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[crazyplantmomma]

Unlimited Growth....

Somewhere I had seen and read that the easiest thing to grow when you are starting out gardening are celery and Spring onions. I do not know why I waited all this while to try it but I am glad that I did.

I saved the ends of Celery sticks and Spring onions and planted them in my Kadi patta pot which has a lot of space, since I currently have a weakling of a Curry plant.... and was so amazed to see the growth of these. Almost from the next day it self the shoots started re-growing, and I have heard that it will re-grow every time I cut it. Now isn't that just amazing!!!!

And they look absolutely fresh.......So why don't you give it a shot as well since all it requires is for you to just plant it in soil.

So this is taken care off.......unlimited supply of greens!!!!

[crazyplantmomma]

It’s been a while.... Here are updates.....

Sorry it has been a while, but let us catch up from where we left. So I had planted Spinach, Brinjal and Okra seeds on 14th June, and wow did the ready to pot soil work wonders.

Look at the progress... The spinach seeds started sprouting within two days and same was followed by Brinjal and Okra. And the leaves look so fresh and green. I am overjoyed to see them.

Care Tips: Only watering and sunlight, a little extra water thanks to the Bangalore rains.But since the ready to pot soil already had vermin compost and horse manure, I guess that is doing the trick.

So on the days it rains, or nights I should say, I do not water the plants anymore in the morning. Thankfully, since these plants are inside the balcony, the rains don't ruin these plants when they are germinating.

So now lets wait and watch and enjoy watching them grow... Soon enough I hope to enjoy the fruits or veggies of my labour.

[crazyplantmomma]

An ode to Popeye......

If you are a 90s kid, I am sure you must have watched Popeye the Sailor man at some point while growing up. One of the most popular cartoons of our childhood, it totally popularised having Spinach, making it a super food that gives you insane strength to fight all odds. Well it definitely did the trick for my mom to get us to have spinach, otherwise which kid is programmed by birth to like green veggies... Right?

Since our balconies have not been getting too much sunlight now, thanks to the rains, I was wondering what can I grow which does not need too much or sunlight at all and will be a great addition to my little Veggie balcony garden. Since my husband has been insistent that we have more vegetables now, and he really seems to enjoy having Palak Paneer when ever I make it, it suddenly struck me that I have Spinach seeds lying around for ages, so why not just grow it at home, instead of buying it from outside, which have always been more or less infested with tiny bugs every single time.

So I spent an hour yesterday setting up this planter on our window ledge, which doesn't get any direct sunlight, making it the ideal place for growing spinach as they do not need any sunlight to grow, only a well lit place. What I did extra was add a little tag with the date so that I can track its growth, because I have trouble remembering dates most of the time. And a lot of people now have been asking me how long did my plants take to reach this stage. The whole scavenging the WhatsApp messages to my husband for the day I planted anything (I have a habit of sending him a photo immediately after I plant anything) is becoming a tedious task. 

As it is my last week at home and I start work from next week, this will be my last veggie planting project, till I get the luxury of time again. So as an ode to my love for Popeye , I hope I get to say what's below after the Spinach starts to grow- 

“I'm strong to the Fin-ich

Coz I eat me Spinach !”

This is once upon a time used to be as thin as Olive Oil... signing off.....!

[crazyplantmomma]

Alternate Career option.....

Along with Gardening, I also made some Apple Jam and started on my mango pickle which I completed today.

If I had honestly known that making jams were so much fun, I would have never wasted money buying jams. And it seems like I am getting quite good at it, although my dear darling husband doesn't not approve of the pinch of red colour that I have added in the Jam to make it look yummier. What he does not understand is that a pinch of approved food grade colour does not effect the taste or the quality of the Jam at all, but who can explain that to this man, who without even tasting it, disapproved the use of colour in food. Hopefully by now you may have got the hint of the reason for my bitterness. Nevertheless, the jam turned out quite good, more than good I should say. There is just something about a fresh home made fruit jam.... makes you feel tingly and joyful inside every time you have it.

