oxygen for the soul

Moved to wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sun, 01 May 2011 08:49:00 +0000

I've moved my blog to wordpress because I've been having problems with the comments section in Blogger and because wordpress allows interactive comments. Here's the link:

http://oxygenforthesoul.wordpress.com/

Farewell

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:56:00 +0000

My father passed away on 6 April and, while we bade him farewell at the time, it is now time to bid farewell to the house in which he and my mother lived for the past 23 years. It is a farmhous in rural Andhra Pradesh and, knowing my mother couldn't live there alone, he left it to the Little Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy requesting that they use it as a home for the poor. The Sisters will take it over on 30 April. We were all for this because it gave him a lot of peace to know that the house he built would be of help to poor people for generations to come.

This post is dedicated to the farmhouse garden. We spent many hours there and I will remember the early morning walks among the lime and mango trees; the early evening hours on the lawn listening to the calls of the beecatchers, crow pheasant, kingfishers, egrets and other birds as they visited the pond, shrubs and trees; and the late evening walks along the drive way, inhaling the fragrance of frangipani.

Plant rescue

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:04:00 +0000

For various reasons, I haven't made much headway with populating my balconies with plants. Right now the more urgent task is resucitating plants brought over from the other flat.

Without me there to supervise him, Nagaraj is doing even less than before, if that's possible. On a recent tour of the garden, I found a monstera in a terrible condition, hidden away in a corner among other plants. I've brought it to Norris Road and am now going to stabilise it, and then feed and nurture it back to health.

It looks almost a goner but on the top right there's a tiny, almost completely white leaf, curled onto itself so it looks even smaller. This augurs well for resucitation. Auguries for Nagaraj are not so good.

The tomato plant I brought over earlier had started flowering, but the flowers died without turning into fruit. I think the problem was irregular watering in some really hot weather. April is the hottest month in Bangalore. I'm now watering regularly and misting the plant (and all the others too) twice a day with just water. There are some healthy looking flowers now; keeping my fingers crossed. Sorry about the out-of-focus photos.

I've also got some cherry tomato and brinjal seedlings from geekgardener and will post about them when they're transplanted. It was wonderful to see gg's terrace garden. Among the delights were strawberry plants, with jewel-red strawberries pushing free from the leaves, a bhut jolakia in full form with lots of red and some green chilis, and a bird's eye chili plant, dotted with hundreds of tiny red chilis--a real treat for the eyes. gg is also nurturing pink giant and maroon tomatoes into seedlings; can't wait to get my hands on some.

The gods must be laughing

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:01:00 +0000

The weather gods must be laughing at me. Soon after I brought the tomato plant to the Norris Road flat, we had days of cloudy weather (not to mention heavy rain one evening that knocked out the power till 9 a.m. the next day). Perhaps because of being moved and then not getting enough sun, the tomato plant has 'frozen'. No new growth as far as I can see and no flowers, despite feeding with NPK (after letting the plant recover from its move for a few days). I'm not giving up hope though; the single tomato on the plant has turned a lovely red . . .

. . .and I will continue to nurture the plant until it does as well as the siblings it was torn away from.

Yes, as well as those previously languishing siblings! The sun has returned to the balcony of the Lavelle Road flat and after a single feeding with NPK, the two plants there have started bearing in plenty. I'm going to leave them there since they are doing so much better than their separated sister.

Another sign that things have really picked up on the Lavelle Road balcony is that the poi saag vine is flowering. I remember Arathi mentioning that her poi saag vine had flowered too. I wonder what it means? Arathi, if you're reading this, did you harvest seeds from the flowers? Perhaps I should ask Raj Panda, the 'father' of our poi saag vines.

The new momentum at Lavelle Road has inspired me to start planting in Norris Road; I've been letting too many things get in the way of fresh planting. I'm going to start some tomatoes, chilis and radish from seed. I'm also going to try something new: details in the next post.

The lone tomato

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:56:00 +0000

Today I brought just one tomato plant from the old apartment to the new one. It has only one tomato, since it was getting barely any sun in its old spot. In the new one, it will get 6-7 hours of strong sunlight. I can't wait to see how the plant responds, especially after I feed it.

