When we moved last year, we had to accept change in multiple areas, and our relationship with the immediate outdoors was one such impacted area. We went from a home with a sprawling open space - an ornamental lawn with trees, a large backyard, and a much-loved kitchen garden growing many edibles - to a home on the second floor with two tiny balconies. Space was scarce here, barely enough to fit my plant pots. Growing food seemed out of the question....but I am not the one to give up easily.
In my last organic gardening post, I mentioned that growing summer vegetables like colocasia and bitter gourd can easily be accomplished in containers. This summer I got to test that theory. I planted only bitter gourds since I didn't have any space for colocasia.
 |
| Bottle gourd in my tiny balcony garden |
Then I waited as the vines grew like crazy. The excessive rain didn't help as during monsoon all the pollinators disappear. Also, it is not as easy to grow in containers as growing directly in soil because water management has to be kept optimized.
 |
| Codependent gardening - can you spot the bottle gourd amidst the hibiscus leaves? |
Pollination is crucial to successful vegetable farming. Planting flowers next to our kitchen garden had helped a lot at our previous home. Keeping that in mind, I planted the bitters next to my hibiscus which flowers well during this season. That codependency worked, as occasional bees and butterflies showed up on sunny days. And then we got our veggies!
 |
| My crop of container grown bitter gourds |
The way climate change is hitting us and our food growing farmers, it is time we all learn some organic farming ourselves. If every family learns to grow some seasonal edibles, maybe that will be the first tiny step towards achieving some level of food security.
Maybe I will try growing colocasia next summer...
Posts
