LIFE AS IT IS

I look out the window and what I see is a stark contrast to what I saw two months ago. My little garden is perishing; my little backyard is strewn with brown, amber, and butterscotch-coloured fallen leaves from nearby maple, sycamore, oak, and birch. The buzzing bees, hummingbirds, goldfinches, doves, and blue jays are all gone. The season has arrived.   I smell the fragrance of fall in the air. The morning air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and the temperatures are dipping. The quilts are out, the comforters are in. Sweaters, jackets, and scarves have been pulled out of the closet in preparation for the cooler days ahead. While the aforementioned things are easier to adjust to, it is my garden and its changing appearance that asks me of my patience, for it is going to be a long wait before my garden dresses up in a myriad of colours afresh.  My vegetable plants have nearly stopped producing. The Italian eggplant is still bearing blossoms, but which dry out and drop to the...

Ask anyone who has grown fruits, vegetables, or even culinary herbs if homegrown produce savour better in comparison with store-bought varieties. A gardener's answer will be an unequivocal yes. Even simple green chillies or coriander leaves taste so much better and fresher when they are grown at home. I have a small backyard, most of which is dedicated to flowers. However, we have been growing edibles for the past two summers. Although not a seasoned vegetable gardener, I can still vouch for the freshness homegrown produce add to my meals. This year, we have grown Malabar spinach (pui shak), red amaranth (lal shak), lemon cucumber, Serrano pepper, two types of eggplants, and three varieties of tomatoes in our small space. We shared our harvest with friends and neighbours, too. Growing fruits, veggies, and herbs at home gives you the freedom to choose the varieties you love to eat. When you grow your edibles from seeds, the options are even wider. Although it does take some ti...

  Okras grown in our garden This summer is our first summer, vegetable-gardening. Well, we actually began in spring. The initial investment was in soil, seeds, seedlings, and pots to start seeds. Doing something for the first time has elements of excitement as well as doubt - you do not know if you will become successful. There are so many factors that are at play - seed quality, soil quality, rainfall, temperature, light intensity, et cetera!  Here in this post, you are seeing a photo of freshly picked okras. When our okra plants first bore flowers, we were over the moon but only to discover that the flowers withered and fell to the ground. I do not remember exactly when I saw that the flowers were turning into vegetables, but you can guess that it was the day when my husband and I began to believe in ourselves and that our hard work would to pay off. If you did not know, okra is a self-pollinating plant.  We have four okra plants in our backyard now - tall and healthy w...

Habanero pepper is one of the very hot varieties of chili pepper. It is believed to have originated in the the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.  If you love hot and spicy food and sauce, this flavorful and aromatic variety is a right kind for you! But the heat could be too much for some people to consume and direct contact with skin can result in what is called pepper burning. I personally have experienced this last week when I broke a tiny bit from a habanero pepper. I soaked my hand in cold water but that did not help much, so I googled to find out what could give me some relief and applied everything from rubbing alcohol, cold milk to castor oil and dishwashing soap. I don’t know which one of these worked but the pain subsided after two hours. I am not writing all of this to discourage you - if you love hot and spicy foods, you will definitely love habanero pepper, just be careful about how much you are adding to your dish.  We bought a small seedling from Home Depot, a home im...

My maroon lily plants just bore their last flower. It’s going to be another long wait before they start blooming again next year. I guess it’s the wait and the anticipation that make a gardener’s wait through the fall and winter seasons bearable - you know that in spring, your garden will start putting on a smile and in summer, your backyard will smile from ear to ear. What a joy, what a joy it is when trees sprout new leaves, and perennials peek through the soil in April! For now, enjoy the last maroon daylily of my garden sway in the summer breeze! 

ঢেঁড়স ফুল। What would that be in English? Okra blossom/ flower? I love okras or lady’s fingers, so does my family! But did I know what their flowers looked like? Nay, I did not, until now, because now I have okra plants in my backyard! I am loving my first-time journey into vegetable gardening. I am learning brand new things daily. In the past, I only enjoyed my fruits and veggies, but I knew very little about the long journey they made from seeds to mature fruits. Vegetable gardening has taught me to appreciate the food I eat more than ever!   

It is a pleasure growing your own food. We are not using any artificial fertilizers or pesticides to grow our vegetables. They are as good as can be. Eggplant, tomato, habanero pepper, and bottle gourd to-be. Also, a bowl of freshly picked red spinach. #gardening

I usually don’t pluck flowers. When I do pick flowers, I do it because there is inclement weather in the forecast! The photos below are from my home. The flowers? They are from my little backyard. If you have a backyard or even a balcony, consider having your own garden - you will never regret it!