With warm and delightful memories, When I used to be a little girl, I'd see my mom, in the soil, create magic. It left me simply awestruck, When from tiny seeds she grew tall trees, Or even from a root, bulb or tree-bark, Sprouted nature's wonders small and big. She's an avid garderner, Close to nature I grew, Made me respect her craft even-more, Relishing those fruits and veggies she grew. When we say 'garden', generally we often think of flowers growing in the soil or various tubs, often in manicured lawns or balconies etc. But there is another type of garden I was blessed to grow up in, and that's a vegetable garden. Yes, this is one of the most unique observation I had, from early on, and my admiration for 'gardening' and the 'gardener' grew n grew over the years. When very young, we used to live in my Dad's office flats and changed houses often, within the city. If there'd be some vacant land lying near by ( in the compound ), my mother would immediately start practicing her gardening skills. She was a Botany student and worked in the same field ( govt soil testing/agriculture deptt - where her office regularly supplied fertilizers/tractors/seeds etc to farmers who came from far-off places ). As such, my mother would bring some of those seeds home too. Then the process of cultivation would start - yes, right in middle of the city itself! What I liked most about my mother's special skill was, she didn't not limit it only to flowers - but extended it to growing various vegetables. And eating away home-grown vegetables is a priceless experience, and hey! they come for free too, don't they? :-) So, this post is dedicated to my mother and her 'garden' that has left a lasting impression on me! With warm memories, I can recollect my mother getting the soil ready by poking and loosening it with a hand-tool, and then sprinkling water with a hose-pipe to moisten it a bit ( at times she'd even carry a heavy bucket multiple times, to & fro ). Early morning, she'd also get some cow-dung ( lying in roads ) during her morning walks and mix it with the soil - cow-dungs being great natural fertilizer. Then in neat rows or lines, leaving certain gaps, she'd spread the seeds. In one line she'd put the tomato seeds, in another some other vegetable seed and so on. With pride I can name some of the vegetables she grew successfully and every season eg. cabbages, cauliflower, carrots, lady-finger, pumpkin, tomatoes, beans, chillis, radishes, brinjals, squash, cucumbers and drumsticks too ( that grows on plants slightly bigger size ). To my amazement, I saw her growing some plants even without the need of seeds. My mother would cut slightly a branch side-ways ( a process called grafting ) from a bigger tree and keep it wrapped in a lump of soil+manure for sometime. It would then miraculousy grow small roots and then my mother would plant them properly ( along with that lump of soil ) after digging the ground ( I saw her doing that trick with guava tree and even rose plants ). And for some plants she just took the leafy head/bulb and would put it simply in the soil ( pineapple & sugarcane ). When we moved to our own house, we had a small plot of land where added to the vegetables, my mother grew fruits like pineapple, mango, guava, avocado, star-fruit, coconut, banana, sugar-cane water-melon and papaya. We also had a bay-leaves tree and Curry leaves plants. With so many things growing in our own garden, rarely did we buy vegetables, except perhaps potatoes/onions. However, later on that plot was converted into a garage, so the garden area became quite smaller. So, except the taller trees my mother could not grow the vegetables anymore. But did that stop her? NO! She shifted the vegetable garden to the terrace ( yes, on the roof of our house ) and started growing them in flower-tubs itself. Now, that I think is something called real 'passion'. The amount of love she has for her garden is incredible. Getting the pots ready, mixing manure in it, watering regularly, placing them in such a way that they get enough sun-light and after all that ~ be a working woman too ( not to mention prepare food for us school & college going kids, we were then )! Unfortunately, I couldnot click pictures when we had the larger garden ( I was a kid then without any camera ~ thus, can only share those cherished memories by recollecting them via writing ), but I happened to take some shots with my mobile recently. ( now, my mother is a pensioner, but her hobby or rather 'passion' of gardening is still intact ). So, sharing them here ---- some home grown vegetables straight from my mother's terrace 'garden'. Do they taste yummy or what ;-) |
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