Jewels That Grow on Trees

Every food that nature produces is exclusive. But nature nurtures some special crops for longer period, resulting in the most preciously unique jewels that hang up in the trees as luscious treats for us.

One can never forget all those childhood days when a planned adventure of climbing a mango tree happened. My childhood was filled with such afternoons, when we made plots along with our friend neighbors to secretly pick mangos in the scorching afternoons of June/ July. Once we were in Islamabad during winters, we had an apricot tree in our house. The dense branches reached our terrace. I‘ll always remember its fragrance.

Pureness of freshly picked fruit is beyond compare. I wanted to have fruit trees in my home but I was not sure where to find them and which one will grow well in pots. Pasha helped again, and told me about Karachi nursery. It’s an amazing place for gardeners. There are some incredible plants imported from different countries. Mr. Nadeem gave a tour of his nursery and I was totally captivated with the atmosphere. It had rained a day before so every thing was looking greener and prettier.

Although I wanted to buy each and every plant that I saw, and was fascinated to know that almost all fruiting plants can do well in containers. They had avocados from Bangkok, large jamans from Japan, some new variety of summer fruiting berries, grapefruit, oranges, mulberry trees (shehtoot), custard apple (shareefa) and many more.

I simply couldn’t resist getting orange and mulberry plant. I even bought seedless lemon plant. It was 13th august’08 when I bought them. Now after 2 months, my 3 year old orange tree has covered itself with new coat of leaves. Mulberry plant was just a long slim stick with 8-10 leaves, that dint survive and dried out very quickly, may be because of the transplant shock.

In few months, my orange tree will bloom; I’ll have to take extra care of it. A friend promised to get pineapple plants for me:D supper excited about them as well. Pineapples and even olives grow well in pots.

I must recommend that every one should buy such trees. They are quite cheap. We all have terrace or a roof top, which is usually never used. Why not plant some trees there?

Besides this, my VP also presented me with broccoli, coreless carrot, radishes and sweet corn seeds! I have already sown them, but it’s still way too hot. They did sprout but young plants died because of the heat. I will have to wait for a week or two.

During my stay at City School PAF chapter, I did a little gardening project with them. My students are actually growing crops! They were so excited and enthused by the idea. I will try to share pictures in my next blog.

Meanwhile, appreciate nature around you, value it!

Happy gardening!


First pic of oranges in pots is from flickr;peaches are from my uncles garden in Houston. next set of pix are from my garden.