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...
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...
Love the way you treat your garden and plants. infant care ,lots of love , freedom and adulation. The key ingredients in garnering growth in any life form. Refreshing read.
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