Its Cold , Rays of Hope - Methi , Mint , Spinach

Last weekend , got the whole set of saplings inside my kitchen and started transplanting at the weirdest time , 11'ish . Wonder if most of my gardening activities are at night , hmm yeah got to agree not a very early person.Thou i'm bond to do my duties early morning .
So last weekend , my little one went to sleep early and had some time to work on my saplings .If you had seen my last post this a continuation , Cauliflowers, Radish, Spinach , Methi , Mint , Brinjal etc .
So as i said they had grown and it was time to transplant ,but the weather in Doha was really cold , and my whole family weren't keeping well and this kept me busy and i was not comfortable going out early morning or night to work in the open backyard with the Fog , mist what ever you call and then fall sick . This thought kept me off gardening some days but i wasn't happy and continue this way . 
So invited them to come in instead , got them into the kitchen , that's the one near the backyard .Started transplanting one by one , filling them up with the compost and potting soil ...

Spinach waiting to be transplanted

They usually say that spinach is well off and grows better with direct sowing to the destination , but the transplant works as well .

I see huge rays of hope in this cold windy weather , the transplants for the spinach , radish and cauliflower seems to work , ill post pics soon . The methi seems to work in the recycled igloo ice cream box, who doesn't like ice cream isn't it LOL.
The Mint that i sowed didn't work , it died , but the cutting from the grocery seems to work . I just inserted some of them in the recycled almaria milk bottles .
Placed them on the window sill, so guys with less space or space constraints , here you go the above could be grown . 

Mint & Methi ( sticks are curry leaves lets see if it works )

Spinach transplanted 

Cant stop showing off my Methi (Fenugreek) After so Many attempts , didn't care much  ,Shameless Methi came Up !

Some plants are shameless like us sometimes  :) , yeah trust me the coriander that i took more care didn't come up as well , was really angry and threw him down cursing him that i wasted so much time , after so many months , i should say he showed up , stood up for himself with pride , teasing me that i need to learn patience . 

Hmm touching him , the aroma wow , i can still smell ! Fresh ! lol Wasn't sure if hell grow up in the poor , less water , hence didn't click a pic , but then when i used it in my recipe it gave  immense pleasure , awsum taste . My learning for patience continues .

See this , worth sharing the ginger , Coriander from my backyard cut and waiting to go into my Upma recipe .






A view from the side , when its still growing :) see below...

Update : March 10 2014 : 

Methi seeds , its my first time seeing how these little ones grow. Its so surprising , just sow the seeds and then the nature give you double the amount of love , yeah green healthy leaves & seeds as well. They are so tender , Eat it directly . Tasty as well , no kasape if you know what i mean no bitterness yeah ! 

Bonus Seeds - Mixed Feeling.

Sowing Red Spinach, Black Beauty Brinjal, Okra, Radish and Methi .

Feeling hesitant and also excited , a mixed feeling while doing the Gardening today , but still something echoing at the back of my mind , do it confidently we shall survive.

Feeling hesitant because sowing so many seeds at the same time , will it all bounce back ? was the thout that i had , but at the same time excited , what if it bounced back ? and i had lots of greens around me , fresh veggies that i can pick , and i started dreaming with my eyes Wide open. All the effort at this time of the night , sure my plants will come into life and talk back . More pics to click more reasons to write and more peace of mind and that's how i ended up sowing today.

Above Pack if from the VFPCK

Seeds in Govt Given pack

Red spinach was an extra bonus , when i could save seeds , read my last post in case u wanna know how to , its very simple .

Plus i had some seeds from My FIL who got it via one of the urban farmers, his friend a retiree from the bank , who's got a lot of veggies growing on the terrace .

Nice to see that the Indian government has started initiatives for urban clusters(VFPCK) , not sure how it works ,  but Google said that they need to pay some subsidiary amount by filling some document and the govt helps by giving seeds and other Agri materials, Does Qatar have something like this in place ? if not it must , self sustainability and greens in the desert wow .

Black Beauty was in my sowing list since long , but since Tilak mama had given me a couple of the Brinjal Saplings , i postponed it . I had planted them in the ground , it taking its sweet time , The weather here might not help my seeds later in summer , hence sowed it .

Lastly the Methi is a must comment thinggi here , i must say its my 5th or 6th attempt , sowed it in the Igloo ice cream Box . I'm sure it will work out this time and i'm going to eat the Methi Paratha this time . Green LOL .

Catch ya later , that for now.

Seed Saving - Red Spinach - Magic

Here you go a short and a quick post on seed saving .

