Monday, April 4, 2016

Sunlight and vegetables

Nothing like seeing the morning sunlight filtering in through the green foliage when you are having your morning cup of tea. 


This is the first time that we are trying the Red Cabbage in our garden.  They are blooming well along with the normal cabbage.  We may have to wait another 3 months to pluck them.  



We found that these Grow Bags are better than normal conventional pots and it is cost effective too.
The Radish too are coming up well and it is about time to pluck them for our next salad. I wonder why they are always peeping out of the soil. 



It may take another day or two for the lettuce leaves to join the radish in the salad 


Daily morning I see one or two of these yellow flowers fully bloomed waiting for the bees. They fall off by evening. These flowers are from the sponge gourd creeper.. 



The decorative flowers are managing to hold on in one corner.


Looks like the green chillies are going to be surplus this year too. Last year there was continuous growth for six months. 


But what has got me really excited is the sight of these bunch of flowers that has come up on our Vanilla creeper. Its flowered after a gap of 2 years. 


Five years ago I had written in detail about the flowering cycle and the artificial pollination that one has to do for the Vanilla.

In a bunch, one or two flowers bloom in a day. They have to be artificially pollinated before noon. The ideal time is 9 to 10 am (they slowly close up as the sun gets hotter) If the flowers are successfully pollinated, they dry up but hold on to the stem. These stem (stalk) behind the flower grow thicker and ultimately becomes the Vanilla pods. In my attempt to pollinate, I see about 30% success this year. It requires patience and practice.  


The regular tomatoes are coming up well with the perfect round shape, but the cherry tomatoes are a peculiar variety. Never seen these oval shaped ones before. 


The mint leaves have got its perfect green sheen. I always put in a mint leaf along with a blade of lemon grass (cut into small pieces) in my morning tea.  Apart from its medicinal benefits, the aroma is very pleasing.  




A twig of the mint went into the decoration of the flan that we had yesterday. 

  

32 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

So darn cold here today: really cold for April. Expecting snow later this week. It wasn't too harsh of a winter overall, but it doesn't want to let go.

Theresa said...

Beautiful garden. I love the smell of lemon so that lemon grass sounds lovely :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, beautiful garden - glad you went for veggies over flowers finally - no okra?
Green thumb too!! - Rosa

Dolly said...

I'm lucky I got to see your vegetable garden, really amazing ..:)

Dolly said...

I'm lucky I got to see your vegetable garden, really amazing ..:)

Sandee said...

Wow, your garden rocks. Way cool and so many wonderful things to enjoy.

Have a fabulous day. ☺

Anonymous said...

Love this post with all the photos, one of my favorites!

The longish tomatoes look somewhat like San Marzano tomatoes or some similar variety in terms of their shape - Sindhu

Hootin Anni said...

That flan looks mighty scrumptious!!! Yum.
And your garden...amazing. You have a green thumb. And I too would love to sit and look out your garden window. Beautiful.

Debbie said...

we had 80 degree temperatures for several days, now it's freezing!!! it was nice to see your garden today, i purchased a growing bag for my potatoes last year and got nothing, not one single potato ;(((((

i am still excited to start this years garden!!!!!

Ann Thompson said...

What an amazing garden you have. Not much is growing around here right now. Things were just starting to bloom and then we got more snow

Anonymous said...

Simply amazing... This time when I come to India in the summer...would like to come check out your garden..:-)...simply beautiful.

I am also excited as..we got grapes growing in our vine's finally after waiting for 4 years. - Zeenie

Conniecrafter said...

Wow your garden looks just beautiful, looks like you take wonderful care of it! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog :)

Sarah Laurence said...

I had no idea that it was such hard work to cultivate vanilla. You shall have a bountiful harvest from your well tended garden. I'm envious on this wintery 30s day in Maine. Thanks for sharing your spring!

Rama Ananth said...

You are lucky to have so many lovely plants growing in your terrace. in our house everything is eaten away by the squirrels, who don't leave anything even while they are still unripe and very young. We have finally given up expecting to taste any fruits from our garden, nor do we want to grow anything more in our house. The pictures are lovely and I am so happy for you.

Anonymous said...

wow this is amazing.. i will take some tips from you when we start planting in monsoon :-) Prachi

Anonymous said...

Wow !!! So beautiful, nice home grown vegetables. Being your neighbors might get a chance to taste them also - Rama

BeachGypsy said...

Very nice blog! I am enjoying all the colorful pictures! Thank you for visiting my blog and for commenting. Is this your garden?

Haddock said...

Yes BeachGypsy, this is my garden and I think I should devote more time in the garden, than sitting on the comp writing blog posts :-)

Jenny Woolf said...

I am SO envious of your fabulous edible plants. It's my dream to grow my own food but year after year the only things that do well are (a) potatoes, which I can't STOP from growing, (b) Rosemary bush (ditto) mint (ditto) gooseberries (ditto). I've got a blackcurrant that hardly has any fruit and every year when I try tomatoes, they fail. I try to do the right things, but they always get some complaint which makes them half green and half red, and very hard, and then they rot. Depressing. I thought I was going to be successful with a cherry and plum and sprayed them against leaf curl but they still got it.

Oh dear this makes me sound pretty sad. Well, there we are. I remain envious of you!

Anonymous said...

Wow! :)
Always appreciate ppl growing their own food. - Ratna Singh

Christine said...

it was a real treat to see your garden and its produce! Interesting about those bags versus pots.

Kay said...

Wow! I'm really impressed with your beautiful, bountiful garden. Congratulations. That flan is mouth watering wonderful too.

Eggs In My Pocket said...

Such beautiful plants and blooms in your garden. You certainly have a "green thumb" . I have never tried flan and yours looks delicious.

Unknown said...

Awesome garden! Unfortunately I have anything but a green thumb....my poor plants!! I really don't know what to do to give them this sort of healthy sheen....

Insignia said...

Very refreshing. And we have to grow our own food; such a strong message.

A Cuban In London said...

Beautiful photos and post. :-) Thanks.

Greetings from London.

tina said...

What a lovely view with the sun and palms. So glad your red cabbage is doing well.

Unknown said...

Thats such an adorable garden!

Shilpa said...

Lovely . It's a treat to eyes
http://shilpachandrasekheran.blogspot.ae/?m=1

Mandy said...

I am so impressed that you are growing vanilla beans! That is so cool. I'm not a gardner at all, but I recently learned about how difficult it is to grow these plants from a gardener at my local botanical gardens. I was impressed that they were growing vanilla there, but not nearly as impressed at you growing in. After all, they are part of an organization, they get paid to do it. You, apparently, have the patience of a saint! Ok, I might be exaggerating. ;) But still, I don't think I could ever do that. For one, I'd probably kill the plants before the flower bloomed. And 2, I would totally miss the pollination window! Hope you were successful this year! :)

Mary Kirkland said...

I live in the desert of Las Vegas so I don't see a lot of green around here. The ground is usually covered in rock instead of grass. And instead of flowering bushes we have cactus or small shrubs that don't take a lot of water since we have a water shortage here. So I love seeing all your beautiful pictures.

betty-NZ said...

This is such a lovely place. I could sit there for half a day just relaxing! Morning sunlight on the leaves is a wonderful sight. And, the flan looks great, too :)