Garden Update 2017

Its been over three months since my last blog post, honestly its been a rough roller coaster ride this growing season, the garden was battered by harsh weather and to top it my health took a toll on me for the worse when i was diagnosed with Chikungunya,the bad unpredictable weather which never seemed to cease,though the garden is reeling back slowly, i have lost count of the numerous number of saplings that have died due various reasons since the beginning of June ,Its heart wrenching !!!Because before the growing season begun, I had a plan in mind as to how the garden should look, what all i plan to grow etc etc... but alas things did not go the way i wanted to and had planned :(( .... So far the only plants that gave me a decent harvest this season were the yard beans both red & green.

Flowers continue to rule the potted garden, beating all the odds,minimal care and zero pest issues they are a treat to watch and not to forget they make the garden look visually appealing and stunning, i just can't do without them, that's why i always prefer growing them over veggies or any other plants !! Here is a little glimpse for you :) 

Marigolds i grew them in so many different colors & varieties like Durango Bolero,Hero Flame,Orange Pot Marigold, Spanish Red Brocade,Harlequin just to name a few.So in short the garden was loaded with so many marigolds that we used our very own organic home grown marigolds for Dussera & Diwali ☺ its such an amazing feeling when you offer God something grown by yourself, a feeling that market bought flowers cant give you !!

The Sensation Mix Cosmos was grown from seeds that i purchased, initially when the plants began flowering it was just plain baby pink blooms, but then gradually i got magenta and white cosmos flowers too, and i am so thrilled to have gotten all the colors that were mentioned on the seed packet,feels like a mission accomplished :)) 

Mexican Sunflowers were so bright and pretty, and they grew to a height of almost 7 feet tall, i would cut the flowers and use them in flower arrangements for my home,unfortunately neither the bees nor the butterflies liked them so i doubt i would be growing them again... 

There is however one flower in the garden that the bees just cant get enough of , its the Indian blanket flower also know as Gaillardia , i grew an old heirloom type called yellow torch,the bees spend hours everyday on the blooms busy hovering around from flower to flower greedily collecting pollen ☺☺☺

Now coming to my most favorite thing to grow each season ....yes "Tomatoes " ♥♥♥ ,I guess i was too over ambitious with my tomato growing plans this season,i planted more than 26 varieties and all that i am left with are just a handful of plants  and even they seem to be struggling to set fruit,the Thai Pink Egg Tomatoes were the first to be sowed and not only did it make it through the rains, it even gave me the most darling looking pink tomatoes one has ever seen,however taste wise it was a tad bit dissapointing !!!

I am also growing Japanese white eggplants, they really look and are the size of eggs, the flowers are purple in color,they  are growing slowly & steadily, first the flowers would bloom but just drop down due to lack of pollination and the rains, but now that the weather has stabilized the plants have began to set eggplants ,and when i picked two of them that were ready, i noticed stem borers had made their way through the eggplants before me !! had to throw them into the compost with a heavy heart :(

Some of the tomato plants are still struggling to set fruits,truss after truss the flowers bloom and just drop ( blossom drop) and its not a good feeling as the weather has already stabilized now, so i think this year i will end up getting fewer tomatoes in comparison to last seasons harvest :(

Other things growing in the garden are rosa bianca eggplants & wing beans and red zinnias(picture below) whose seeds were given to me by my dear friend Mumbai Balcony Gardener, i have cabbages both green and purple, ginger, a papaya plant that i grew from seeds and two types of hot peppers, Sugar rush peach chili & Purple cayanne.

Above Sugar rush peach chili & below Purple Cayenne

Some other plants that are worth a mention are my grafted Champa or Michelia champaca plant that bloomed for the first time since i planted it last year,red zinnias, rust and orange marigolds these are an interesting  variety of marigolds the flowers open a bright red and fade to various shades ending with a rust orange at the end ,i also grew white cypress vine, and i had volunteer pear tomatoes that popped out from last years soil, and my favorite rose the double delight produces blooms on and off.

