Kehte hai agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho...

“Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho ... to puri kainath usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai”

I, so wanted to use this filmy, kitschy, yet beautiful dialogue somewhere, and finally found a second chance...! I'd like to interpret this version with Ralph Waldo's original... “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” The universe conspired ever-so-beautifully, to make the first edition of my "Little green patch" in the previous balconies possible... and now it is at it's conspiring best once again with the second edition of my "Little green patch" in this home. The passion and determination has definitely been worth it ! For, despite a whole new set of limitations and monkeys and bandicoots, my patch has emerged a survivor ! Over the past year, it has regaled me no end, provided a stupendous feast for the sense, been my trust-worthy soul mate, healed me in innumerable ways, and most of all showered on me a selfless abundance of produce in it's own inimitable way... As always, no amount of thanks can ever measure up to the grace, love and magnanimity of my patch. And all I can do is try my best to capture the indomitably heroic spirit of my patch and present it in the best way, or rather the only way I can...

This of course, is just the tip of the iceberg and I have a long long way to go... But then, that's the challenge ! And folks, I'm sure you'd agree with me... what's life without a challenge, a dare...? Right ?

Haan hum shukhraguzaar hain... kyon ki puri kainath ne hamari hari manzil ko humse milaneki koshish ki hain... Manzil abhi ek hadh tak mil gayi hain, par picture abhi baaki hain mere doston...

Just outside my meshed ground patch, to the left. This corner houses my two composting (earthen) pots and a host of plants. On the wall ledge and the red shelf, there's garlic chives, sweet marjoram, some basil, Indian borage/doddapatre, scented geranium, some alternanthera greens/hongone soppu and loads of spring onion...

This is the mesh to the right of the entrance to my ground patch. This mesh sports alternanthera greens/hongone soppu growing in profusion out of small plastic containers. (That you can hook to the mesh) There's also some palak and spring onions in similar containers, There are a few curry leaf saplings waiting to be transplanted, and a few ornamental creepers, (Rangoon creeper/Madhumalati, zai/jasmine/jaji mallige and yellow black-eyed-susan) just taking off...

A close up of my alternanthera greens/hongone soppu tumbling all over the mesh in an aesthetic riot. I have these greens growing in these small containers since the past year-and-a-half. They are growing in a simple medium or equal proportions of soil and compost with a wee bit of neem cake powder. Since the time I planted them as cuttings to now, I have added compost to them only once. I trim the tips once every fortnight or so, for the greens and they grow back ever-so-quickly. I love these greens, because they are so hardy, and absolutely easy to grow and the variegated variety adds an instantly refreshing dash of colour to the garden. They grow from cuttings and can grow in even the smallest of spaces. These greens tase yummy in daal/sambar and also in other pallyas/subzis.

Looking at the ground patch through the mesh (From the entrance)...
The jasmine is fast covering up the mesh. I am just waiting for summer to take in the delicate ethereal scent of these wispy flowers. This the the variety where the petals are a shade of light purple on the underside. I have loads of childhood memories attached to this plant. I got it last year as a cutting from a nursery and for about six months it struggled to survive in low sunlight conditions on the staircase of my previous house. It got a new lease of life after shifting it to this open space.

A look at the ground space I have. This space is to the left of the house. The house is to the left in this picture. I have four beds on the left of this space, each measuring approximately three feet by ten feet. And on the right, I have a long bed roughly measuring two feet by twenty feet and another small bed of about two feet by three feet. I started off by growing stuff in the four beds to the left and for a year they have been pretty productive and gifted me a lot of produce. Last year, the beds on the right remained stagnant. In fact, I hadn't touched the space at all.

It's only a few months back that I made the beds and edged them with bricks. But again, they remained inactive along with the other four beds too for a few months in between, because the bean/avrikayi creepers had grown wild and completely covered the mesh roof, blocking out all sunlight. It was in December that I had to very reluctantly chop off all the bean creepers and clear up the entire ground patch. It took me about a month to bring this patch back to life and from january onwards I went on a mad digging and composting and mulching and sowing and planting spree !! As always, I encountered quite a few limitations and what with about three major bandicoot attacks in between. But this time around I was all the more determined with this space. I sowed and planted so much that, despite the bandicoot attacks, the patch still looked green and lively...

