{"id":144,"date":"2020-11-14T12:36:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-14T12:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/?page_id=144"},"modified":"2020-11-20T08:04:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T08:04:05","slug":"my-experiences-with-gardening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/my-experiences-with-gardening\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experiences with Gardening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This page is dedicated to my gardening experiences. When the lockdown started, I had three objectives. First was to make a good vegetable garden. Second was to create a website all by myself. Third was to catch up on cooking. I am doing good on the first two objectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were lot of hiccups starting gardening. First being the space or rather lack of space in apartments. Luckily I have a wide balcony, and it has space to house a very small garden. So I thought that is what I would do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My up and coming garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next I decided to grow plants from scratch. Rather than go to a plant shop and purchase plants already grown, I wanted to experience the full range of pleasure and pain. So I procured seeds. Next was the pot. Unfortunately, though I am a civil engineer by learning, I did very badly in this area. I should have had an eye for measurements. So, I ordered the pots online. And, these arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huge pot which could hold a small baby?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, I decided to order a smaller pot. And this time made sure of measurements. However, the shop decided to change my order, and delivered these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another baby can be bathed in this…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was at my wits end. I did some more research and this time decided to order small pots. I got these, and size wise they were really good for growing seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pots with candles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The only problem being, these pots had candles inside them. Now, I am not sure if I ordered wrongly, or again it was a mistake from the company. A lot of companies are making a killing during this time, delivering items for gardening. In fact, I ordered soil. And though I ordered 10 kgs, they delivered only 2 kgs. And this happened twice. I raised a complaint, and am still waiting for 18kgs of soil to be delivered. I am sure the big pots I have, will need this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These catches apart, it was a great experience. I planted seeds, and it was really nice to see them growing. I was worried about the strong winds here, and also the harsh sun. However, the plants seem to have weathered it well so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tomato – grown from a normal tomato cut into slices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ginger – again grown from a piece of ginger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Coriander – growing without too much trouble<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ladies finger- from seeds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I actually didnt know how to seed ladies finger and cucumber properly. So I just put all the seeds inside a long pot, like the one above. However, soon, they started growing taller and there were so many of them. So, it was clear I had to repot them. I was not sure if they would survive after the experience. Cucumber roots were so flaky they kept coming apart but it was easier to repot them. Ladies finger was a different experience altogether. Some of them wilted away, but the good news is that most of them made it. It was a cool experience. I know for most people this will seem silly, but I felt that I was doing a very important thing. I discovered that plants also have life, and we need to be considerate towards them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cucumber – climber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cucumber now needs support, and I have ordered some support stuff which I hope to set up next weekend. It is growing fast and I am a bit worried if it can be contained in this small space. One strange thing I noticed is that the leaves droop a lot when sunlight directly falls on them. And once it’s shaded, it becomes straight again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also purchased some potato bags from amazon. The advantage is that for stuff that grows below the soil, like potatoes, radishes etc, it provides a way to pluck them without pulling out the entire plant. At least, it is supposed to do that. But I have a feeling it might be messy when it comes to that. Anyway, I have seeded spinach and carrot in two bags. With that, my soil stock got over. So now I need to get more soil. I am planning to grow potatoes and see what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One learning for me is that a lot of these can be grown without seeds, just by cutting a piece from the kitchen and planting the same. Ginger, tomato are examples of this. Carrot also can be grown this way. Chilli as well. I had planted chilli, but I dont think it’s coming up. Either that, or I dont know what a chilli plant looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have Jasmine and Basil as well in the garden. Jasmine is growing fast, and I think i need to prune it. It’s my favorite plant and flower, I used to have jasmines a lot at my home back in Kerala. Here also, Jasmine was my first plant, and it flowered during summer. I hope I get to see lots more of this plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jasmine – growing tall and healthy. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Basil leaf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also took various macro shots using my Canon DSLR. It was interesting to see how various leaves look like when put under the lens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coriander leaf Macro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dont know what leaf this is \ud83d\ude00<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tomato leaf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cucumber – Macro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cucumber – Macro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also did something more interesting – microgreens. These can be grown inside the house, and do not need soil. I found it difficult to believe at first. But then, I experienced. They can be made from lentils, mustard and various other kind of grainy stuff from the kitchen. I just wanted to try it out. I have captured various stages on camera. I also took some lovely macro shots. Enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Microgreen – Day 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Microgreen – Day 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Something I noticed, after I planted them, was a rose hue around the seeds. Seems like they get stressed and that’s when the rose color comes. Anyway, they have started growing leaves now. They are supposed to be very healthy, and we can use them in salads etc. It will be nice when it comes to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Microgreens – Day 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some microgreen macros below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After two weeks, I harvested the microgreens. The quantity wasn’t so much as I hoped, but I think it will do good for a salad dressing or along with grilled chicken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also took a couple of stems with the root structure intact, and planted them. Let’s see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One tragic thing that happened to my garden was that I put some fertiliser last week. Unfortunately, the quantity was too much looks like, and the plants started drying up. A couple of healthy cucumber plants fully withered away. I am regretting the mistake I did, that costed the dear plants. However, it’s a lesson and I will learn from it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This page is dedicated to my gardening experiences. When the lockdown started, I had three objectives. First was to make a good vegetable garden. Second was to create a website all by myself. Third was to catch up on cooking. I am doing good on the first two objectives. There were lot of hiccups starting … Continue reading “My Experiences with Gardening”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/144\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bijusworld.com\/MyThoughts\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}