I will bring over the rest of the tomato plants -- I think there are two more -- and a chili plant on the coming weekend. My husband, A, has promised to help me move the potted plants I want to the new flat. In return he's getting the orchid, which gets neglected over the weekend when I'm at the other flat, and is showing it. There's always someone at the other flat to give the orchid its daily spray and I give it its weekly feed on the weekend anyway.

Goa gaiety

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:39:00 +0000

We went to Goa for the wedding of a friend's daughter and had a wonderful time. One of the highlights was the blooms in the hotel garden -- nothing special, just bougainvillea, hibiscus, ixora and lantana, but everything looked so beautiful and gay in the sun.

I love the look of the bougainvillea in round pots; will try one or two on my balcony. My next post will be about the beginnings of my new balcony gardens; there won't be anything very interesting to see for a while but I do mean to record things from the start up to (finger's crossed) blooms and/or vegetables.

The tardy and the hardy

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:31:00 +0000

I can't believe it's been three months since I've updated my blog. A lot has been happening and I've also been waiting for something to happen -- the weather to improve.

This has been a dismal winter for the plants in my garden. With barely any sun for months on end, they are in bad shape. Only a few hardy plants are managing to bloom, the violets and the mandarin orange. The mandarin is remarkable -- the plant has barely any leaves but continues to put out flowers and fruit. It looks as scruffy as it does in the picture but produces oranges valiantly. There are lots of green ones that can't be seen in the picture.

There's not much I can do in this garden until the weather warms up and the garden gets more sun. But the good news is that I don't have to wait for this to re-start my gardening attempts. I have moved to another flat close to my old one, as part of a larger plan to sell the old flat and buy a place with space for a garden, or at least a terrace garden, on the outskirts of the city. The new flat will then be our place in the city.

My new flat offers only two balconies for gardening but one gets strong sun throughout the morning, which is a wonderful development for me. I'm going to grow as many vegetables as I can there and at least one rose. I yearn to grow roses and for the first time have the right conditions to do so. But the balcony is small so I will have to restrain myself.

Here is a picture of the front balcony, which is a good size but is shaded by a large jamun tree. I will have to grow partial shade plants here but don't grudge this since the tree is a beautiful sight.

Jamun tree

I have had trellises put up on both balconies, which are awaiting vines. Meanwhile, an orchid is occupying one on the front balcony.

I have a few potted plants, some bought, some gifts. These will soon be complemented with plants I grow myself from seed or seedling. The weather is improving rapidly and in my new flat it's already sunny and warm enough to start some tomatoes and capsicum, and maybe eggplant (will check on geekgardener's forum).

Curry leaf and poinsettia on the sunny balcony, which is enclosed in netting to keep the monkeys out when the veg arrive

Spider plant, geranium and syngonium; the last is a cutting taken from a friend's garden and needs repotting

I live in an old neighbourhood of Bangalore that still has many of its original bungalows. Here is a view of a neighbouring house from a bedroom window.

Looking forward to renewed gardening attempts and blogging about them.

Double whammy

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:13:00 +0000

This year we had an extended southwest monsoon. Before it got over, Bangalore was hit by the northeast monsoon. So my garden has taken a double hit. With winter nearing, the sun is hidden behind a tall building, whose owners have been thoughtless enough to build right up to our garden wall. Deprived of sun, the garden and balcony plants upstairs are infested by mealy bug. Today our part-time gardener, Nagaraj, is giving everything a neem-oil spray -- the task is too much for me.

Even the fire bush, which is usually pest-free, has a bad case of mealy bug. It's being pruned and then sprayed. I had to overrule my husband, who forbade Nagaraj from pruning it on his last visit. Today, Nagaraj brought a fire bush sprig to show me how bad the infestation was. I asked him to prune it immediately, but he still checked with me twice if it was ok with 'Sahib'. I told him Sahib had been informed of the crisis and there was no danger of an eruption from him.

