Last year, it was three plants from six, that survived a bandicoot attack and went ahead to grow lush and wild all over the mesh roof. Harvest times were a plenty and loads of fun ! For, apart from the loads of beans we'd collect from inside the meshed portion, we used to clamber up onto the mesh roof to harvest the ones that the monkeys had left for us. And those too would be close to thirty/forty in number ! On an average, we were harvesting about two hundred beans per week ! And that was one time, I was extremely happy with my ability to gift produce from my patch...
If yard-long bean seed sowing happened in the first week of April last year, this time I sowed them in the first week of February. Bandicoot attacks notwithstanding, I have taken a more determined stand this year, to sow, plant and grow more ! And that is already showing results. Even after quite a few bandicoot attacks, my patch looks pretty lush and full. I even upped my risk-taking streak and have sowed some yard-long beans in bandicoot-land, aka the backyard. Touch wood ! All the five seeds germinated, survived the bandicoots, grew well, have happily begun training their slender elegant selves onto the rope trellis I fashioned for them and yipeeee, they have even begun fruiting !!
If the backyard is bandicoot-land, it is also a picnic-spot for the hordes of monkeys of this locality. They visit regularly to feast on the chikoos from our tree and the mangoes on the neighbours tree. And since they've discovered my vegetable patch last year, they keep coming in search of fresh organic vegetables to gorge on... How can I forget the huge amounts of yard-long beans, snake gourds, cucumbers and lima beans that I shared with them. Well, the first of the yard-long beans is visible and very soon, there will be many more making their presence felt... for, the creepers are sporting a profusion of pretty flowers and dainty buds. It is for me to wait and see how much I end up sharing with them monkeys, this time...
Apart from this spot in the backyard, I have about six more yard-long bean creepers growing on two separate trellises towards the front of the house. Unfortunately, they get very little direct sunlight and have to make do with mostly filtered/indirect sunlight. So quite naturally, even though they were planted at the same time as the ones from the backyard, they are a bit slow in comparison. That's fine with me. But what I'm more keen on observing is, the effect of sunlight on the produce. I'm sure there is going to be a marked difference in both the quantity of yield and the quality of the beans too. So much to observe and learn from our gardens, right folks ?
No comments:
Post a Comment