Thriving in the heat

The bamboo poles still lie on our terrace untouched - the heat has increased manifold and makes it just impossible for us to devote much time to our garden. Meanwhile other family commitments have come into play and we are barely managing to water our plants everyday and hoping they make it through the terrible heat alright too.

But to borrow liberally...one's poison is another's nectar - while we are dehydrated and zapped of energy by the heat, the very heat seems to be providing life to some of our plants. The karelas (bitter gourds) are doing exceptionally well - every day we go up to the terrace, we see they have grown a few inches and are looking for a support to cling onto - we did tie some with strings that they could climb on and they seem happy with that. Though I hate karela and have never eaten it of my own free will, I am still surprised to be so pleased at the plants growing so well - maybe growing it will finally make me eat it too, of course, I'll first have to learn how to cook it - lets wait and watch.

On the other hand, my favourite veggie, okra, is doing well too - and I just spotted my first okra today - what an absolute delight - I am already dreaming of a crunchy okra salad. Another bed in which I had planted more okra recently have also germinated generously and am looking forward to eating a lot of long slender 'ladies fingers' (as we like to call it in India) this season.



Meanwhile the papayas (a whole bunch of them) and the pineapples seem to be exhibiting good health and strong growth. The best part was, the papayas have grown from the seeds thrown after eating the fruits last season and the pineapples are the tops cut-off and planted from the juicy fruits being eaten this season. And we had heard that it could take upto a year before we see any signs of life in the pineapple - this really is a bonus - its been hardly 3 months since these were planted. It will soon be time to transplant the papayas and give them their own space to grow tall and produce fruits in. Apprehension: how many papaya plants will we end up killing in the process?

Another bunch of plants that came up quite gregariously and have so far looked healthy and happy are a variety of beans - now we are unsure which ones - frankly we thought we had planted chawli or black-eyed beans where these have grown, but a few people who have looked at it have declared it otherwise - but they do look like beans from the shape of their leaves - so if anyone knows better, do tell...we are curious to find out. If not, we will have to wait till they produce their fruits for the mystery to be solved.




A couple of weeks back we also enjoyed a small harvest of potatoes and a couple of spring onions. The potatoes were sweet and tasty and the spring onions perfect for a summer's night salad. Though the main ingredients of the salad did not come from our terrace, just the addition of a small bit of own-produce made all the difference to its taste and enjoyment - don't they say in Hindi "मेहनत का फल मीठा होता है|" :-)