for us gardeners...

It rained heavily for a while. As the rain lashed against the plants, it also flooded my patch. I lost loads of my newly growing palak, coriander, lettuce, beet and moolangi seedlings. The rain also brought down quite a few of my young capsicum and bean plants and toppled down many stakes that I'd newly erected.

The land in my patch is very uneven and water collects in many places. I tried making a few moats here and there and that helped some of the water drain towards a bush. Some relief there.

But the reassuring fact is that a lot of my older and more mature plants in the pots and the ground are intact ! And my A&T patch is not harmed at all ! That's a fair balance I suppose... There's always a silver lining


And this morning, though I had to harvest my methi as young greens with a heavy heart (I lost fives times the amount of methi harvested !), what brought a smile to my face and cheered me up is... the fact that there were no traces of the bandicoots visit. And apart from the methi, I harvested a few of my ever-faithful tomatoes and a couple of limes. The tomatoes featured in these pictures are from yesterday's and today's harvests.

At times, I really wonder what I am being blessed for. For my A&T patch is being so generous to me, that I just can't thank it enough... I keep arranging and rearranging my harvests, especially my A&T harvests and taking pictures, hoping that is a fitting enough tribute to their magnanimity... Right now I am not just feeling blessed but am revelling in the ethereally beautiful magic my garden is cloaking me with... Folks, time to feel like the most beautiful person in the world..!

Tomato harvest with Bhuvan !

This morning Bhuvan was in my garden by 6.30 as always !

We had planned to clean up the amaranthus and tomato volunteer patch and that's what we did. We had spotted a few ripe tomatoes last evening and decided to harvest them this morning. Got a basketful of lovely red tomatoes of all sizes. We were very happy and danced an excited gig ! Later whilst clearing up the patch of old amaranthus and weeds, we found many more ripe one and quite a few green tomatoes too, that had already fallen off from the plants.

And folks, guess what we discovered. Not a single plant disturbed and not a single pot messed up in my LGP... And here, in my A&T patch, we found a couple of tomatoes that were slightly gnawed and a mound of freshly turned earth. That's when I connected the two... Ah man ! The bandicoots have finally discovered.

I don't know whether I am happy or sad... But in a way it's a relief. I don't mind losing a couple of tomatoes here and there, because there are plenty of tomatoes. My LGP is safe till the bandits are distracted with the tomatoes. After than, I'm not sure what will happen. And well, I really don't want to worry about that. I have learned to live in the moment. And right now I'm happy with the situation...

 

 Bhuvan searching for red tomatoes...

 Cutting amaranthus seed head to save seeds...

The first batch of tomatoes we harvested...

 The final collection !

A look at what the bandicoots have left me...

“It takes courage to be happy, you know-even when you keep moving. It takes guts to accept things as they really are and not blame life for being what it is.”
Martha Woodroof

The bandicoots sure have done a lot of damage, but at the same time they have still left quite a bit for me... That's because the loss in the ground garden has been less in comparison to the loss in my pots, bottles and containers on the wall. 

I tried to give the bandicoots one last chance last night and sealed every inlet or hole that I could find and was up till 3.00 am...! I finally slept with the reassurance that they were completely blocked from coming in. But when I stepped into my LGP early in the morning, I saw one well grown and now flowering brinjal plant uprooted from the pot and fallen out ! It's beyond my imagination, how they must have sneaked in...!!!

But thankfully it was just one plant ! Near to no damage in comparison to the earlier attacks...

A look at what the bandicoots have left me...

 If you ignore what the bandicoots have damaged, my garden still looks so lush and beautiful...

 The beans and gourds and cucumbers have all taken off very well.

 And it is a joy to see them clambering onto the coconut frond-stakes I've erected for them.

 They do make a pretty sight ! The climbers as well as the fronds...

 It's a joy to watch new life in my garden...

 The first batch of bhendi/okra/ladies finger I transplanted are doing well and giving me the first few lovely bhendis...

 And some beautiful blooms !

 The new bhendis that I directly sowed into the ground too are coming up pretty well.

 And finally, it is so exciting to see brinjals growing in my garden... Must bow to these brinjal plants. The bandicoots keep uprooting them and I keep transplanting them... And except for one that didn't recover, all the other five plants are doing well. Touch wood and fingers crossed my dear folks...

 Lost an entire patch of methi of about 3'/1' ! But, this is how lush the methi that the bandicoots left for me is growing...!

 A variety of beans happily clambering onto another kind of stake that I fashioned out of the coconut stalks or trusses that hold the coconuts.

A patch of coriander that germinated recently. Growing coriander in the ground after long. Hope they grow well...

 Colocasia doing really well. Right now, I have two plants and hoping to add more after the bandicoot problem is solved. Just waiting to make "Aalu vadis"/Colocasia leaf fritters. Yummm...! I so love them !

 Moolangi that I sowed last week. Most of them have germinated. I am growing them more for the lovely refreshing greens, for I don't expect moolangis to really form in this heat. But then if a few do form, that would be a deliciously fantastic bonus !

Lost a whole bunch of ten well formed cluster bean plants to the bandicoots. These are the latest batch that I sowed directly. They seem to be doing well as of now. Hope I am able to solve the bandicoot problem soon, so they survive...

 Bush beans that I sowed directly in the ground...

 Another variety of beans that I transplanted, taking off to a beautiful start...

 The first of the bush beans !!

 Newly transplanted capsicum plants making an admirable attempt at settling down. My well grown and just-begun-to-fruit capcisum plants were the first that fell victim to the bandicoot attacks and I ended up losing twelve precious plants ! But I still have hope with these new beauties...

 The only pea pod that I was able to harvest from my eight pea plants growing very well in a trough. They were growing much better than the ones in the ground and were in full bloom. But alas, they had to all die. The bandicoots ravaged them beyond recognition. And this little pod was hanging on for dear life...

 The bandicoots destroyed a few of the ground peas and I have a few remaining to make me smile...

 The bandicoots did not spare my seedlings trays ! I lost most of the seedlings and here is one gritty seedling that managed to survive...

 One set of bean seedlings that the bandits spared and which need to be transplanted soon...

 Lost about five bearing chilliplants. Two survived the transplant, have flowered and are sporting a few chillies too...

 Aah hah...! Here's the lone capsicum survivor, from a set of eight that were growing in containers. I have just transplanted it recently, trimmed it today and am hoping it survives...

Mint doing really well in the summer sun...!

 Lost one strawberry plant to the workers who flicked it, one to the bandicoots and I have two surviving. I am a bit doubtful about the survival of one and this other has chosen to flower now...

 Lost six cabbage plants that were growing well. What I have left with me, is this one that grew out of the old stump...

 The bandicoots got three out of six parsley pots...

 Marigolds adding their cheerful charm to my garden...

Bhuvan my best friend, comes every morning without fail to help me in my garden. Here, her is watering the brinjal plant that I re-planted just this morning after the bandicoot pullet it out of the pot... We are both hoping it survives...

Sheetal and Pavith, my niece and nephew from B'luru, trying their hand at watering my garden...