NOW SOWING !

Lets get a seek peak at what is going on behind the scenes in my garden!

Making of prolific garden requires some insight into technical details too. With basic knowledge anyone can gain success in this fruitful industry! To begin with, check out the sowing season of vegetables you want to plant.

I went through all seeds packs I had, checking for sowing dates, and found out that I can plant almost all. True season for cherry tomatoes is coming up, although they have been fruiting so well in the time of the year when they were not suppose to. So I am excited to see their performance in forthcoming months.

Last time I used mixed pepper seeds pack, and did not know what I was investing in, but I just loved yellow diamond and big red peppers. They were too tasty. So, I saved lots of seeds from them to sow this season. This time I decided to plant, big red sweet pepper, yellow diamond pepper, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and radishes.

My inner controlled spy wanted to add more suspense to the story by sowing red pepper flakes from pizza hut to discover which type of hot peppers they use! So I collected some clues and did some research and found out that they are probably slim, long cayenne peppers. Mystery will be solved only when the peppers appear.

Most important thing you need to know before planting any plants is their season. The lowest temperature recorded determines which growing zone your city falls into. For example, lowest temp for Karachi is approx 10-20 F. so we are in zone 8.

Your Zone _____ Your Lowest Temp (F.)

Zone 10_________ 30° to 40°+ Zone 9 __________20° to 30° Zone 8 __________10° to 20°

Zone 7__________ 0° to 10° Zone 6__________ -10° to 0° Zone 5__________ -20° to -10°

Zone 4__________ -30° to -20° Zone 3__________ -40° to -30°

The next thing you need to know is whether your plant is determinate or indeterminate type. Determinate means the plant is a Bush variety and the indeterminate type grows as vines upwards and needs to be caged or staked. Once you know this, you can get your containers or the plot ready accordingly. Next you need other details about the plant such as, its height, and color, how often it needs to be watered, what type of soil it needs, amount of sun it requires, pot size etc.

Most of the plants are first planted in seed starting trays, or 3-inch pots. They are transplanted according to given instructions once they have developed a set of true leaves. I have sown Radishes, Peppers and tomatoes this weekend. Instead of going for many little pots, I used one large tray, and made little tags for each type of crop seeds. It’s a good idea to keep a record of the dates sown, day harvested.

When I look at a visually dead seed, it’s hard to imagine how many fruits are hidden in it packed with thousands of more seeds! Its enchanted world I tell you! It is nature’s magic that turns seed into a tree. Whenever I am near plants, I always recall an Urdu poem that I learned as a child.

“ Chota sa aik beech ager hai to kia hoa
Kitna bara darakht hai uss me chupa hoa

Choate say til me aankh ki kitni barai hai
Darya hon ya pahar hon sub ki samai hai

Mil jul keh paani ka aik darya bahati hain
Bondain hain choti choti jo sagar banati hain

Choti si Ummer me jo iradae rehay karae
Dunya me tum bhi kaam kero gae barae barae “

We truly live in an enchanted world. Gardening gives us whole new perspective to look at life.

Open you eyes to it!

Happy sowing!

Thanks for appriciating my effort and for your wonderful comments.