(no subject)
Our teeny tiny backyard was a place that had some weird kind of grass growing in tiny patches along with weeds. The rest of the area was clay which when you dig up, you get the remnants from during the construction times. While we were gone to India, N got the land evened out, some soil put and a nice lawn laid. The place still needs a lot of work, work that is in progress.
Since the time I have got back, I have been thinking of putting some flowering plants that would attract bees. I thought that would be my little contribution to save the declining population of bees. I see a couple of plants along our usual walk way that attracts a lot of bees and i am always thrilled to see that.
But I haven’t been able to zero down on a location and I am also fearful for Arnav. The backyard does not get a lot of sunlight and I would ideally love to put the flowering plants in the front and to the side of the house, most of which is occupied by other existing plants. I kept going back and forth on things and instead of flowering plants that attract bees, I landed up planting a small vegetable garden in a tiny area that gets not much of sunlight.
I got started pretty late in the season - early July and it would be a trial to see how things come up given the various aspects. I tilled the land a bit, mixed in some cow manure and organic soil. I planted about 4 tomato plants, a couple of pepper plants of various varieties, some mint, some sorrel leaves, Carribean thyme and yellow squash. Of these, I did not luck out much with the yellow squash. Within about 2 weeks, the plant had some white spots on the leaves and it was gone.
The mint has been coming up pretty well. It has caught some roots and I felt that it was also spreading a bit. My understanding is that, it comes up every year thicker and better than the previous years.
The thyme plant, I especially got it for medicinal purposes for Arnav. This plant is supposed to be very good in curing a cold. The leaves are steamed and the juice is extracted by squeezing the leaves. Then a couple of honey drops are added to make it more edible for the kids and voila, the medicine is ready to be consumed. Arnav likes it and so do I.
The sorrel leaves, I am not sure of what I could possible do with so little of it. I was told that they would give out some seeds before the plant dries out and I am hoping that I get enough for me to plant some for the next year and hopefully get a better crop. Dals and chutneys made with these leaves turn out yum and so does chicken.
The peppers that are currently growing, I am not so crazy about. I think since I started out pretty late in the season, I had to make do with whatever varieties were available. I got a couple of various varieties that were high on the spice scale but I figured that these peppers had a strong flavor that was changing the taste of the Indian food. So next year, I will hunt for Thai pepper plants.
The best part, the tomatoes. The instructions on the plants said that they were start to fruit 75 days after I repotted / planted them. When I read that, I thought that it would be too late and maybe the plants would die of the cold before they would ever have any tomatoes. I was wrong. Not only did they fruit within 35-40 days, I now have about 6-7 huge green tomatoes, almost on the verge of ripening any day now. I also have a couple of tinier ones coming up. I am very pleased with this outcome. Next year, I plan to begin early, maybe March/April and enjoy my veggie garden much better.
The Tusi (Basil?) and Shanku Pushpi seeds that i got from India, came up pretty good and i was mighty pleased. Wasn't sure of they would last long in this weather. Must see how they hold up during the winter.