It's interesting that Nagaraj calls my husband 'Sahib'. In south India, honorifics like 'Anna' (elder brother) and 'Amma' (mother) have always been used. In these more egalatarian times, even in the more-feudal north, 'Sir', 'Madam', 'Didi' (older sister) have replaced Sahib and Memsahib. Nagaraj has a north-Indian bent -- speaks fluent Hindi -- and so calls me 'Maaji' (respected Mother) instead of Amma. My daughter's household help in Delhi, on the other hand, feeling that 'Maaji' doesn't suit my tinted locks and jeans-clad look, just call me 'Mummy' -- sometimes 'Mummyji' when they feel I deserve extra respect.

No pics this time; garden in too depressing a condition.

Tomato harvest

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:20:00 +0000

I harvested the last of the tomatoes today. I will now have to start a new lot; the old ones are shaggy and mealy bug-ridden.

The only other plant giving us a regular harvest is the curryleaf, which we use everyday for cooking

I would have been looking forward to a mandarin harvest, and making marmalade from them, if so many of the green fruit hadn't been taken by birds/rats/whatever. Every time I go to the shrub, more green fruit have been taken.

Meanwhile, the heliconia golden torch blooms have matured and developed what looks like seed formations. Are these seeds or something else?

The sun has deserted Bangalore so I am going to wait for a while before I start the next lot of tomatoes, chillies, lettuce and brinjal. Hope I have better results this time.

Accidental harvest

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 09:54:00 +0000

While re-staking some tomatoes, I broke the stem of two that were heavier than I realised. So I had an accidental harvest. While I was about it, I also took another harvest of the poi saag. Husband likes the taste of the raw poi saag leaves and wants me to try making them into a salad.

If anyone knows this plant's name, please let me know

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 09:14:00 +0000

We've had heavy rain and overcast skies for days in Bangalore and so only a few perennial bloomers like the dancing lady begonia are managing to bloom. Other prolific bloomers like the coral vine are putting out only a few flowers. But today we noticed that a plant I don't know the name of is putting out its little purple flowers--you can just about see one right at the bottom of the picture. If anyone knows this plant's name, please let me know.

My husband took this shot and also got one of the patio and a corner of the garden. You can't see the potted plants on the patio properly because my maid has lined them up like soldiers on parade. Husband and I arrange them nicely but when she cleans the patio she puts them all back into their strict line-up.

I want to seed some petunias, white and red radishes, chilies and some more tomatoes but am waiting for the sun to make a comeback.

A harvest and feast with thanks to our expert bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:18:00 +0000

Today I want to thank three people who have benefited me a lot with their steadfast blogging and great advice: Raj Panda of Organic Kitchen Gardening, Mani of geekgardener, and Raji of the food blog Talimpu.

I picked some poi saag leaves from a creeper grown from seedlings Raj gave me and made some fritters with them for lunch, using a recipe from the Talimpu blog (http://www.talimpu.com/2010/09/16/mixed-greens-fritters/). The recipe is for mixed green fritters but I used only the poi saag because it was the first time we were eating it and I wanted to know how it tasted. It was wonderful -- mild and sweet, maybe how lettuce tastes when it's cooked but I'm not sure that's the right description. Next I will try a poi saag recipe I got from a blog on Oriya cooking. If Raj sees this post, maybe he'll send me his family recipe!

Poi saag plant

Leaves washed and drained -- some are as big as my hand

Poi saag fritters

The next harvest will be of marmande tomatoes for which I need to thank Raj for the seeds and Raj and Mani for their fabulous workshop at which I learned how to properly grow vegetables in containers. I would never have got the results below without their expert advice.

Flowers in my garden this September

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:22:00 +0000

Nothing spectacular to report but my pink hibiscus is putting up a good show (for my sun-deprived garden anyway) so I thought I'd record it. And while doing so, I decided to record the other blooms in my garden this September.

Pink hibiscus

Heliconia golden torch

Galphimia

The pink wall you see behind the plants is the bane of my life. It cuts out most of the sun from my garden.

On the patio I have:

Voilets . . .

. . . and perennial bloomer dancing lady begonia

Finally, not a flower but a sight that gladdens my heart:

Mandarin orange

The strange thing about the mandarin orange is that some creature seems to be picking off the fruit when they are tiny. A lot of them come out but only a few survive (and there are none fallen below). When the same plant was in a bed next to my patio, I used to get enough fruit to make marmalade. The monkeys leave this fruit alone; they must know it's very bitter. I can't imagine what creature would want to feed on these bitter fruit unless it's some type of bird. If anyone has any idea, do let me know.

