Gardening

In my foray into the world of kitchen gardening, I have undergone many eye-opening changes along the way. In the early days I would buy seeds wherever I got them, and I would still recommend this to beginners as it can get a bit overwhelming at that stage to try to search for a particular type or origin of seed. With a bit more experience under my belt, I began to realize why it is important for farmers (even small time ones like us) to opt for native or heirloom varieties. The No. 1 reason for this of course being…

You can make out by the name that this one is going to have to be a series You would be surprised by the number of pests and insects you might encounter even in a terrace garden. In my case I have towering trees all around my terrace, so that might be an added reason, but pests are in any case one of the biggest challenges when growing in containers. The variety of beautiful insects (not all friendly to my plants) you can find in a terrace garden in the middle of the concrete jungle really amaze me! One of…

All you gardeners of Bengaluru, here's something you might have missed. Lalbagh saw a beautiful show of Orchids last weekend. The Orchid Society of Karnataka (TOSKAR) had organised a two-day Orchid show, on September 21 and 22. Exotic species and range of hybrid Orchids were on display. It was altogether a new flowery world, with blooms of all colours, size and shapes.   That does look like a butterfly, but no, it's not! The shape is deceptively similar. There were many more surprises like his on display at the exhibition.  There were stalls selling Orchids, Orchid accessories and books related…

One of my early disappointments with gardening in containers was my first lot of carrots. The leaves looked lush and amazing, but when the time for harvest came the carrots had not grown at all underneath! Unfortunately at the time I didn’t yet know that carrot leaves, like those of other root veggies like beetroot and radish, could also be used for cooking, so it all went into my compost! After a few years of gardening and quite a few such experiences along the way, I have realised the following really important tips for growing root vegetables: Sow directly: Root…

Garden City Farmers (GCF), Bengaluru, is delighted to celebrate World Kitchen Garden Day with the 8th edition of Oota From Your Thota, Bangalore's only urban organic gardening fair. The one-day event will be held on Sunday, 25 August 2013, from 10am to 5pm at the Durga Parameshwari grounds, Opposite Rangashankara, JP Nagar. Over the past few years, while Bangalore has lost countless trees, the patches of green in its houses are growing, slowly, yet steadily. Bangaloreans have begun turning their spaces, however small, into lush gardens and the kind that provides food. The number of vegetable terrace gardens in the city have grown to…

You might think that gardening is a lot of hard work, and I won’t disagree with that but there can be so many pleasant surprises and unexpected results that it more than makes up for the work that we put in. Here’s one that I experienced recently: I have grown cherry tomatoes from crushed up store bought tomatoes many a time, and usually got slightly elongated looking tomatoes as a result. This is because the store bought ones were probably a hybrid variety, and so would not give rise to the identical ones in the next generation. For the first…

Dahlia of a rare colour. Pic: Vanila BalajiYellow Daisy Pic:Vanila BalajiMore yellow Daisies Pic: Vanila BalajiRed Dahlia Pic: Vanila BalajiPurple Aster Pic: Vanila BalajiPink Rose Pic: Vanila BalajiPink Dahlia Pic: Vanila BalajiOrange Cock's Comb Pic: Vanila BalajiA Dahlia of hybrid variety Pic: Vanila BalajiTeam of flowers! Pic: Vanila BalajiBee enjoying nector Pic: Vanila Balaji‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); If you haven't visited the show, you have only two days left! Click here for more details.

My journey with gardening started about three years ago, when I brought home the Kambha from Daily Dump and started composting my kitchen waste. The feeling of empowerment that I got from doing my bit soon translated to a conscious decision to move towards organic foods. This then led to starting my own kitchen garden that first began with five containers of tomato and brinjal plants. Brinjal grown in kitchen garden I cannot quite describe the feeling of joy from a first harvest, but I can assure you that once you experience it you will be hooked to growing your…

A scene that steals your heart. Pic: Nikita MalusareThe 17-feet-high, 40-feet-wide vertical garden, with 5000 pots. Pic: Nikita MalusareFlowery carpets welcome you to the show! But no - you will not want to walk on them! Pic: Nikita MalusareVegetable grown in pots, put up by Horticulture Department. When are you going to set up your own vegetable garden? Pic: Nikita MalusareYes, that's an EGG PLANT! Pic: Nikita MalusareTake home some seeds, and grow a piece of Lalbagh at your own balcony.. Pic: Nikita MalusareThese water-rich plants are a gardener's delight.. Pic: Nikita MalusarepotTry figuring out what flowers are these! Pic:…

We have been inviting you to bring your family along for "weekend gardening" at the lake. Some of the volunteers this past weekend did just that!    Our regular volunteers Mithilesh and Chandrika, a young couple from 24th Main came with the former's mother and sister. Balakrishnan and his 10 year old son Girish; Regu and youngster Sanjay from Brigade Millennium, Shubha, son Sharad and daughter Ashraya from South City, Nagalakshmi and nephew Gautham from Puttenahalli joined other individual volunteers and together did a lot of work at the lake last Saturday and Sunday.    The tone was set on…