Beating the monkeys to their game !!

This is how we beat the monkeys at their game with Alasandis...!!!

Rohan and Bhuvan anyways keep getting up onto the mesh roof almost everyday. And I join them once in a while. Despite our clambering up and gently directing back the stray branches of the Alasandi ballis and other gourds, a lot of them have crept outside and are basking gloriously in the sun.

After day-before-yesterdays bumper Alasandi harvest, this morning we decided to harvest the ones that were left on top, before the monkeys got to them. I've allowed the monkeys to eat enough already. So, wanting to have all of them beans, at least for once didn't seem selfish. And there I was, feeling literally on top of the world, with Rohan, Bhuvan and Disco cheering me on... And for all of moushi's antics, we got about twenty two Alasandis.

 Tried at first to get down on to the mesh roof from the terrace parapet, like Rohan and Bhuvan do... But abandoned the idea, as fast as I got it...

 Finally, did it my way... from the compound wall !

 Rohan's Chappal-woman !!!  Getting rid of the chappals...

 Rohan and Disco getting a ring side view... Wonder what Disco thinks of his Ma...

 And while I was at it, I got some gourd branches back inside my green patch...

 What a feeling...!!! Both, with the extra Alasandi harvest and the joy of being up there.

This morning's bumper harvest of YLBs !!

It's raining yard-long beans...!!

 My yard-long bean creepers are infested with beans... Yes, it's a severe case of infestation !! And weirdly, I am actually rubbing my hand with glee at the sight of the infestation...

My creepers are festooned with dozens and dozens of these slender and gracefully beautiful beans and I have stopped counting. What a beautiful experience it is to step into my green patch early in the morning and be greeted by this utterly beautiful sight. I just can't have enough of admiring my yard-long beans, showing them off to every visitor, savouring the tender tasty beans in various dishes and sharing them... And then. Rohan and I cannot have enough of training our lenses on this beautiful sight and trying to capture them in as best a way as possible...

Yipeee, it's time for Pencil beans...!

I am so happy to see my pencil beans coming up so lush and healthy. Touch wood !

It's about thirty five days from sowing, and now they are full of flowers and quite a few teeny weeny beans showing up here and there. I sowed about eight plants in a bed that has chavalikaayi/cluster beans and a few bhendi/ladies finger plants in the layer behind and then a row of cow peas and yard-long beans in the last tallest layer at the back. Thankfully for me I have always had hundred percent germination rate with my pencil and bush bean seeds. I buy my seeds at a small seed shop in the vegetable market that sells only naati/local/heirloom seeds, or from a local nursery.

The soil in my new green patch is good, but filled with stones and other rubble. I did have a tough time digging and softening the soil. I have added about a bag (twenty kilos) of vermi compost and about four kilos of neem cake powder to this bed that is 6'/3' in size. The pencil bean plants are in the front of the bed, forming the lowest layer.

The little seedlings took off very well and I up-cycled fallen dried coconut trusses and used them as stakes for my beans. Within weeks the plant had grown all over the stakes and were sporting lush green leaves, that were larger than my palm. A few days back, pretty little pristine white flowers began to appear and I was overjoyed. I have not added any other nutrients to the plants after the first addition of vermi compost in the soil. No sprays too. One little thing I have done is grow moolangis/radishes and beets in between as companions. Not for the vegetables, but more to act as companions and trap crops. And they are doing a very good job by sacrificing their greens. And Just like my pencil and bush beans blessed me with beautiful and bountiful harvests, even though they grew in two litre soft drink bottles and small pots/containers in my old patch, I am hoping my beans that have now grown larger and healthier, also gift me a good harvest.

I consider myself a pretty lazy gardener, when it comes to the material after-care of my plants. I do just the initial start up work and then allow nature to take hold of the reins. I literally sit back and watch nature take my plants on a ride, leading them through journeys, completely of its choice... What I can claim or boast about is, the copious doses of love that I shower on my plants and the almost filthy amount of freedom I give them, without trying to control any aspect of their growth. And the other thing I work hard at, is admiring my plants no end and making every attempt to capture their ethereal beauty through either my lens, my writing or my sketches... I can never tire of showcasing the beauty that abounds in my garden. And I can never have enough of introducing them and talking proudly of them, to my on line and off line friends... If the adage, "Thriving on love and fresh air" had to be used for anything, my garden and my vegetables would readily qualify... I'm not kidding you there ! And I think I am the luckiest person to have my garden be so magnanimous and gift me such beautiful and bountiful harvests.

And as always, I am now sitting back and waiting for my pencil bean harvest. Come harvest day, and I imagine I am in a fantasy stage production... Where, as part of scene one, I dress up especially, have some beautiful music in the background, get my cane basket out, and very beautifully harvest my slender green juicy beans with a delicate nip here and a little snip there... Moving on to scene two, I set up my basket in a pretty little green spot and capture the harvest in as best a way I can... In scene three, I excitedly post it on my blog and my dear group Organic Terrace Gardening... And finally in scene four, I rush to my garden and tell my plants about the beautiful comments of appreciation they have gotten and rejoice with them...

 Pencil beans in my old balcony garden, growing in a six inch pot...

 This one was growing in a two litre soft drink bottle...

 One of the many harvests. This is the quantity I'd get from three plants growing in two litre bottles...

 Bush beans growing in soft drink bottles, in my old balcony garden...

The first harvest of my Alasandi/Yard long beans !!

“Let your imagination take you to where you wish to be.”And I'd tweak that a bit to say, "Let your imagination create for you what you dream of."

Since the time I sowed these few Alasandi/Yard long bean seeds, I've been dreaming of Alasandi ballis/creepers winding and clambering their way all over the stakes and beautifully trailing all over my green patch in wild abandon... I dreamt of slender elegant pale green Alasandis dangling all over and brushing against my cheek as I pottered bout my patch...

A patient wait of about a month-and-a-half with close to no special care thrown in, and today, I am living my dream... It is an inexplicably beautiful feeling as I stand a watch my Alasandi ballis that are now a tumbling riot of green... Every morning, when I step into my patch, it is this wonderfully verdant sight that greets me and I am instantly transported into a magical world...

Today's post and harvest is dedicated to Rohan and Bhuvan, my sweet little gardening buddies. I have been unwell and in bed, since the past few days and it is thanks to Rohan's and Bhuvan's love and thoughtfulness that my garden is fresh and smiling and today I am feeling much better. They'd come in the mornings and water the plants and spend time with me keeping me company. Rohan even fed Disco and would leave only after ensuring I was fine enough to be by myself. If Rohan had to go for football practice in the evenings, Bhuvan would come to check on me and the garden. And yesterday night, Rohan puts uo a post on his time line- "Varsha aunty not feeling well- Feeling sad" And then he posts an album of pictures that he'd shot in my patch and adds a caption that says- "Some photos posted in place of Varsha aunty cause she is not feeling well
bla bla bla bla please get well soon. Secret-I don't like writing too much" By-the-way, he always wonders, how I write/type so much !!

Gosh ! I am so touched by their love and thoughtfulness and feeling so blessed to have sweet buddies like them.Rohan and Bhuvan, love you loads and  a wish that your interest in organic gardening keeps growing and you are able to inspire more kids like you...

 Very very excited and proud of my Alasandi ballis and the beautiful, bountiful harvest it has so magnanimously gifted me...