Linking to a wonderful garden: Elephant's Eye: September garden walk and our beginning

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:41:00 +0000

Elephant's Eye: September garden walk and our beginning

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:13:00 +0000

As in an earlier post, this time I'm keeping a perspective on my gardening attempts instead of just lamenting my lack of success with vegetables. (At the moment, the only veg growing well are some marmande tomatoes.)

Today there was some rare sun in this monsoon season so I got a few pictures. I also took a 'perspective' shot of a corner of the garden and got in one of some plants I'm growing in water in my living room. This is to keep some moisture in the air for some antique Chinese furniture, of which you can see a red cabinet in the picture. The wire at the base of the bowl is for a small electric motor that keeps the water bubbling to prevent mosquitoes. The plants don't show up well enough in the picture, unfortunately.

Bamboo, elephant's ear and spider plant growing in water

Dracena and clerodendron enjoying the sun

Philodendron in the sun

Clerondendron tangling with the bamboo

(looks less untidy in real life)

Philodendron and money plant starting to fill up the trellis

(nothing else will grow since it's a shady area)

A corner of the garden with a 'rustic' gate, palms and other greenery

Schefflera, monstera, heliconia and star jasmine sharing a bed

'Rejoiced' too soon . . .

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:34:00 +0000

. . . the cucumber is dying. Not surprising since the vine is more or less dead already.

I'm just going to dust my hands of this episode and replace it with passion fruit vine. That will not only look good but cover my makeshift support, just a nylon net thrown over a line. I've been successful with growing passion fruit in the garden but had to give up because the monkeys raided all the fruit. My sister has grown passion fruit successfully on her balcony, although the fruit were small. But that doesn't matter because it's the magnificent flowers I want. It will be a bonus if some fruit appear and are not looted by the hateful monkeys.

A consolation is that the tomatoes are putting up a fight against the lack of sun and constant rain. Here's a marmande. There are very few on the vine but enough to cheer me up.

Fingers crossed for the passion fruit. Will look up timings for planting on the Net.

Voila . . .

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:52:00 +0000

. . . a cucumber. The only one so far. It's been out for some days but I wasn't well enough to photograph it until today.

First cucumber

The cucumber vine itself isn't doing too well; leaves are dying off although strong tendrils remain. I've decided to just watch and wait. Maybe this is just a stage of growth or the vine throwing out one fruit in its last gasp. This cucumber plant has put me through too much. I've decided to remain detached -- give the plant what it seems to need but not get emotionally involved in its fate.

On a more joyous note, my two hydrangea plants are blooming. Other bloggers in Bangalore and elsewhere have reported and posted pics of hydrangea blooming so this must be its season.

Pink hydrangea

The pink colour shows that the hydrangea is growing in basic, not acidic, soil. There are tips on how to get blue hydrangeas but I'm not going to try them. Will probably just kill the hydrangea.

My calladiums seem to be dying out so I'm off to the nursery to get another lot. This time I will ask for growing tips and see what I can learn on the Internet instead of planting them and hoping for the best with just routine feeding and watering.

The foxes' wedding and the monkeys' dance

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:52:00 +0000

It was one of those times when it's raining and the sun is shining at the same time. As kids, we were told that this is known as the foxes' wedding and the monkeys' dance. The light cast on my philodendrons and firebush was so beautiful, I had to try and capture it.

I got a good approximation with the philodendrons.

But I'm not sure I got close enough to the real thing with the firebush.

Unappreciated stalwarts - instalment two

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:46:00 +0000

I have another strip of 'garden' -- two long beds along the driveway of our building and a corner with huge palms, planted with calladiums, an agave and what I call maranta but I've been told is another calathea. The plants here are also doing well -- though I haven't given them much thought lately. I do regularly feed everything, check for pests and spray soap solution as needed, so they're not neglected and do reward the attention.

