My first Harvest!

I love the company of dogs… and cats… and plants. When I first left home I not only left behind my human family but also my family menagerie of three dogs, three cats, two rabbits and close to a hundred potted plants. Home to me is a large garden, and a houseful of pets licking, biting, and falling all over me and each other. My love for plants comes from my mother who’s got the greenest thumb I know of, plants thrive by her one touch. Even though every three years my army household moved cantonment to cantonment through the length and breadth 0f India, my mum’s pots and containers moved with us and the sundry animals. They would travel in a giant lorry giving company to our crockery, furniture, bedding, and other miscellaneous household things. Even though the long journey would hardly suit them, and since they were already green they couldn’t go any greener, they would arrive like drama queens at various stages of dying. And my mum would moan and run her fingers across them, and coax them a drink of water and rebuke my dad’s insensitivity a couple of times… and our plants would perk up, happy to be home at last! The most important find at any new station would be the Maali (gardener), and my mum was very particular when it came to hiring for this portfolio, a good maali was always a prized possession in the cantonment. Once the maali was decided upon, my mum and the maali, would work out a seasonal plan, based on which the front yard would be where the flowers went and the backyard would house the kitchen garden. The maali would be usually a beedi smoking, whimsical, philosopher in aged khakhi. I don’t know how gardening and philosophy go hand in hand, but maybe nurturing a seed and watching it take root and literally playing god in a couple of square feet of land must make things appear a little differently.

This year my balcony garden is a sprout jungle! After 6 years of living in Dubai and not succeeding to have a decent container garden that survives the summer here, I have decided to change my approach. No more fancy ornamentals which die on me the minute the sun turns harsh, or have separation anxiety the minute my back’s turned. I have tried very unsuccessfully to grow some herbs in the past, but this time round I sense something new, and optimistic in the air. Last year I was already in awe of Lin – who was growing tomatoes and peppers in her garden – and this year I met Shumaila who’s supremely passionate about growing one’s own food, and so what if all you’ve got is a balcony in a hi-rise. So that is how my little balcony came to house sprouts of a few different kinds. Apparently I am a little late at planting. The frenzy I began to feel in December I should have felt in September, that’s when most of the planting starts, if you want to harvest veggies starting December. But right now I don’t really care and I think if you feel like planting something now go ahead and do it, we still have some great weather all the way up to mid April. Plenty of time.

Just today I harvested a huge bundle of spring onion greens, in just a little over two weeks of work. A quarter of this is what you get for a couple of dirhams at the supermarket, looking limp and insipid. I didn’t start from seed, instead I planted about 6 bulbs that had already sprouted, and they’re doing quite well! I will be planting some more so that I can eat fresh greens throughout this season, sprinkled over salads, into eggs, soups or pasta. I have also planted some red spinach (from roots I saved off some red spinach from the supermarket), mustard (seeds from the kitchen) – I love mustard greens, methi/fenugreek (again from the kitchen), and from store bought seed packets there’s brussel sprouts (germinated), bellpepper (these haven’t germinated at all – its been 3 weeks!), spinach beet (germinated), and carrots (not yet germinated). I got some tomato seeds from Shumaila – will be planting those as well.

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