So this was my garden update friends, i hope your gardens are doing great, Happy Gardening To You All ☺Bye for now ♥

Flower Power In The Potted Garden

Since the past two months the potted garden, is battered by on and off violent spells of rain showers,but the flowering plants are tough cookies and they don't seem to mind the rains, in fact most of them enjoy it and put out the most amazing display of flowers, this post is dedicated to the flowers that are currently growing and blooming,and beautifying my  potted garden.......

Harlequin Marigolds (Above)

These Harlequin Marigolds seem to brighten up even the gloomiest of days, sunshiny cheery yellow with bold maroon stripes, each flower has it own individual pattern and coloring.

They are so pretty and exquisite that even the butterflies can't resist and stay away from them.

Next are my Hibiscus plants,they have been flowering non stop since the onset of the monsoons,i have them in different colors like Pink,Yellow,Red etc. and types, like single petal and double petal varieties.

Pink Single Petal Hibiscus (Above)

Yellow Double Petal Hibiscus 

Double Petal Pink Hibiscus (Above)

Pink Single Petal Hibiscus (above)

Double Petal Red Hibiscus (Above)

Another beauty that does not fail to impress me, is the humble yet beautiful morning glory, i have a soft corner for these flowers, my grandmother loved growing roses and other flowers, and morning glories  happened to be one of them, she grew them in the front yard on an old criss cross wooden fence, so each year in remembrance of the good old times and memories i grow them from seed,but this year i was in for a surprise when they self seeded in the same pot that i grew them in last year so saved me the trouble, and who doesn't like a pretty volunteer like this one, each morning i am greeted by these beauties who are kissed with rain drops in the early morning :))

Purple Morning Glories (Side View )

Royal Purple & Feringa Morning Glories (front view)

I have moss rose that is growing in a rectangular pot,i started it from a small stem cutting that was given to me by a friend.Moss rose is also known as China Rose or Chini Gulab in Hindi,these however do not bloom completely on dark, gloomy days.However tiny bees love these blooms and they spend hours and hours inside the flowers, its such a beautiful sight.

Moss rose (long shot )

Moss Rose (close up shot)

My rose plants are not far behind in the bloom competition, especially the double delight,Ahalya and hot pink rose, are loaded with buds.

                                                         Double delight (above)

 Hot pink rose (above)

Ahalya rose (above)

These Salmon colored ixora,are low maintenance plants that put out bunches of flowers, that the bees adore,come monsoon and plants transform from all leaves in the summers to just flowers and few leaves in the rainy season. 

Another monsoon beauty that i love to grow each year is Balsam, i love the  red double petal variety 

They look just like roses, and the entire plant looks pretty from a distance, the striking red against the dark green foliage.

And last but definitely not the least are my Polar bear zinnia, its hard to come across a pure white variety of zinnia, and when i seen the polar bear zinnias on the baker creek website i knew i had to buy the seeds and grow them right away,the flowers are more of a pale off white color but honestly i don't mind the color difference white or not, these beauties are pure and elegant, you feel a sense of peace and calm from the moment you set your eyes on them:) 

  Polar Bear Zinnia (Close Up) 

Polar Bear Zinnias ( Long Shot )

 So this was my flower power post, i would love to hear from my readers what's your favorite flower to grow in your garden, or if you have any interesting stories or memories about gardening to share with me, i would love to hear them :))

So until my next post its Happy Gardening To You All ☺♥

  

Growing Season &Garden Update 2017

Our growing season 2017 is finally here, the moment that i had been waiting for so long and with it begins my sowing for 2017.I started it by doing one of the most important parts of gardening which is ordering seeds that i planned to grow,and the list was a long one. After lots of confusion,rethinking and brainstorming ,i made my decision and i got my seeds finalized and delivered to me all the way from the USA from Baker Creek and Pinetree.I also bought seeds from seed stores here in India  from companies like Pocha and Omaxe .

