Winter's Here!

Coziness of sunshine with chilly winter winds is spreading fecundity all around my garden. .

Finally after long scorching season, weather is getting suitable for growing crops. Although the delayed season made me bit lazy initially but new sprouts inspired me to spring up again.

Sun shines brilliantly over Radishes so does on the lime flowers. Speaking of flowers, Aloe Vera is blooming! Even my tiny cucumber plants have buds! I have transplanted some of flower plants into separate containers. Which include zinnias, asters, bachelor’s button, sweet Williams and some other cut flowers.

The most exciting thing that happened is that foxgloves have sprouted! These according to an article in Review, DAWN, can never grow here in Pakistan. But it is growing here on a rooftop in Karachi! :D hope it blooms too.

I am in love with root vegetables this season. Local beets, carrots and radishes are growing well. So are tomatoes, spinach and lettuce. Although gardening is not as much fun as it was last year. I was growing second batch this time on the year. But this time there is this strange variation in weather that postponed everything. Still the sun is bizarrely hot for young plants; it was never a trouble this time of the year.

This happens. We plan ahead but things don’t happen accordingly. Its to remind us that’s there is someone who is taking care of our affairs, things happen according to His will and we cannot question that.

best is to go-with-the-flow sometimes :)

Enjoy the season as much as you can !

~ Happy Gardening !

The Green Dream!

Now I can be called eccentric! I have literally planted salad greens in all empty pots, even under the lemon tree!

Well that’s what happen when your salad seeds never work and after two years of struggle you get more than 100 plants for just Rs. 50/- ! ! !

But I dint just by 100, bought 200 instead! One set is half grown and the other just sprouted.

This was the first time that I found salad and some other vegetables being grown in nurseries. We usually find fruits but hardly any vegetable. It shows that people are getting involved in vegetable gardening.

Lettuce has many varieties. Butterhead, looseleaf, crisphead, romaine, mesclun, endive, mustard, radicchio, Chinese lettuce, summer crunch are just few of its crispy wonders! And now hybrid and heirloom varieties are available in shades of reds and yellows too.

The salad variety that I bought is the same one that we get in market. It’s the loose leaf type; Probably the Simpson elite type. The other that I have sown is the butterhead one.

It is one of the oldest vegetables that originated from Asia.
Best thing about lettuce is that it can be harvested at any stage. You can start picking looseleaf lettuce as the leaves grow, leaving rest of the plant to grow. Butterhead and other varieties are harvested as a whole.

In Karachi, we have to wait for winters to grow these. Otherwise lettuce can be grown from spring onwards in other parts of the world. It depends upon your growing zone.

Lettuce is said to be pest free crop that requires less maintenance. It grows well in pots as these have shallow roots, they do not require depth.

Scrumptious greens make wonderful salads, shawarmas, sandwiches, burgers, roti rolls and what not!! ! I have already eaten a portion from my baby plants. Can’t help myself!

Lettuce greens were my inspiration to start a vegetable garden. And now that they plants are finally part of my crops in pots garden; I have planted them where ever I could and trust me, my father is not so happy about it!

(There are still some empty paint buckets upstairs, hmm, and many more lettuce plants too: P)

You must try these irresistible greens!

Happy Gardening!

~Zahra

News Feed: Keeping a Record

Hey All!

I thought I should keep a record of the dates on which I hv sown seeds, when they sprouted, and also the date of first harvest. This will help us next year too! You can do the same !dont forget to include ur location and temp.

Location: Karachi
current temp: min 12 max 30
Date sown: 11th Nov'08
Date to sprout: Carrots(19th) Cumcumber(23rd) tomato roma(19th) tomato marmilade(17th) Cherry tomato(19th)beets(15th) Spinach(16th)

Peppers,some flowers,corn,beafsteak tomato,broccoli hv nt shown any sign yet..

Sec Sowing: 22nd nov '08 seeds sown: Radishes, carrots and all others that hvnt shown any sign yet.


This sowing season is special 'cause this time two of my gardener frds started their kitchen garden along with me. Cant wait to see your photos and reports too ! :D


Happy Gardening

~ Zahra

!

Buried Rubies

Next time you hear someone say that you get what you wish for, you better believe that!

Just few months back I was going through marthastewart.com and got in love with lush red beets and radishes; wanted to grow some of my own. I saved a photo from her garden which I used to admire all the time.

And now when I started writing this post, I came across the same photo. It dazed me with joy to see that I was able to grow same luscious red roots successfully myself.

Red radishes (Raphanus sativus) are considered the easiest and the fasted growing crop. These are famous for children gardening projects because the crop is ready to harvest with in 20-30 days.

