My strong association with gardening, including through writing weekly articles and making tutorial videos, has created a confusion among my readers and followers who do not regularly visit my place. They think that I might have become something akin to a landlord, with a huge uncovered space at his disposal. Many inquire whether we have a plot near the highway or in some distant area that is specifically dedicated to gardening.
It comes as a shock for many, especially those who use space limitation as an excuse, that my family is practising our hobby solely within the premises of our house. We have, however, made optimal use of whatever limited space we have: installing trellises to ensure vertical gardening, using hangings on grills and balconies, and making the most of the roof and backyard of our home. We have been effectively using our green thumb, with as little expenditure as possible.
We are able to do that because we firmly believe in, teach and promote kitchen gardening using no or negligible resources. This healthy family activity not only helps to fetch us our routine supply of herbs and vegetables, but also helps us to grow some exotic products that are not readily available in the local markets, even at a premium.
The satisfaction of using fresh harvest, directly from the plant to the plate within a few hours, is priceless!
One of the benefits of cultivating your own growing space is getting fresh harvest from the plant to the plate within a few hours…
Another factor is the instant beautification of the house as well, with a colourful array of flowers, cacti, succulents and ornamental plants, with uniquely patterned leaves that may continue to sustain for years, within the same growing space.
Those who visit us — to get a gardening solution, a potted plant, a fresh harvest for their family or just to meet — usually have one strange but identical request. They want us to show them and their children our gardening accomplishments, by taking them on a tour of our gardening space. Most of the time, there is an expression of disbelief, followed by awe and appreciation.
Then there are those who continue to fight the fact that it can be easily done and claim that cultivating and maintaining such a garden requires a massive investment, either monetary or in the form of time. However, we are all working professionals who happen to be absolutely in love with this hobby, which continues to keep us rooted and connected with nature.
Usually, during such visits, the thing that attracts any new gardener is the presence of a fruit or vegetable or some flower on the plant. They simply love to be allowed to pluck one or take one back home — their hard-earned harvest! The experienced gardeners seldom get impressed with the presence of any fruit, flower or herb on the stalk.
The gardening professionals, or even those who have been into this hobby for a longer period, would rather try to understand the soil composition or growing space, the watering mechanism, how the plants are being cared for, or their location with respect to the position of the sun at different times of the day.
We have a tricky situation when someone visits our gardening space in between the two seasons. If anything, the garden hardly looks attractive. But every seasoned gardener knows this is the phase to take care of time-consuming chores: preparing and tilling the soil for the next season, mixing it with fertiliser, removing the old plants, preparing the seedling trays and improving the plant protection measures for the next season. The gardening space is prepared just as a patient or an operation theatre would be prepared before an upcoming surgery!
BOLTING
One important aspect during this phase is bolting. It seems unattractive, but the results are an instant hit among seasoned gardeners.
You might recall that, in our article on red lettuce a few weeks ago, we had discussed how the lettuce changes taste at the end of its life-cycle, and a straight, long and somewhat hardened stalk, with the flower at the top, grows from the centre of the plant — a process known as bolting.
Bolting is a common seed-producing natural mechanism, which usually occurs with flowering plants and leafy vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce. It commences with the change in weather, which makes the continuity of the mother plant impossible, and hence bolting occurs, so that the species survives. Generally, gardeners do not look forward to early bolting of the plant.
Sometimes, the plant begins to bolt earlier due to an unexpected change in the climate or any untoward environmental issue concerning the plant. There are certain ways that gardeners limit unnatural, unwanted and untimely bolting. The striking indications of plant bolting, the delaying methods and harvesting seeds will all be discussed in upcoming articles.
Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening
Published in Dawn, EOS, May 5th, 2024
GARDENING: THE MYTH OF SPACE
32
0
05.05.2024
My strong association with gardening, including through writing weekly articles and making tutorial videos, has created a confusion among my readers and followers who do not regularly visit my place. They think that I might have become something akin to a landlord, with a huge uncovered space at his disposal. Many inquire whether we have a plot near the highway or in some distant area that is specifically dedicated to gardening.
It comes as a shock for many, especially those who use space limitation as an excuse, that my family is practising our hobby solely within the premises of our house. We have, however, made optimal use of whatever limited space we have: installing trellises to ensure vertical gardening, using hangings on grills and balconies, and making the most of the roof and backyard of our home. We have been effectively using our green thumb, with as little expenditure as possible.
We are able to do that because we firmly believe in, teach and promote kitchen gardening using no or negligible resources. This healthy family activity not only helps to fetch us our routine supply of herbs and vegetables, but also helps us to grow some exotic products that are not readily available in the local markets, even at a premium.
The satisfaction of using fresh........
© Dawn (Magazines)
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Abbas Juma
Michael Kwet