Nothing brings me more joy than sowing seeds and the sight of little baby seedlings sprouting from the soil is such a delight to watch,what else could a gardener ask for.It was time to begin the sowing process, and i sowed my very first batch of seeds in June,as you can see in the pic below ,I sowed tomato,pepper,marigolds,beans just to name a few,all seemed to be going well until the monsoons arrived towards the end of June,it poured day in day out non stop for the first two weeks and i lost a lot of seedling and seeds in the bargain due to various issues like water logging, root rot and wilt. 

Not all was lost though they were a few seedlings that stood tough against this harsh down pour and those were my Yardlong beans that grow each year from seeds that i save.

Lab Lab (Hyacinth beans), Thai pink egg tomato and Japanese white eggplants and a sole  little Chinese five color chili pepper plant that was holding on to dear life.

There were also a few volunteer plants that popped up effortlessly with the  help of the rains like Morning glories and Marigolds.

Glorious Morning Glories, oh how i love the pop of color that they add to the garden,each morning i am greeted by these purple beauties :)) 

My friend Mumbai Balcony Gardener shared a few heirloom varieties of Marigold seeds that she bought from Baker Creek with me last year, we exchange, share, swap a lot of seeds with each other, and we share a common love .... oh yes ...now before you get your thoughts running wild, let me tell tell you that the love that i am talking about here is for gardening and seeds :) infact we are seed-o-holics its maddening at times thinking just about how many seeds we have ended up hoarding !!! anyways now coming back to the marigolds, so the initial marigolds that i had sowed were dwarf plants that put out many beautiful blooms but alas i don't know what went wrong and kaput the plants were all dead,with the onset of the harsh summers back then i did not bother to uproot those dead plants, and those marigolds had now self seeded.

And this is what  i ended up with, a gigantic marigold plant now that standing tall, so tall that one of its stems snapped during a rain storm, but nothing seemed to hold it back and it just keeps on growing.

Three days back it began flowering,here is pic of the bloom below.The sweetest looking marigolds so dainty and petite.

Its August now, things have begun moving along, the weather seems to be a tad bit okay,and the sun is out , at times it just suddenly gets dark,cloudy and starts pouring down ,and at times its scorching hot, i hate unpredictable weather :(

 The yard beans have twined themselves, way up onto the fence and they have begun flowering :)

What looked like this around a month back, looks like this now as of today !!!

How can we not talk about "TOMATOES", oh yes !!! one of the most favorite plants that i love to grow in my potted garden,I bought them in colors of pink, white, blue, green, black, yellow,red, orange,stripes etc, I got all the colors of the rainbow covered :))and so i sowed some tomato seeds on the 4 th of August and they are doing just fine,i am yet to sow the remaining ones,this year i had a choice of some 45 plus odd types of tomato seeds to choose from,some seeds were gifted, some i got in swaps, i shortlisted the ones i liked and then decided to grow 26 varieties of heirloom tomatoes.Infact I was tomato shamed by most of my gardening friends when they first heard of my plans !! Lol ☺they thought i have gone wayyyy over board, Hmmm... well that's what most may think ...but for me there is no such thing as " so many tomatoes ",only a true tomatoholic would know and understand, just how i feel about them:)) I waited for a good long period of seven months before i can grow them.

So this was my garden update for my readers, and as always don't forget to leave your precious comments down below tell me what you like growing, where do you like seed shopping or just about anything you like to do in your garden, so until my next post its,

 Happy Gardening To All ☺

How To Grow Bottle Gourd From Seeds In Pots/Containers.

This year i thought of growing summer veggies like different types of gourds,cucumbers etc.I am terrible when it comes to growing them,but this year the climate and gardening gods were on my side,and i finally was successful in growing Bottle Gourd/Oppo Squash in a pot on my terrace garden.But things did not start off on a good note !! Here's my journey on how i grew my bottle gourd/Oppo Squash.