This is my first time , so i might not comment saying this is right or wrong , but to start off , i'm giving it a try and i am excited to say i could save some seeds .

Laymen's term for me , Seed saving is a practice of saving some seeds from plants so that we could use  it for the next cycle and to get the same kind of plant without any difference , no modification .

Care should be taken to store it properly , clean it etc .But i'm not going to save it for the next cycle till next winter , but i'm going to use it right away , since its red spinach and it always something that we consume on a weekly basis .

What i did was , got spinach from the grocery , planted the stem , left it with minimum watering and later let it flower and dry .
I Striped the seeds in upward motion and let them fall or this can be done by tapping gently as well. Chaff can be lightly winnowed .

What got me started was , when i wanted to grow the red spinach or cheerai , i couldn't get hold of the seeds here in Doha , that's the time this idea came up . Just planting a stem could have made it more easier , but how many stems will i plant ? and i wanted to see how it grew from scratch.

Here you go , this is how it looks - On the process.

Drop a comment , if you have any other methods :) Tata .

Update : Feb 12 2014 - Sowed the seeds on the ground to see if it will come up .

Cauliflower , Spinach - Thursday Inspiration

Been wanting to try my hands on the cauliflower and Broccoli , not sure if it will grow up in this climate , but then when the groceries can sell fresh local stuff, why not me ? This made me to give it a try . Next question , will i eat Broccoli ?  No and do i know any recipe with that for the time being ? No was the answer .Then why not try something that i eat , that how spinach came into the sowing process. 

All the ideas of Gobi Manchurian and Fresh Kerrai Molagootal started invading my thouts and this was a definite push to grow this .For the ones who are thinking whats Kerrai Molagutal , its a simple recipe of Spinach ,Toor Dhal and coconut . I can smell the taste while writing , i'm loving it . 

Nothing can beat these simple Indian recipes , thou we sometimes like to go for pizzas and burgers , but at last return back to our traditional cooking , which is healthy and tasty . Thou i know this fact , i love to pull up a friendly argument with my FIL who would have a cheesy look , when he sees the mozzarella cheese dragging in the pizza .I just love the look LOL 

i just sowed a couple of seeds and the rest remain for further sowing.

This is how they have sprouted up after 3 days .

Cauliflower - Needs thinning - Pot can hold 1-2 max. 

Spinach - Sowed before i wrote this past 10 days before

what i learnt from goggling is that Cauliflowers are low fat and contains high dietary fiber , which helps to fight against cancer cells etc . Boiling can reduce certain compounds and best way to eat would be steaming and stir fry . hmm this goes with almost all vegges .

page wont be enough if i mention about the spinach or any greens , to keep it simple , its one of the must eat's .

some of the tips from OTG - cover the flower when it grows with the leaves , so it doesn't get much sunlight and doesn't have purple stains on it , OK , let me get to that stage and ill update if it worked .Until then keep eating healthy !

update : After the Doha rains  the below pics taken , Spinach , Cauliflower,Radish  - Almost a month and a half . 

Cauliflower

Spinach

Radish

Updated Jan 26 2014 : 

Harvest Palak/Keerai - Very Cruncy and yummy , You should also give it a try , it doesn't take much effort - can be grown in semi shade .Made some tasty Palak Paneer out of it , unlike my prior wish to make moolagutal :) 

Updated Feb 24 2014 : Age : 2 months approx !

Have been checking on my plants past 2 days the population of pest have grown on the radish , Apids and Green worms - handpicking them and yeeks killing them , but then today i don't have the patience to do this and also my little one has grown up , so pulled it out , have a couple of them still left out to grow . O yeah no pesticides used on the radish so far ! completely organic Wohoo ! check them out - aren't they cute :)






A Quick Update on the Cauliflower March 09-2014  , The ones in prior pic is growing slow(scroll up) , since i have planted 3 , the one below is quite healthier , just one , special attention ! ahem ahem ! 

Bitter Gourd , Palak & Radish – Sharing is fun .

We have started off as a very small group, and named us Qatar Gardener’s. Here we share our experience in gardening in Qatar, trade seeds, discuss issues which is been tested and tried, some might work and some might not, but the learning still goes on & it’s fun !

The group, as of today has increased from 3 to 27 members and I’m sure there’s a lot out there who love gardening. Any type of gardening say it, from small containers to big backyards to the smallest cup of micro plants, love for plants is what gets us together.

Ok coming to the actual subject, I got some seeds from Tilak mama from the group who handed over some bitter gourd, Palak & Radish and I in turn gave him some Panikoorka and a papaya sapling . Sharing is so much of fun, not to mention to share seeds which you are already growing is more fun, it lets you assist the other one, who might need guidance , something like a “ I know this one “ feeling.