Coming to the Aam ka Aachaar(Mango Pickle), in most Indian rural areas, mostly grannies would make Aam ka Aachaar during summers with raw mangoes, which once ready would be enjoyed with parathas. It is a very tedious task to make aam aachaar as it takes 2-3 days in preparation, like soaking and then sun drying the mangoes, then cutting and storing it over night with the home made masalas in Mitti ka bartan (Clay pot) in a cool dark place, then next day mixing it again with mustard oil, which is heated up first and then brought to room temperature and mixed with the mango pieces and masalas, making sure your hands are absolutely dry as any kind of moisture will ruin the pickle. Once all the mixing is done, all of it is stored back in the clay pot with a lid, and preferably kept in the sun for 3-4 days. PHEW!!!! See, quite a task and hats off to the Grannies who still do make it every summer, not skipping a single step. Now as for me, this was again something I wanted to try for a while, but lack of space never allowed me to get on with this. Finally I made it, even though little in quantity, to check how it turns out, I must say I fared really well from the looks of it.

Maybe not have used the Traditional method, but hey I still have some time to get there, till then, looks like I have an alternate career in Jam and Pickle making.... Kissan are you reading this????!!???

[crazyplantmomma]

Balcony Veggies....

So I did a lot  of things yesterday, and was in quite a bitter mood, still am, so I skipped on writing, but let's not go there. Getting back to my activities of yesterday, I finally got some Okra(Bhindi) seeds in the market and got around to planting it yesterday, along with some Brinjal seeds too.

The plastic cups have the Bhindi seeds and the black pot has the Brinjal seeds. It is said that June-July is a good month to sow Okra seeds as they bloom well in this season. I was more keen to grow Bhindi because that is once vegetable that my husband really likes, although its a nightmare for me to cut before cooking, and these grow really fast in the appropriate weather conditions. Brinjal on the other hand is going to be an experiment as I used a new ready to pot soil which had the mix of horse manure, red soil, coco peat and vermin compost. Let’s see how that turns out, so far it seems to be quite well drained.

You may ask why the plastic cups for the Okras, well, it is best to start the seed germination in a small place which has a lot of light and once it grows and becomes bigger, and a little stronger, I will transfer it to a bigger pot just before it starts flowering. I have already gone bonkers and ordered soil, big planters and fertiliser online and depleted my last bit of salary which was left.

Will keep you posted on the growth and I am sure all my labour and poverty will eventually be fruitful......

[crazyplantmomma]

Work in progress.....

So I had a crazy 3 hour long meeting today, so had to work in the guest bedroom, since the Hubman was watching TV in the living room. We haven’t really made any study tables in the bedrooms, since we don’t have kids and our jobs are not really the work from home types, so I was using the ironing board as my make-shift laptop table to work on during the meeting. My husband , who is a sweetheart , like I have told you before, saw this and went and got our living room side table and had it set up nicely with my terrarium and our photo,so that I can work more comfortably.

For the longest time I had steered away from relationships and was too focused on work and just living my life. My parents divorce, failed relationship, & a not so pleasant childhood had really messed me up. Then out of the blue this amazing wonderful man just came into my life, and suddenly things changed. Has it ever happened to you that you can feel a drastic change in yourself without any explanation? That’s exactly what happened to me after we started going around, and I feel like a whole different person now, you know, more content, instead of bitter. While I still stick to the fact that living with him is like living with an 8 year old most of the time , but honestly he is without a doubt the best thing that has happened to me in a long long looooong time !

I have never asked for much, or expected too much, but he came as a blessing from no where.... and it is always these little things that matter the most, he keeps doing these little gestures every now and then, like surprising me with my first little plants to start with, taking me to nurseries, for that matter just randomly getting chocolates for me when he goes to buy groceries, I can go on and on but all that I will say and end it with is that this makes life so much more beautiful to live for .....

