Another beautiful step in my new green journey...

March 9
Another beautiful step in my new green journey...

Yesterday, early morning, I was back at "Suman Sangam" the organic forest farm of Dr. Sanjeev Kulkarni to pick up my three bags of compost. I had for company, my ever-faithful auto driver Girish, who's taken a keen interest in growing organic vegetables and a new friend Raghunandan. Raghu is a Medical student, who lives in our neighbourhood and apart from joining my hubby in restoring an uncle's single seater Tiger cub aircraft, is very interested in helping out with my LGP.

It was a undoubtedly a memorable little trip. Even though I've been here a number of time and even conducted camps and workshops here, each visit is filled with wonderment and the curiosity is as fresh as the first time I visited this amazing farm, seven years back. Before we reached the composting section of the farm, I took Girish and Raghu on a tour of the farm. We had fun feasting our eyes on the green bounty, watching in awe the myriad spring trees having turned copper, wonder-struck to see the litchi tree laden with tiny young litchis and the avocado trees bursting with fruit, admiring the variety of vegetables growing so lush, basking in the morning sunlight and gorging on juicy golden star fruits...
And then we finally landed up at the composting section. We were happy to be greeted by Kallappa the hard-working farm hand, who was proud to show off their rich and beautiful vermi compost. I was awed at the sight of this black treasure for the umpteenth time and Girish and Raghu couldn't have enough of feeling and admiring this gorgeous miracle... Three bags of priceless vermi compost at six rupees per kg, and we were reluctantly ready to leave...
Back home, at around three o clock, the two gardeners, Basavaraj and Siddhu turned up as promised. We dug up the long portion on one side of my LGP, removed all the large stones, broke down the hard lumps of soil and watered the stretch. We decided to let the beds settle for a day and then mix the compost. As we were setting aside the implements, it began to drizzle and within moments it was a downpour that did not take a respite till early this morning... The wind blew crazily and brought branches of neighbouring trees into out compound, leaves were flying all over and water began to collect all around within minutes... That reminded me of the time we lived on the farm and used to get marooned in the house with rain water all around.

It was somewhere around 1.30 am that I remembered, the seedling trays had been shifted towards the outer wall. I dashed out and quite naturally found most of the beet, carrot, cluster beans, ladies finger, cabbage, cauliflower, and turnip seedlings in a bad condition. I think it's only the yard long bean seedlings that survived the lashing rain. There's nothing I can do now but sow more seeds and be extra cautious. And about the beds, I can just wait for the sun to come out and dry out the beds a bit, before I begin on the next step... Thankfully, the moment we decided to mix the compost later, I moved the compost bags to the sheltered side of the house and they are safe.

No rain and we complain... Less rain and we complain... come rain and we complain... more rain and we complain... I'm sure that's why the rain Gods have decided to completely ignore our moods and have some fun with the rain as they teach us a good lesson... just hope we fatted humans do learn something and value what we're getting from nature...

Looking forward to continuing my green journey, one enthusiastic step at a time, whilst I gear up with some necessary arrangements to protect my LGP from such erratic rains and at the same time to enjoy the benefits of what the seasons gift me...

"Suman Sangam, Kaadu tootha"/Suman Sangam- Forest farm...

 Taking the auto to the composting site after our tour of the farm...

 

 Dr. Sanjeev Kulkarni, leading us to the composting site yesterday...

 One of the composting pits

 Dr. showing of the beautiful vermi compost

 Treasure !! 

 Kallappa filling up the bags...

 Showing off the star wormies from the other vermi composting beds !!!! 

 Almost done...

 Heading back...

 Landed in front of my new LGP ! 

 Basavaraj and Siddhu... 

 

This morning !!!

A peek at what my yard is gifting me...

 The volunteer amaranthus and tomato patch on one side of the kitchen.


A peek at what my yard is gifting me...


The amaranthus after one harvest is growing back with a stronger resolve and larger leaves and quite a few new ones have sprung up too. The tomatoes are growing like wild-fire and most of them are sporting buds and a few flowers. I have quite a few manthakaali/Black nightshade plants growing in between the amaranthus and tomato.