Date: Nov 25 sowed the Palak and the bitter gourd in the seed tray. Have some Palak seeds left out to try it directly on the ground.

DH got some seeds and pots from the Carrefour, which has a sale today. He went to get some other things, but the extra effort to make me happy with these surprises! No Words.

Just counting my blessing# people around me#good heart.

Will keep you updated with the growth of these , can’t resist mentioning ,Growing bitter gourd since the whole family are crazy about the taste of this sour vegetable , which I like to see but I hate to eat . They say it cures any issues with digestive issues, Diabetics,  issues concerning blood, Vitamin-C etc etc Its also called karela , pavakai , it a Creeper . We prepare  Pavakai Kootan , thoran which isn’t really bad ! huh ! I’m lieing LOL .

Palak I intend to grow because of my little one, he loves any dish with it .So a bit of French greens is what came in mind first.

Tata for now!...

Update : Palak grew in the pots and then didnt survive they were stemy , Bitter gourd sprouted up but dried up wasn't successful !o yeah Radish Grew see the next post to follow up.

Just a preview : 

To closely sown !

Pulled out early - See next batch looks better ! Next post ..

Rain, Transplant, Joy, Family

A beautiful weather after a rain, its so peaceful . No sound and the smell of the soil, a great time to transplant. And not to mention your partner next to you while transplanting, giving you a company.

Son is a part of the gardening process, now your partner, what more do you need for motivation , feeling loved while gardening. Gardening is joy and peace of mind.

Its been some time since i sowed the tomato seeds and haven't found the right time to transplant. Its grown up, at last did it today.

For a trial have planted it on the previously grown okra soil, added some manure to ensure it has some nutrients left. As usual leaving it to nature to reciprocate.

Feeling loved. Good night and ill keep you'll updated.
So whose helping you out in your garden?

-Update Jan 30-2014

Loads of flowers !

-Update : Feb 13 2014

My lady has completed 85 days and having a Little one ! so cute isn't it !

Don't Panic - Its a Part of Gardening !

Ok here you go, I not only deal with plants growing in my backyard, I also have to deal with some insects, bugs , discoloration of the leaves , water clogging  and god knows what more the nature holds for me  .

All these thoughts really turned up in to a positive One, after my little one came up yesterday near the door, asking what I was doing with the stick. Playing with mud? Can I join you? No , was my answer, there’s a little beetle here, eating up all the plant .

Qatari /Desert Black Beetle

Pic is for illustration purpose from net

The sunflower plant had turned yellow, I could find spider Webs on it a couple of days before, Sprayed water and left it. Late in evening yesterday, I could find these Qatari Black Beetles around the plant. Removed it manually and Tied it up in a plastic cover and dropped it in the garbage, didn't want to kill it .It looked so beautiful, Dark Jet black.

It was fun explaining it to my little one, who so curiously, took a look into the cover, and was happy to see the way it moved. I don’t mind having a few to see the excitement grow within my little one as long as it’s safe.

Snails

Pic is for illustration purpose from net

One of the other incident was on the panikoorka pot , had a couple of snails. It didn't harm much , it lived peacefully. But when I googled , it did say they were slow eaters and might destroy the plants . Didn't want to take a chance since these were plants that I wanted to keep , so I could minimize the cold and cough medicines that I give to My little one . Added Tea waste and coffee waste to the pots bed. This did reduce the amount that I saw later.

Ants

Black ants are other little creatures that I see every day near my plants; they don’t seem to harm my plants either, As long as they don’t get into my house, I guess shall let it go, otherwise I have plans of using turmeric or bay leaves, I also sowed mint in the seed tray and I know that is a natural deterrent as well.

Spiders

These are normally seen on plants, nothing much to be done except, cleanse off the plants with water. It does keep coming up, due to the vast dusty backyard.

Leafs withering

New  saplings that I placed in the ground, after a couple of days started to droop and wither.

I could find Green fungus formed on the soil and here you go that could be the reason; the water seemed to be clogged. What I did was aerated the soil with a spade , added some cows manure and also trimmed down the branches and it did fine .New leafs appear now.

Holes in the leaf /Moths

Vadamalli 

Pic is for illustration purpose from net

I guess these must be the moths, but i'm thinking of trying An infusion of onion, garlic, mash materials in cold water, leave for an hour, and then strain ,also Adding a tiny drop of detergent which will help the liquid stick to the plant leaves when sprayed.(update this worked for me )

What other issues have you faced and what have you done ?

