Potager 2011

Here are some pictures from a Potager in progress

Colourful Nasturtiums

The two Calendula varieties

The second Calendula variety

The Calendula's are growing along our Strawberry area and near the Tomatoes that has helped bring the bees to the Tomato flowers

The Chrysanthemum that is growing through the massive Zucchini monster

Lucky finds at the local nursery

We hardly ever get time to go out on the weekends. Most of our time is spent digging around in the garden and fixing things. Add back-breaking harvesting to this mix in summer.

This past weekend we were hanging out at the local garden center and I spotted the last ones. The exotic and oh so representative of south India- the one and only Kanagambaram (sometimes also known as Kanakambaram)

And the special item on display was none other that Kanakambaram's soul mate - Malli.

Now all I need to do is get them to grow well and give me loads of Malli and Kanakambaram that I can string into a garland. 

I claim complete ignorance to the art of stringing garlands in the traditional Indian way, but this may be a big motivation to finally learn this. 

I found this interesting link online on how to string one- link

The Fruit Farm in 2011

This is our Fruit tree lineup. This will be their first full summer in this spot giving them time to grow.

It has not been a promising year so far with the fruits. The baby Lemons and Oranges that emerged started dropping off magically at this size. I even remembered to fertilize them about every 2 months now since spring.

We did not spray our plum against leaf curl....and the Plum tree has been doing badly. I hope one year of lapse is not going to cost us dearly.

The Malaysian Guava that we managed to kill a second time (but not covering it in winter) around seems to be coming back to life.

The Pomegranates are full of flowers, but none seems to get past the flower stage.

Karela has his day

Each cuisine has a dish that is exotic to a trained palette but needs a lot of training (read force feeding) to get there. Being widely touted for its exotic nutritional/ disease fighting qualities, kids are trained from an early age to acquire the taste. But once you are converted there is no going back. This has a addictive effect of its patrons.

In three years of having a vegetable garden, I am finally proud to report the arrival of the "Bitter Melon".

For the uninitiated, yes ....these are really bitter.

I am growing two varieties this year. The one pictured above is the Asian variety that is considerably less bitter than its Indian counterpart. There are a lot more little baby Bitter Melons out there and I have my fingers crossed for a big harvest.

Oh, and Karela is its Hindi name. A sought after Indian delicacy it is also known as Bitter Gourd and Pagakkaai(Tamil).

Bloom time-Summer 2011

The gorgeous, yet easy to maintain Potato tree

The Dahlia planted in 2010 that magically re-appeared in one of the pots

The gorgeous Eucomis that were planted in 2010 but never flowered until this summer

The combination of white and black Eucomis are planted in a container

The last Rohee's Blacky Fuchsia that we picked up from a local garden center

 

The white Calla Lilies

 

 

 The Winter Jasmine that seems to be loving the new trellis

 

 And my favorite flowers in the summer garden.....the Asiatic Lilies. They are extremely fragrant and last a long time on the plants or in a vase.