Rapid growing radishes can be planted through out the year. Red-skinned and white-fleshed vegetable is a globe of around an inch. There are some elongated varieties as well. But the blushing red color of these tiny globes is unbeatable!

Radishes are best grown in rich, loose soil. We are looking for a pleasant tang which can easily turn into fiery hot. They should be picked as soon as they around an inch in size. Leaving them for longer time will make them taste hot. Simply starts off by filling a tray with loose soil. Randomly sow seeds every 2 inches. Water it regularly. Irregular water patterns will make them blot. Radishes need minimum 6-8 hrs of sunlight. When days get longer, radishes will bloom, producing many seeds that can be saved for next sowing.

Beetroots (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. vulgaris) are 3-4 inched globes, rich in color and loaded with flavor. Red roots and bright green leaves make tasty meals. I have sown mine but will have to wait for 2 months to harvest them.

I feel rewarded when I get stunning, scrumptious food, stocked with nourishment for some seeds that I had. Delight of picking up vegetables and fruits from branches is exceptional, but nothing can match the spine-tingling excitement and elation that you get when you unearth the root vegetables. It’s truly like digging up for treasure.


Grow your own …and feel that sensation!

Happy Gardening!

-Zahra


Thanks to all my regular readers. I love to see your comments :)

Secret of a Seed

Seeds don’t sprout just like that. They need proper proportions of warmth, water and air to spring up into a new plant which will turn into a large, strong tree one day. I believe same is the case with our children.

During my almost 2 months stay at The City School PAF Chapter, I learned that young minds are like fertile soil, what ever we teachers or elders sow in the form of a thought into that, it develops into a huge plant, latter a tree. Be it a positive thought or the negative one, it always develop roots.

If it’s a negative one, it will have thorns and bushes that will destroy anything that will come near it; underneath the bushes, some snakes might find refuge, or lizards might make their hideouts in its darkness.Trunk will be hollow and some termites might spread from it.

If it’s a positive thought, it will turn into a vigorously lush plant, with strong roots and bright colors, it will bloom and spread its fragrance all around, its flowers will turn into fruits which he will enjoy, it will provide other thoughts strength and shade of knowledge, it might even attract more butterflies to flutter around and birds to make their nests on its branches.

This post is dedicated to my young gardeners of V-P and V-V. I am glad that my students loved the idea of growing plants. They started imagining and thinking over the topic. During the explanation about how fruits produce seeds and seeds make new plants and the cycle goes on, one of them asked, “where did the first plant come from?” And it ended up into a quite interactive class.

Students were very excited to sow their first seeds. We selected one day for the activity. I wanted them to sow radishes but due to the time assigned to the project, we could not do that. Instead they planted “bajra” (Pearl Millet).

Raja Rafay Nawaz from V-V was the first one to bring back the pots with a plant smiling at us. Wasta and Tahseen, twin brother and sister of V-V were the second ones to bring back their tiny pots filled with plants. From V-P Mustafa Mir khan bought a black eyed bean plant!! That was the most amazing thing to see, he did that without anyone’s help and he was absolutely successful!

It was an incredible experience to see the young minds so interested in nature. I was so happy to see my students visiting my blog, reading it and commenting on it too. It feels awesome beyond expression.

During our meeting with the parents on 18th, I loved to hear that parents wanted us to conduct gardening classes as a part of a course because their children got so enthused by the idea of planting food! I made them write that down, as these words are more than a trophy for me.

But unfortunately, Friday was my last day with them. I do get to know how the plants are growing and I am pleased to know that students are taking good care of them.

Another great thing that happened was that I asked students what kind of plants they would get attracted to if they were insects: D and they replied so correctly! They said they would like brightly colored flowers, with good smell and tasty nectar... I thought how man and insects think alike. The Bee movie was great help in explaining the pollination process and what would happen if there were no bees.

It was a fun week! I ll always cherish every day that I spent with students who were full of life. Their inspiring ideas, precious innocence, sweet smiles and that special sparkle in the eye, are the things that will always stay with me.

As a teacher, I almost felt the like a parent. I had to be so sure about what information I give them, I had to be passionate about it as well. May be that’s the only reason why my students also fell in love with gardening.

It makes a huge difference if we teach or simply do something that we are passionate about. It has magical effect on others too. Same are the teachings of our religion.

I feel I have sown a sacred seed of love for nature in the core of the young hearts. With frequent showers of knowledge, warmth of appreciation and with breeze of inspirations, this seed will soon turn into a huge, green tree with dense branches. And before we know it, this tree will be dispersing many seeds of its own. And the cycle will go on and on….

Sow a seed and become the part of this cycle!

Happy gardening!