Heliconia and monstera

Monstera and schefflera

Spider plant in a box

Star jasmine

I have recently replanted the area around the palms so it's looking bare. That's why I haven't photographed everything together. I hope that once the calladiums are well established, this will be a pretty corner.

Maranta or calathea

Calladiums

Agave hidden by the maranta

Unappreciated stalwarts

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:46:00 +0000

All the while I've been lamenting the slow progress of my vegetable plants, other plants in my garden have been thriving, unseen and unsung. I did post a picture of the coral vine the other day, but only today I noticed what a lovely group it makes with two draecena growing next to it. Another corner of my (tiny) garden has a group of ferns -- that make a better picture than the one I've taken.

Coral vine and draecena

Fern corner

The unsightly wall behind the ferns is to be painted. I hate to think about what this may mean for my plants. I can sacrifice the clinging ivy but it will be hard for the painters to get at the walls without harming the other plants.

The curry leaf plant is also thriving and, although the crown of thorns plants next to it remain stunted due to lack of sun, they flower all the time.

Curry leaf, crown of thorns and fern

The vegetables are still struggling gamely. The tomato plants are growing tall, trying to reach the sun, and the cucumber plant has reached the grill enclosing the balcony (the picture will show that I don't have picturesque backdrops for any of my plants). I didn't have the heart to pull the cucumber away from the grill today but will have to prevent it from shutting out the sun for the other plants. Will rig up my own support since the carpenter has clearly abandoned us.

Tomato and cucumber reaching for the sun

The chili plant gave a good harvest today, just before it's jettisoned for the new lot I plan to start soon. Perhaps knowing this, a stray tomato plant is growing vigorously in the same pot as another dying chili plant. I will give the tomato its own pot tomorrow.

Chili harvest

Tomato usurping chili plant's space

Cucumber travials continue

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:08:00 +0000

I rescued the last-standing cucumber vine from a fate similar to that of its peers with a timely spray of neem soap solution -- spotted tiny black flies and dying leaves just in time. The plant seems to be thriving now and has lots of flowers. But some are dropping off. A quick check on the Net revealed that this may just be the male flowers dropping off after pollination. Or maybe not. The trick is to identify the female plants, which apparently already have a tiny cucumber at the start, and hand pollinate them if necessary. While I have seen bees buzzing around the plants on my balcony, I thought I'd try hand pollinating just in case. But the flowers that seemed to have a tiny cucumber are either already closed or are still buds. I will have to check on them several times today to find out. Didn't know cucumbers would be such a trial to grow. Raj Panda and others seem to get marvellous results without any of these tribulations.

The pics below show the cucumber flowers against all the mess in my balcony. A carpenter doing some work in our house was supposed to make a mesh for me, which would have hidden some of the mess while giving the vines support. But he has disappeared after my husband told him off for some transgression. I'm not going to have much luck with any aspect of the cucumbers it appears.

Meanwhile, the lack of sun has made my other vegetable plants so drab and listless that the least said about them the better. But to make up for it, some flowers in the garden are doing well even without much sun.

Impatiens on the patio with dancing lady begonia, pepperomia and philodendrons

Coral vine

Mandarin orange buds and fruit

Black and white butterfly, collapsing cucumber and other tales of sorrow

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 10:46:00 +0000

The beautiful black and white butterfly below landed on our mandarin orange tree and has stayed put there (if anyone knows its name, please tell). We don't know if this is normal but are worried because other winged creatures, a moth and a wasp, have come to our garden to die. It looks like there's some winged-insect Chernobyl near us.

You can see the awful state of the garden wall, which the clinging ivy must have made worse. It's to be painted soon -- I don't want to think about what that means for my plants.

Meanwhile, the cucumbers are another worry. I seem to be losing a third plant, leaving only one out of four. The picture shows the two surviving plants together, sick and healthy. I don't know what is attacking the cucumber plants; none of the other veg plants seem to be affected, including the poi saag right next to the cucumbers (touch wood). The lower poi saag leaves are as big as my hand although they don't seem so big in the picture. In these pics you will also see the ugly a/c compressor and pipes that take up much space on my small balcony.

