My experiments with Gardening

Being a multi-hobbiest animal, if someone asks me about my hobby, I have to name a few and gardening is one of them. I have no doubts that I have acquired this love from my dear mom. My mom is real passionate about plants and this green habitat, no wonder she finds time from her busy schedule for her lovely garden; she does manage watering plants even in scarce water problems in my region (Akola, Maharashtra). We don't have bore-well at home and that's really not a problem for not having water as most of the bore-wells in our colony are dead dry. We get water from our taps once in a week(and now they are talking about once in 15 days) and that's only water source for livelihood. Still out garden is green and plants are blooming.

I remember those days when we used to live in small rented house and never had a big backyard for gardening. My mom used to plant trees in whatever available container and there were trees in almost every nook and corner of our home. Near TV, in windows, on stairs, hanging from ceilings and almost every place. No wonder trees make our surrounding pleasant. I always helped mom in gardening and from there I picked this hobby. Apart from planting flowering trees, we used to plant vegetables like cauliflower, egg plant(brinjal), some beans, bitter melon, lady finger onions etc. I remember once we had around 10-15 types of cactus in our garden and most of the people will be surprised to know how beautiful flowers can bloom on cactus. They are brilliantly bright colored and very attractive. Most of them last for almost 10-15 days on plant but I remember a cactus which bloomed only once in our home and the flowers were pure white in color and bloom only for a night. Surprisingly they were so aromatic that they can easily beat jasmine which is well known for its fragrance. Now with bigger home and enough space for gardening we have fruit trees like Banana, papaya, guava, mango, custard apple etc. We even have lotus in a small tank.

Being away from home for almost for 6 years now and living as a bachelors at many places, love for plants didn't budge for me but considering different constraints at various places I couldn't do much. Still I always had at least a pot or two for my plants. Now when I moved to separate apartment with my life partner, I got a chance to have my little patio garden(8 X 5 feet). I planted daffodils and tulips in the season and now that their season is over they are replaced by marigold, zenias and some ornamental annuals. Tomatoes are dwelling nicely on my tomato trees and I am waiting for chilies to show up now. With some trips to nursery, I came to know about various varieties of tomatoes like big boy, early girl, cherry tomatoes, better boy, Amish tomatoes, plum tomatoes, Roma tomatoes etc and their maturity periods. They vary in fruit size, plant size, tastes, maturity times and these are the factors which helps to pick varieties for your garden. I choose Amish and Roma tomatoes as their plants are comparatively smaller so that I can plant them in pots and they suits close to our Indian taste buds. I learned that tomatoes plants are very rigid and hence can grow in almost any climate, place and that's the reason they are first choice for home garden. Very innovative and funny way to grow tomatoes is in topsy-turvy fashion. People grow them in hanging baskets upside down.

My garden is warm welcome to my friends in our home and for me it's a place of my own. Many times I sit in my little garden enjoying my cup of tea. Though Chicago has extreme climates but it won't stop anyone from gardening, just that we will have to bend a little to blend with city's climate.

Here are some pics of my garden, hope you like them. Keep walking, keep working...Keep your heart green.