Living Compass – Sunflowers

These seeds were given by Mom, she purchased these from lalbhag, one of the botanical gardens in Bangalore , they have various varieties of plants , you name it and you get it there .

Talking about lalbhag , one of the places that remind me of childhood , Awesome flower shows and reason to eat junk and mainly the corn cobs or chollakondai  in the roadside , with pudina chutney and redchilli flakes. Yummy. Definitely miss those days.

Ok, pulling back the thoughts to Doha, Sowed the seeds in the end of Aug, and they bloomed This Nov start – a complete 2 months to bloom .

12 days after sowing 

Never knew or took some time to really check the variety of sunflowers, until today.

I always thought the sunflowers were really big, until my little one bloomed. It makes me happy seeing them thou. Might be the variety is a miniature one, or a false sunflower , need to dig up the packets for the specification, because if you see the packet that i attached to the pot shows a bigger one , not sure what went wrong.

Sowed them in a pot and transplanted them into a couple of pots so they don’t fight for space.

A few survived the heat and a few died. The ones under the net had bloomed first, the one directly under the sun died (placed it above the tulsi madam), and the ones opposite the tulsi madam are still catching up.

These plants are living compasses, had planted a few facing east and few facing west.

Remember the ones I told bloomed, it was planted facing west but when it matured it was facing east, just had to go a little front and click. Looks lovely isn't it, thou small and couple of petals are yet to bloom completely.

After 2 months 

All i did was Just watered twice a day and added a little cows manure while I transplanted it.

Let me know if you planted one of these and how did it turn up .Tata !

In Love with Bee's & Ash Gourd

It’s one of the Veggies that love warm weather, It’s also called as white Gourd,Wax Gourd Elavan in Malayalam , Kondol in tagalong and so on .

They are covered with a white chalky wax which deters Pest, and helps the Gourd to get more life.

It’s one of the veggies that is a must in my house in a week, for variety of recipes like the Avial , Olan etc yummy and simple to cook .

In Ayurveda remedies it used to increase appetite, its fresh juice is used to cure kidney stones, the seeds are cooked in milk and taken to increase sperm count and to improve sperm locomotion.

The one that I posted grew from the compost; it just came up without much fuss I would say.

When I saw this one grown up fast, all I did was moved it to another location where it could utilize some support to grow up.

I had some Trellis built for the beans, but Gourd utilized that and also provided some shade for the little beans that were growing in the ground.

From Compost , In Pot 

When I started seeing  some flowers , I added some cows manure , every 15 days – not sure if its correct procedure thou , but that did increase the amount of flowers .

There were days that I always longed to see how the bees pollinated, Google did say that bees could arrive in any place except Antarctica, but didn’t have any hope since the place behind my backyard is vast ,open ground with lots of construction and mud.

But nature always surprises me, I did get to see the bees around the flowers, stood there until they left got a Pic , not clear thou , but they posed for me .

Bee Love

See below male and female flower, just waiting for female to mature .

Male 

Female - yet to bloom

Hoping the process takes place by the bees soon and not waiting for me to hand pollinate.

Waiting continues, learning patience. 

Update as of Nov 19th. -The bees pollinated , But didn't want to take a chance hence hand pollinated the next day as well.Not sure if its right , but below is the outcome .
Its still growing Big , need to give a better support .

Support given - Using the onion bags .

Dec 07 - 2013 Update

Needed the Ash gourd for cooking Molagutal and hence was in a hurry to get it of to our table, guess it could have grown more, but i'm very happy & satisfied .

Tomatoes - Easy to Grow.

Tomatoes –it’s the easiest plant to grow, but hard for me to remember Solanum lycopersicum(botanical name )

I have tried my hands on the tomatoes last April and the outcome was juicy tomatoes. Got some saplings from the Nursery and placed it on the window shelf with some sunlight.

It’s one of the plants that could be grown thou you have some less space. Frankly speaking didn’t take care much, just watered it and put some coffee /Tea leftovers. Mother Nature was kind enough to give me a couple of them.  Had to go on a vacation and it died.

April 2012 - Harvest

H thinking its a ball ! 

Tomatoes are commonly classified as determinate or indeterminate.

Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height; they are often good choices for container growing. Determinate types are preferred who wish to harvest at one time, or interested in canning. 

Indeterminate varieties develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed. They are preferred by who want ripe fruit throughout the season, but in Qatar need to give it a try during real hot season. 

As an intermediate form, there are plants sometimes known as vigorous determinate or semi determinate; these top off like determinates, but produce a second crop after the initial crop. The majority of heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate, although some determinate heirlooms exist.

