It was a week before the beginning of monsoon, I was asked by my mom to plant some seeds in the Kitchen-garden. Following her orders, I started the quest to grow some plants in the small cultivable area in front of my house.
The first step included leveling the field.
Levelling is a process of shallow-digging the soil to turn it upside down so that it becomes soft and can absorb the water easily. During it, you have to make furrows for its proper irrigation which is shown in the further picture.
The second thing I did was to purchase the seeds!
I went to a nearby shop selling seeds and asked for all the seeds of the plant which can be grown in that season.
He gave me the seeds of Lady’s finger, jingi (a traditional name, in the above pic) and cucumber, Bitter Gourd (in the pic below)
In the third step, I soaked the seeds for 2-3 hours.
I saw this step on YouTube. It helps the seed to gain moisture as in the shops, it stays in a dormant state in absence of air, water and soil.
The next and important step is to plant the seeds to ground which is known as ‘Sowing’
The seeds are placed on the crest of the furrow where the trough is used to irrigate them. While sowing it, we have to take care the orientation in which it is show. The place from where a plant will evolve is always kept up. At some places, this process is also done in flower pot and the saplings are later transferred to the field.
Watering is indespensible for every living beings. Hence, the fourth process is to soak the field in water.
To be sure for the seeds to grow our properly from the ground, you have to keep it watering dau
After few weeks!
These saplings will take a couple of weeks to grow into a plant. Except for Lady’s finger, other plants were creepers. You can offer trellis if you have less space, otherwise, they’ll creep on then ground.
Growing plants is an engaging process as it needs proper care. After sowing, the crops were attacked by pests and insects. The pests created numerous holes in the leaves and I thought I would lose them until my parents sprayed pesticides on them. Also, I was surprised to see them surviving through torrential rain.
Results!
1. Lady’s finger grew tall and showered us the vegetables enough for the consumption of 2 person a day!
2. Though bitter guard bore a few fruit but it wasn’t fit for consumption.
3. Jingi(traditional name) doesn’t bore much but whatever it did, was suitable for the consumption as vegetable.
4. The most disheartening was to see cucumber plant which didn’t bear a single fruit. I was most excited about the cucumber as it was the only vegetable which I could eat ‘raw’.
The Surprising Fact:
See these two pictures!
You might be confused because just now, I said that the cucumber plant didn’t bear any fruit but this one?
Well, I was surprised too, when I say this. Actually, the shopkeeper gave extra cucumber seeds and I kept the remaining seeds in the corner to use it somewhere else. The seeds got spilt someone on the ground somehow and it grew into an adult cucumber plant which later bore some fruits. I was ecstatic after watching this phenomenon 😇
Lesson Learnt:
“Kabhi Kabhi jisse umeed nhi bhi Hoti hai wo bhi bade kam Kar jata hai”
Keep yourself motivated! Thank you😁
-Shashank
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