The curry leaf plant is also doing well. I'm keeping an eye on it because its predecessor developed deformed leaves (not that I will know what to do if that happens again except grieve). All my plants have a difficult time because of the lack of sun in my garden. The balcony gets more sun but not in the monsoon, which in Bangalore means day after day of clouds and rain. The tomatoes are just about holding their own in these circumstances.

Maybe to relieve all this gloom, the violets and evening bells are making an appearance:

BTW, if I call any plant by the wrong name, do let me know.

You lose some . . . you win some?

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:30:00 +0000

One of the cucumber plants died. My home help told me one seemed to be in trouble. When I went to see, I found the stem of one plant seemed to have been hollowed out. As I looked, I disturbed some tiny black flies, which flew away. The second plant was fine. I sprayed both with neem soap solution but couldn't save the affected one.

Cucumber -- plant in the foreground is dying

I finally transplanted the lettuce -- the seedlings seemed to have grown large enough. But they are so delicate and languishing. Do hope they will survive.

Lettuce, just transplanted

I have some new additions to the garden-- calladiums and an agave. I will have to put some pebbles around the calladiums until they spread or I find some other ground cover. Otherwise the rain will splash earth all over them and they'll start languishing too.

Calladium

Agave

Some old and trusted friends continue to bloom. The pink hibiscus was trimmed right back to a third of its length but has loyally started flowering again, even though my husband felt I'd been cruel to it. He's a bit like Dogmatix in the Asterix comics. Hates it when I prune plants, even though I've explained that it's good for them. I have to prepare him for the sight whenever I'm going to prune.

Hibiscus

Evening bells

Clematis

Round 2 of vegetable growing on the balcony

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 07:18:00 +0000

I've started my second round of growing vegetables from seed. Tip of the hat to Raj of Organic Kitchen Garden who gave me the seeds for the cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce (and beans, of which more below). He also gave me the poi sag as seedlings, taken from his mother plant.

I planted the seeds and transplanted the seedlings some time ago. The plants started off well, but with hardly any sun for more than a week now, they are growing more slowly than they should. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I muffed only with the lettuce by transplanting the seedlings too early. They all died. A second lot of seeds has germinated and I will take care to plant them only when they're robust. I took Raj's tip and planted them in a mix of cocopeat and compost (my own homemade compost) so that the seedlings can stay in the pot for some time. I also had bad luck with the beans. They germinated and transplanted well, and were growing fast. But one day I found the leaves covered with a white powdery substance, which didn't go after spraying with neem soap solution or just water. Eventually the plants died. I will plant the seeds again when there's more sun. If anyone knows what happened to the beans, do let me know.

Cucumber

Tomato-- marmande

Germinated lettuce

Poi sag

The lot below is from the first round. Some plants from the first round are fruiting again so I'll keep them till the vegetables mature. The plants are showing their age so I will put them to rest after that.

Brinjal

Capsicum --only buds just now

Chili

Vegetable gardening

noreply@blogger.com (jsb) — Sun, 23 May 2010 11:12:00 +0000

I was keen to try vegetable gardening and started the first lot on my own, after a little reading on the Internet. I grew brinjal, capsicum, tomato and chilli -- I had fair results with the first three, but no luck with the chillis. Then I attended a wonderful workshop on container vegetable gardening by Mani of geekgardener and Raj of Organic Kitchen Garden blogs and learnt all about the correct way to germinate seeds, transplant the seedlings and feed the growing plants. With their invaluable advice, I 'm hoping to have better results with my second attempt. This time I've planted lettuce, beans, tomato and cucumber with seeds Raj 'sold' (at very nominal prices to ensure people do use the seeds) at the workshop.

Here are some pictures of the first attempt; these were germinated from seed and transplanted into small pots.

Brinjal

Capsicum

Tomato

These plants were further transplanted into large pots, which were to be their final home. Here are pictures of the mature plants with fruit.

Brinjal

Capsicum

Tomato

Finally, here are pictures of the harvested vegetables and the dishes I made from them.

Brinjals and tomatoes and with a sprig mint also grown on my balcony

Bruschetta and grilled aubergine with yoghurt dip

Except for the garlic in the dip, all the vegetables in these dishes were grown on my balcony!