A couple of weeks back, my dear OTGan friend Priya Anand, suggested I try chilli powerd for the bandicoots. And yipeeeee, it worked ! Just when I thought that was the end of my woes... the bandicoots turned out to be smarter than I thought. They somehow found a spot where I hadn't added chilli powder and dug into the patch from there... Hmmm... I had to tighten my resolve all the more now. I added more chilli powder. (This time Mum was getting worried I may end up spending a lot on khaara pudi and began coming up with ideas of buying a sackful of khara pudi in wholesale !!!) Right now, I don't see them attempting any dig out, bit I wonder how long I am going to keep buying chilli powder and then, wheat will I do when it begins to rain and the chilli powder will get wet and runny...? Well, let's see what to do, when it comes to that... Till then, let me revel in the beauty of a bandicoot-free patch till it lasts... 

A view of the four beds on the left... There's a lot growing in here !

In the foreground is bed number three, from the entrance. This bed houses a lot of bush beans that have been staked, mixed greens (Coriander, methi, red and green amaranthus, ajwain, dill and palak) beets for the greens (And any surprise beets) cauliflowers, some peas, celery and also some okra/bhendi

A look at the beds from the backyard side. You also see the wall ledge that house quite a few of my potted vegetables.

A close up of bed number three from the backyard side... The tall plant is my broccoli and you also spy one of my many turmeric plants. 

A close up of the bush bean patch in bed number three. They are a month old and have just begun sporting little beans...
Apart from bush beans grown in a patch here, I have loads bush beans growing in the other beds and in quite a few pots too. That way I am ensured of at least a decent harvest. I have also staggered the sowing so the harvests keep coming for a while and don't stop abruptly...
You also get to see the mixed greens at different stages of growth. In all the four beds, I started off with sowing mixed greens and I also keep scattering mixed greens seeds once in a fortnight. That ensures I have a green live mulch all throughout and at the same time, I keep harvesting little bunches of greens on a regular basis...

Another view of the bush bean patch, with red and green amaranthus doing very well. And my cauliflowers catching up...

The little beans have just begun to make their tender juicy presence felt...

The little beans have just begun to make their tender juicy presence felt...

This small bed (one foot by three feet) is right outside the mesh to the back. I have given in to my temptation to grow more and taken a huge risk of growing stuff outside the meshed portion. Because this is where the bandicoots come from/attack. I have lined this bed with chilli powder and for now, that has kept the bandicoots at bay. This bed houses bush beans, two beetle leaf plants that are just sporting new leaves, Indian borage/doddapatre, dill and my recently transplanted lemongrass (You see a blade of lemongrass peeping in at the top left of this frame) 

Ah ! I am more than excited to have RED amaranthus finally growing in my patch. Everytime I got red amaranthus seeds and grew them, they inevitably turned out to be either green or mixed colour. Never fully red ! This is the first time !! But I think, this is still not the real RED colour I am looking for... Ha, one can never be satisfied, right ?

Pundi soppu/Gongura/Roselle (The local variety)

More amaranthus...

Little patches of beets dotting the beds here and there...

Mixed greens...

And some more red amaranthus !!

Alternanthera greens/Hongone soppu with loads of dill/sabbasgi soppu in between...

More alternanthera/hongone soppu and dill/sabbasgi soppu...

The transplanted parsley doing well... and there's lettuce to the right. I have some lettuce plants scattered through the beds...

These hunchikk soppu/Chukka koora/sorrel greens doing well in pots outside the meshed patch. These plants have been gifting me multiple harvests since the past three months. I have more of these yummy greens growing in both the ground patch and in pots at different stages of growth. Some of the newer plants have begun to flower and very soon, I will be able savour the aesthetic beauty of the pretty flowers and then collect my own sorrel seeds !

This is a portion of bed number two (From the entrance) This bed sports my three transplanted strawberries that have thankfully settled down and growing new shoots, parsley, some celery, mixed greens, some chavalikayi/cluster beans that have just begun to shoot up, some peas, newly germinated okra/bhendi and freshly sown corn in the last row...

Some cilantro/wild coriander that was gifted by Bhuvan (From his hometown) that I recently transplanted. this one was ripped apart by the bandicoots the last time they attacked. Thankfully the roots were still intact and I planted it again with loads of hope. It survived and is growing back !

One of the strawberry plants that I transplanted from a small pot. Hoping to see my plants growing runners and multiplying...

Some mixed greens, lettuce and peas in bed number two...

The pandanus plantthat I recently transplanted to the ground...

My two year old parsley that I grew from seeds, still going strong !

Loads of spring onions still sporting fresh aromatic greens. Waiting for them to flower and enjoy the sight of the pretty pretty white flowers and then collect some seeds if possible...

My lone survivor broccoli ! A bandicoot attack way back in November, saw me losing thirteen of my newly transplanted broccoli seedlings... This one survived and is doing a great job of making up for the loss...