Once I moved to the new house– I sowed some seeds in the container again, and it was fighting for space when it popped up, but I was lazy to transplant it to another Pot and let it die without watering, feel guilty it was a healthy plant. 

It was interesting to see that it still survived for almost 10 days without watering in this hot season. Believe me it was still green; just a little work could have saved this one. I dumped it in the compost later.

Another day where I just put the left over tomatoes from my kitchen in a pot with some soil, it grew there also, but it was very leggy, so had to pull it off.

Now I’m back again with a new set of seeds from Carrefour, purchased it last shopping, sowed it in the seed tray last night. They say we need to keep the seed tray under a cool place first, and when it germinates we transplant .But I’m trying it just under a normal Netted place with some sunlight. Just watering it twice a day.

 To help avoid fungal problems later once it grows, avoid getting the leaves wet when you’re watering the soil. O yeah and the brand that I have purchased is Marglobe , which is supposed to be a determinate variety , if it’s a real one which is expected to grow 4-5`, but some sources do say its indeterminate , There are lots of attributes hmm..  I just wish it tasted better and fun to grow with zero pest.

Also have googled to see, companion planting for Tomatoes, to make it sweeter and distract the insects, its basil.I have a couple of them going to see later if it makes any difference.

Further I also sowed some spear mint or pudina in the seed tray, I'll write a separate post on it later , this seems to be a lengthy one , :)  hope you liked it and happy planting , share your tomato experience !

Droopy September will End

Did i say ,I transplanted some big plants from the pot to the ground to keep me going with the gardening. Here you go, Jasmine, Hibiscus, Thechhipoo, and another kind of jasmine, had survived a couple of months.

They say its planting season now in Qatar (September – April), looks like the opposite for me at least with these plants!

Looks like the poor little ones are droopy due to high dusty winds and might be due to other reasons .

Have tried Trimming the topper layer of the Hibiscus plants and the new leaves does appear, As much as I want to be positive with the planting on the ground, I’m still not sure what would be the results .I’m just going to get some healthy cutting out of these plants and   put it in the pots to see if it makes any difference.

With rest of the plants like the Carrot, Amaranths, Coriander, Methi hasn't worked out for me, all in pots with a mix of the potting soil and Sand except for the coriander I sowed it on the ground without much thinking.

Other plants like beans, corn, Banana, papaya and plants from the kitchen waste like some Variety of Gourds are growing up giving me some hope .O yeah and left out to mention some papaya saplings also from the kitchen waste seem to pop up.

I’m no going to stop exploring and lose hope ; I’m going to plant more.

- Update : Saturday went to Carrefour Purchased more seeds .

Update : march 10 2014:
Didn't i say it will end , yes .Most of my other plants looks better now . Hibiscus for the first time in so many days have many leaves and buds , waiting for it to bloom .Rest of the big plants didn't survive thou :( its fine , everything has a new beginning , learning to be positive

Comfort Planting - Amaranthus , Gelosia, Aster & Balsam

A whole day of activity at my friends place making ganesha’s , a pre-prep for the Ganesh Chaturthi - All these years I get some clay and make my own one, gives an immense satisfaction. This time my friends gave in, Had a lot of fun.

Later Went to drop my friend, visited her garden, its green! With lots of Tuberoses (Sambangi in Tamil) , basil and the list goes on, liked the way they have used the drip irrigation .

Later in the evening, it was comfort planting time.  If you asked if Endorphins were released in my brains? , yeah, give it a try.

Planted the Brinjal sapling given by my friend, then the Amaranthus (bleeding Mary), Gelosia Mix, Aster Dwarf, Balsam sent by mom. 

Not to mention, little one helped with filling the soil. Hug & Kisses in the middle of planting is a perfect combo.

Used the left over Almarai bottles and the Britannia base initially for sowing seeds, then would transplant later when it pop’s up.

Britannia base has the Aster 

Almarai bottles - Gelosia Mix,Balsam

Add the Names ,  its handy to recognize the sapling later.

My Day ended up with more friends visiting us, a blessed Day. 

Update as of today (Nov 19)

- Gelosia Mix and Balsam - came up . Aster Failed to show up. Amaranthus failed as well twice .

Feb 04-2014 - An update on the Brinjal Sapling - After a long 5 month on the ground , Lost 3 of these sapling all dried up . One of them Bloomed today with a beautiful Purple Colour Flower , thou the plant doesn't look healthy, i m happy  and this is enough to keep me going , nature has its own ways and own reasons . I didn't take care of it much , but it still loved me . Love you Brinjal !