[crazyplantmomma]

Succulent Love <3

Tiny, green and beautiful succulents are an excellent addition to you Green list. For someone who finds it very difficult to keep a plant alive or suffer from amnesia when ever it comes to watering a plant regularly, its best to start with succulents, for the lazy bones plant lover. 

However, there are some like my former self, who are capable of killing these simple and easy to take care of plants as well. Pro Tip on how to keep these alive and thriving- Do not over water it, regularly water it, forget absolutely to water it..... Succulents are thick skinned, with an ability to hold water for a long time so it does not need daily watering or heavy sunlight. In fact they don't need sunlight at all. They thrive indoors in a well lit place with water given every alternate day or in a gap of every 2 days.

The succulent in the yellow pot used to have two or three leaves when I had bought it last December , but look at it now, its become bushier than ever. The Jade plant in the glass mason Jar was like a skeleton, with just 4-5 leaves, when I bought it 10 days back, but now you can notice new leaves on it. All I do is just keep it on the Balcony table (I don't get direct sunlight there) and water it every other day, that too only just a few large drops (Best not to flood it when you water these, as it rots the roots).

My husband, who used to complaint a lot(Read: A LOT!!!) for killing his table plants, is a happy man now, since he wasn’t so sincere himself in keeping them alive for more than 2 weeks.

Best way to add to home decor with these pretty plants: plant them in a terarrium(small ecosystems in a closed space) and add those to your house decor. Just like I did, and they never looked better..........!!!! 

Once you get the hang of it, before you know it, you will also become a succulent addict like me and surround yourself with these happy green tiny plants....!!!!! 

Ping me if you need any tips and tricks.....always happy to help!!!

[crazyplantmomma]

Tom-Tom-Tomato!!!

Just like humans, some plants also need support to grow and bloom. One of them, other than just creepers, is a Tomato plant. The debate over whether tomato is a Fruit or a Vegetable will always continue... but if you ask me, they are the easiest plants to grow, which I was found after 4 failed attempts. Again I blame my lack of space to some extent for it, and of course as I mentioned earlier, I was capable of killing a cactus as well before I moved here. But this lovely plant that you see, is my first success, and from an over ripped tomato in my fridge, which I had planted at the end of April, and it has grown into such a fine plant. Today, I added some support to it, as I have heard and browsed in so many of Youtube videos (Read: How to grow tomatoes for a dummy), once the tomato plant starts to flower, which eventually turns into fruits/veggies, it becomes too heavy for the stems to bear the weight and they start drooping , and fall on the ground, which can damage the new fruit/veggie, so its advisable to add some support to the plant by adding a coir or a strong stick and loosely tying the stem to it. Coir support helps to retain water as well, which is much needed for a healthy tomato plant. So lets see when can I enjoy the fruits(or should I say Veggies, I am still confused) of my labour..... Will keep you posted!!! P.S- Ping me if you want to know how to grow tomatoes from the ones available in your fridge, always happy to help more dummies like me :)

[crazyplantmomma]

Newly married and settled in Bangalore. I was the kind who couldn’t keep a plant alive for more than a week, but all that changed when we shifted to our own new flat and I had something which I have been pinning for since a kid- a Balcony!! Actually make that two balconies. And I love them. You will ask, so what’s the big deal with having a balcony? Well, to give you a brief overview, I grew up in a one BHK in Kolkata for 12 years , which didn’t have a balcony and there were 4 of us living there, so you can understand the space constraint. So when we bought this place, I was jumping up and down with Joy over the fact that I have not one but 2 balconies, out of which one will be just the way I always dreamed of it to be, with a swing, and lots of plants and a green grass carpet. When you grow up in a city, you rarely get to see the greenery and when you grow up in a balcony less apartment of a sky scraper , you don’t have any scope of doing anything there, plus as a teenager you are busy caring less about the world and more about your studies, old grandpa and just surviving. But thanks to my dear husband, who is an absolute sweetheart, I got to live my dream and slowly and steadily now we are growing and doing up our little space. So stay tuned here as I keep you posted on more and more updates on my new experiments with growing plants, which includes vegetables in our little Haven………