One of my arishina/turmeric plants. I had grown turmeric in about ten pots . Some were planted in June while some were planted in August. The ones planted earlier died down and I harvest turmeric from about three/four pots. I am yet to harvest the rest. Some of the plants from the remaining ones are on the verge of dying, while some are sporting fresh new leaves. I will wait for another month and then attempt harvests, after checking if the rhizomes are formed well enough.

One of my Turkey craw beans ! The seeds were shared by Vani Murthy and her team during their Dharwad visit last July. The seeds were originally shared by Jani Iyer, from the US. I had three seeds which I sowed in October. One out of the three seeds germinated, but since it was in a small pot, it didn't grow really well. But despite that, I was able to save ten seeds and I sowed them in the first week of January in the ground and in two large pots. All ten of tem germinated, but I lost four during one of the bandicoot attacks and I now have six of them growing well. I had staked them and I very soon need to add additional support/trellises for them to spread out and grow better. Hope to do that soon...

Stuff like this gets postponed because I do all teh gardening work on my own and don't have help. I have to call a gardener if I need additional help for work that involves more labour. But that doesn't come easily and is pretty expensive too. So, additional help is only during emergencies, like when I had to bring down the mammoth bean creepers.

The mesh at the end of the ground patch, towards the backyard...
Those are Indian borage/coleus aromaticus/doddapatre cuttings.

And that's the chilli powder repellant at the base of the mesh wall, towards the backyard. This is one of the spots that they had dug up and were tunnelling in from here, into the patch...

My plants have even crept up onto the water tank to the side of the house...

Bush beans and nasturtiums, with some grape ivy (Purely ornamental. One of my old favourites ! I love the shape of the leaves and how beautifully it tumbles all over, when kept on a height) These and a few of my vegetable plants in pots get placed indoors and add their green charm, when I have guests over...

A small patch of potted vegetables. This patch features, giant amaranthus that is now seeding, some palak, bush beans, okra/bhendi, lettuce, red amaranthus, a few yard long beans, sorrel/hunchikk soppu/chukka koora and some dill...

Another small patch of potted vegetables near the front door, with the narrow tomato patch in the background.
Here I have, corn, (That's sporting cobs) bush beans, alovera, sorrel greens/chukka koora/hunchikk soppu and some dill...

Some of my sorrel greens/hunchikk soppu/chukka koora that has begun flowering... with red (supposed to be) amaranthus in the foreground...

My potato patch near the front gate. I have about eight to ten pots of potatoes, planted about two months back. I also have loads of spring onions growing in teh same pots alongside the potatoes. The leaves on some of the plants have gradually begun wilting. I will gradually begin tapering the watering and after about three weeks I will stop watering them completely and let them stay for a week or so. Then it will be time for the great lucky dip, to see how may marbles or proper potatoes my potato patch gifts me...

I also have some corn (One coloured corn plant that survived out of two) and dill/sabbasgi soppu here.

Apart from the perky little cherry tomatoes, my tomato patch is readying itself to gift me some beautifully huge sweet and sour tomatoes. 

Apart from the perky little cherry tomatoes, my tomato patch is readying itself to gift me some beautifully huge sweet and sour tomatoes. 

Apart from the perky little cherry tomatoes, my tomato patch is readying itself to gift me some beautifully huge sweet and sour tomatoes. 

These pretty-as-a-picture verbena are adding streaks of refreshingly bright colour to my patch.
At the bottom of the frame is the (now wilting) first yellow nasturtium bloom.

These pretty-as-a-picture verbena are adding streaks of refreshingly bright colour to my patch.

These pretty-as-a-picture verbena are adding streaks of refreshingly bright colour to my patch.

Yard-long beans growing against the dry stump of an old old curry leaf tree. I have again thrown caution to the winds and taken a humungous risk by growing these and some other bean plants in the backyard, bang in the middle of Bandicoot-land !!

The volunteer amaranthus popping up in the backyard...

A variety of bean/avrikayi that I have planted in the backyard. The bandicoots are right now oblivious to the yard-long beans and this one and a ridge gourd creeper. That has emboldened me and I am hoping to take some help and clean up the backyard and try sowing/planting stuff in whatever few spots that get sunlight. I am keeping my fingers crossed and at the same time ready for what nature has in store for me with this space...

Loads of punarnava/Boerhavia diffusa (A very popular herb used in Ayurvedic medicine) just coming up around the yard-long beans patch. I use these greens in daal, once-in-a-while. Come rains and the backyard gets filled with many edible weeds. Commelina bhengalensis, sessils joyweed and punarnava are just a few to name.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
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