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My gardening friend Vedashree,had shared a few round bottle gourd seeds with me last year in April, i sowed those directly in a pot which had a potting mix of red garden soil and compost.Days passed by as i waited patiently but no signs of germination,it was way past 15 days since I sowed the gourd seeds,each day i would dig up the seeds, 4 to be precise look at them and stick them back in the soil, i finally gave up thinking that the seeds were not viable and sowed new seeds this time a long variety in the same pot,all the seeds germinated beautifully, they reached first true leaf stage and one fine day, all the saplings wilted i guess due to root rot and over watering on my behalf !! 

After about 5 days, two new saplings emerged from the same pot, i was happy to see that not all was lost after all, out of these two saplings then again one died,not wanting to lose my sole single gourd sapling, i thought of transplanting it into my curry leaf pot,my curry leaf pot is my lucky pot i managed to grow madras cucumbers and tomatoes in it.So i transplanted the tiny baby gourd sapling into the curry leaf pot and much to my surprise it started to take off happily ☺ 

Once it put out two true leaves,i mulched the top layer of the soil with old dry leaves,and then sprinkle some Neem cake over it followed by some more soil and compost,to cover the neem cake.

Twice a month i pour some diluted buttermilk for my curry leaf plant,i guess the bottle gourd seemed to like it too,it started growing vigorously and put out new leaves,the leaves of bottle gourd/oppo squash are very soft and smooth just like velvet ☺

I placed the pot in a spot that receives only morning sun for 2 to 3 hrs,and then gets shade for the rest of the day, since summers were at peak,i watered the plant twice a day, before sunrise and after sunset,to avoid sunburn and other issues.

The leaves grew bigger in size ,without any disease or pest problems, which was a big relief for me :)

After growing a set of 10 to 12 leaves the vines started to form tendrils,and was ready to take off.

Within a months time of transplanting the Bottle gourd/Oppo Squash Vine, i spotted the first male flower.After 10 days or so the first female flower arrived on the vine.

I did not give the Bottle Gourd/Oppo squash vine any support or trellis, i just let it do its thing and left it to grow and spread naturally.Its tendrils latched on to the curry leaf plant for support and grew upwards.

I was so happy with the growth of my Bottle gourd/oppo squash vine.As the plant was now using its energy to produce flowers, i fertilized it with some composted cow manure and week solution of vermiwash.

A week later, the first female flower appeared,its easy to tell the difference between a male and female flower,the male flower is plain at the bottom,whereas the female flower has a small ovary or mini gourd attached to the flower below. 

Bottle Gourd/Oppo Squash flowers bloom late in the evening after sunset,since i did not have any bees visiting the garden during this time of the year,i decided to hand pollinate the flowers, to increase the chances of me getting a gourd.

To Hand pollinate the female gourd flowers,simply take a male gourd flower and  strip of the petals to expose the stamen,now gently touch the stamen,onto the stigma of the female flower,ensuring that it touches the surface all round the middle of the female flower,same procedure can be done using a fine bristled paint brush or q tip.

I then placed the stamen in the center of the female flower and tie it with a piece of thread, as shown in the picture above.

If you the pollination is successful, the ovary or mini gourd attached to the female flower will bend downwards and begin to enlarge and grow into a gourd,in case the pollination is not successful the flower will drop off.It can take upto 2 weeks for the gourd to grow into full size and be ready for harvest.Its important to retain moisture at all times for proper growth of the gourd.

Out of three hand pollinated female gourds ,I managed to get one decent sized bottle gourd,the rest never grew in size and fell off the vines.Summers got harsher, they were hot dry winds that blew in the afternoons,i knew there was no scope for any more gourds,but i was happy with the one single gourd that i managed to get.

As the saying goes, its not the size of the harvest that matters, what really matters is the success !!! 

so friends until next time, its Happy Gardening to you all ☺