The palak I transplanted around the huge curry leaf stump has taken off and is sporting huge lush green leaves. I've had three rounds of harvests already and it looks like I'll get a few rounds more before it begins to bolt. The credit for the lovely growth of my palak goes to the earth of course and then to one round of "Bokashi juice" that I added. Yes, I was also one of the chosen persons to be gifted the smart "EcoBin" by our OTG magician, Vijay Satish ! More about the EcoBin in another post dedicated solely to it. For I have just begun using the bin and am yet to experience the benefits to a full extent. That apart, there's loads of punarnava soppu too sprawling in and around the palak.

Tomorrow and day-after-tomorrow will see me and my folks painting the meshed LGP and Sunday we will begin work on the beds in the LGP area and the real sowing and planting will finally happen. Yipeee, the new place seems to have inspired my folks too to pitch in and get involved hands on.
Aaah haah ! This sure is bliss...

 On the other side, towards the backyard.

 Manthakaali... 

Punarnava, that I use in daal...

A little update on my now Large Green Patch...

A little update on what's happening with my green journey at the new place...
Phew and double phew !! The mesh work is finally done ! I'm so glad we had to spend only on a portion of the mesh and the fabricators charges. Most of the metal was sourced from Mum's old school building. I'm obviously as excited as can be. For, that was one long wait... Right now I have just shifted all my plants into the meshed area and next weekend I'll begin on the beds. The new space has now provided me with quite a few options. Beds on the ground is of course the best one I could have got. There is the ledge on the compound wall and then there is the mesh itself, from which I can hang a lot of containers/pots. I can now do both ground and vertical gardening. But of course, it's going to be a slow and steady progress. Luckily for me, I've had hundred percent success with the seeds I had sown. I have transplanted a few sweet peas and most of the other seedlings should be ready for transplanting by next weekend.

Now about the interesting friends I've made/am making. Bhuva n, a Std VI kid, stays right in front of our house and he's the first friend I made. Or rather all of us made. He had come with Rohan (My utterly lovable nature trail mate) the landlord's grandson and fell in love with Disco. He began getting his friends one by one to meet Disco. He has also taken a keen interest in my plants and gardening and comes everyday to check on my plants and find out if I've done anything new in the garden. Bhuvan's inherent inquisitiveness has helped and now, he rattles off the names of all the vegetables and herbs growing in my patch. If there's a new friend he's brought along, it's a treat to watch him go about showcasing the plants and showing off his skills with their names...

He and his friend Chinmay , helped me sow many seeds last week and now they are waiting for the transplanting time. They want to come and help. And then, Rohan and Chinmay, their other friend too are waiting for exams to get over, so they can join in the gardening fun.

Well, it's not just these kids who are eagerly waiting to get their hands dirty... I have a couple of my past students from one of my schools Baala Balaga, who are rubbing their hands impatiently for their college exams to get over too and be here digging and sowing and planting and making seed bombs, helping with gardening workshops and brainstorming some interesting guerrilla gardening ideas for Dharwad.

 The entrance to the meshed portion, my new LGP

 Just made a start with my hanging pot that has Alternanthera/Hongone soppu growing...

 A jasmine (Zai in Marathi) trailed onto one portion of the mesh at the entrance.

 Bhuvan and Prasanna admiring the Hibiscus Acetosella...

 Checking out the Lemon Basil...

 Prasanna loved the fragrance...

 Fascinated by the capsicum plants.

 Amused by the little ones that I removed, to allow the yet young plants grow better.

 They had never seen garlic plants. And quite liked the theory of growing garlic, onions, marigolds and herbs between vegetables as pest repellants/trap crops...

 Counting the chillies...

By the way, this is my old chilli stump that got a new lease to life after shifting here. The new plants have just begun to flower.

 They were totally awed by the cabbage shoot on the old stump !

 And look at that shoot. The leaves are curling in... It seems to be thinking- "Shall I, or shall I not form into a cabbage..."

 Rosemary sure did attract them...

 Identifying the Moolangis that are forming...

 Coriander, just putting out their first set of teeny weeny true leaves...

 Taking a closer look at the recently transplanted sweet pea plants...

I'm happy to be finally growing peas after a long long time in my garden. Because of lack of space, I didn't grow them in my earlier LGP. The last time I grew them was in 1996 in my balcony garden while in B'luru.

 Ah ! Lettuce seeds again... 

 Chakotta/Bathua/Chenopodium album seeds forming.

 My marigolds are blooming again ! Three varieties... 

 Lemon basil, throwing up seeds.

 More Moolangis... 

 And which special variety of plant is this ??

 Ah, it's Disco, come a visiting...

Seems to have found something interesting...