Progress after monsoon 2013

I am still guilty of not writing posts. When I compare my posts of last year this time, I find that my enthusiasm in gardening and writing about it,  have diminished. The factors affecting the blogging is still very much plaguing me. Trying to cope with illness in the family is  exhausting , but things are on the positive bend, hoping to have normal life very soon.

On the gardening front, I find more and more people are joining the gardener list, and are eager to grow organic, procure stuff and show results. Boy, some of the young gardeners are serious contenders for top notch stuff, organic or not. The kind of pictures they post takes one’s breath away. It also makes one very inadequate, to even talk about one’s meager gardening efforts. I sometimes come across, beautiful tiled terraces , with clean , neatly lined rows of grow bags, or pots, with a good stuff as a medium and the results are burst of colors or bunches of vegetables hanging there. Obverse, it makes one, want to reach out to that level and everyday, one needs to search the mind for fresh inputs to make the garden a better looking one. I have also become less sure about my techniques and my ability to keep constant posting on Facebook and other social media.

Sometimes, I come across absolute gushing about  few vegetables, and a small bunch of green grown by first time budding gardeners. This gives me great happiness.. aha.. here is someone like me .. trying to start and sharing the small reward with fellow gardeners.

Another trend I noticed in my gardening experience is that I am drifting away from time consuming, back breaking concoctions which require a good amount of travel in the city. I would rather procure stuff at home, try to grow smaller quantities and enjoy the produce. I also came across fancy stuff like Trichoderma, PSB..etc  to make seeds germinate and sustain. I am not sure I am good at using them. So off the idea went out of window. Whatever germinates by itself fine, rest can rest in peace.

The last few months also went in visiting some of the good initiatives made by young people in developing permaculture spaces. Those experiences have made me more inclined to go for natural greening and addition of various nitrogen fixtures.. at least trying them. It seems that some of the efforts are paying well.

This year I have been a little lucky to grow some of the gourds, which ended in some fruiting.(pictures of the bud and later , the full grown one).   The gourd vines were resisting my attempts for a  long time,, now the vines are growing all over, due to excess rain we had here. I am hopeful the fruits will develop well and make my efforts worthwhile.

Sharing some of the pictures from the terrace taken in the past few weeks.

These photographs were clicked from August till date.

Happy gardening 🙂