Garden Log, June 2010
Table Rose (Moss Rose) in Bloom
June started with warm weather and thunderstorms here in Houston.
Yellow squash and zucchini plants are in their final stage, so had to remove them. They were such characters with those big, prolific leaves, flowers and fruit. With them gone, the veggie patch seemed little empty this evening.
Planted few more seeds of turai, chikkudu and karela.
On green leafy front, sowed green and red amaranth (thotakura) seeds and another patch of gongura seeds last week. They thrive in hot weather and the seedlings are coming up nicely.
Kept few cucumbers on the vine until they are very big and mature for seeds.
Weighed the tomato harvest today. Yield was 10 pounds. Another 5 pounds from the last two weeks for a total of 15 pounds from 12 plants. There are still at least another two pounds of tomatoes on the plants. Not bad.
Tomato plants are growing tall, but there are no new flowers/fruit. Would it be helpful to prune the tomato plants to encourage new growth and fruit? Appreciate response from experienced tomato growers.
Here are some vegetable harvest photos for this week:
Tomatoes (Brandywine, Celebrity, Cherokee Purple), 10 pounds and
12 cherry tomatoes
1 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 5 cucumbers, 6 mirchi
3 bell peppers, 7 brinjals, 12 okra
3 ripe cucumbers for seeds
I wish I lived nearby you :). Its a long time after I am seeing table rose. The click is very beautiful.
Ah! so lovely rose! beautiful shot, Indira. Ahh…I wonder what’s coming up on Mahanandi with this new batch of veges. 🙂
Dear Indira,
That rose is so beautiful.Tender and hopeful is how I see it.
Somehow it brings tears to the eyes.
Waav… Indira, I wish I was your neighbor 🙂
Wow, the home grown vegetables look awesome. me jealous:-) I have never seen such healthy vegetables growing here in Dallas.
hi, nice harvest of veggies….
i have a question….regarding bell peppers..do u feed anything special(fertilizers) for the bell peppers,because our have yielded very small sized peppers..we live in california, pittsburg.
Indira,
I started looking at your garden log and I am amazed.. Awesome effort and I am glad it is paying off so beautifully for you!
I live in Austin here and have lot of interest in gardening, but havent been successful though.. Would love to get some tips from you..Also if you’d care to mention when u started planting – Feb/Mar, that will be gr8.. Hats off to you for setting up an amazing garden..
Indira,
Where do you get all of your seeds for Indian veggies and greens…ie., turai, amaranth etc?
Thanks all for your comments.
Manju and Kay: You are always welcome to my home.:)
Hi Rashmy: Austin weather suits veggie gardening. Here is the link to my planting details. Good luck with your garden.
Sue: Most of the Indian veggie seeds are from friends, from India. Amaranth seeds, I got them from a local Chinese grocery shop called Wel-Farm.
Indira,
I tried planting turai seeds fresh from the vegetable but the plants never grew and so I dried the seeds and then planted them, again no plants. I live in NJ. is there anything special i need to do? Turai is my fav veggie
Hi Indra, you’ve got green fingers & are creative in the kitchen. Something I aspire as well. I just started growing tomatoes, recently, but they ususally have blemishes or ripen before reaching a decent size. Any clues???
Hi Indra,
I am looking to start a raised-bed like yours but I have afew questions.
1. How did you keep grass from coming into the raised-bed? Did you use landscape fabric at the bottom of bed?
2. Where did you get soil for raised bed and if you mix them yourself what’s the ratio? They can be very costly if I have to buy them in bags.
3. Did you use cedar or pine?
4. What did you do to stop weeds from invading raised-bed?
5. In what size did you make these beds?
Thank you so much…..waiting for your response.
We just harvested mesclun greens, cilantro, dill from our garden today! The radishes and beets are coming up and making us smile at their eagerness! Transplanted zucchini and the cukes today! Lot of tiny chards and spinach have come up. Tomato plants have some flowers.. Met a great gardener in the community garden!
And I finally understand why chinese farmers have umbrella hats! Tooooo hot to garden during the day!
That’s wonderful, Kay! I feel very happy for you. Wishing you bountiful harvest for this summer season.
About the umbrella hats, I know.:) I’ve been looking for the same one to buy for my head, but no luck so far.
-Indira
Indira gaaru,
Got a small question on gardening.
I have this huge wildly spread chikkudu teega but no
‘kaayalu ‘. Can you help?
Can we cook something with the leaves they look so
fresh and nice.
same question about my Dosakai teega…plenty of blooms – no fruit.
dhanyavadam….you website is fantastic.
-Anil
Hello Anil gaaru, thanks for your previous note and good words about my website Mahanandi. I am a big fan of wonderful work you are all doing through Anjali center. It’s great to see your comments at Mahanandi.
About the chikkudu and dosakai – either it’s because the seeds are not of good quality. or when they are planted close together, with so many sucker plants close by, sometimes they go into repressive mode and do not produce flowers and fruit. Keep the dominant plant and remove the small and sucker plants nearby. Avoid overfeeding with nitrogen based fertilizers. Hope you find these tips helpful. Good luck with the harvest.
-Indira
Hi,
I had a bountiful year barring a couple of problems
My valor beans were very prolific, but they taste very leathery and after 45 mins of boiling are not soft. This happnes no matter what size I harvest it.
is there ANY American squash that comes close to Dosakaya in its taste?- I really like it but my Dosakai come in very small
Your site is wonderful, please keep up the good work
Hi Indira garu,
I love ur website. Your interest and effort in growing these plants has helped me also get some interest now. The way u show meticulously the various steps to cook. U wer one of my inspirations to learn and love to cook. Thanks a lot for the encouragement u give people like me who r new to the world of cooking.