GARDEN LIFE
Grow your own vegetables
Kiran Narain

By careful planning you can get the pleasure of growing and eating garden- fresh vegetables whether you have a large garden or a small plot of land or just enough space to keep some pots. You may give an aesthetic treatment to your kitchen garden by bordering it with an evergreen hedge or surrounding it with climbers trained on pillars, which form an effective partition with the main flower garden. Narrow borders of cut flowers on either side of the pathways could also beautify the vegetable beds.

First of all, see that the space you have at your disposal is free from shade. To prepare the soil, it should be dug deep. You can divide the plot in different beds keeping paths in between for free movement. Add organic manure, which would be much cheaper and better than the chemical fertilisers. Good drainage is also essential, so avoid low-lying areas.

Certain vegetables, like beans, peas, radish, lady’s finger, gourds, spinach, fenugreek, etc, are sown in situ while others, like brinjals, tomatoes, chillis, cabbage, cauliflowers, knol khols, onions, lettuce, etc, are sown in nursery beds, pans or flats in rows about four inches apart. Cover them thinly with a layer of fine ash, humus or sifted soil. Water them gently only with a can having fine hose. You can spread a light layer of hay over the beds or cover it with plastic net for the first few days till the seeds germinate. Most of the seedlings take about a week’s time to germinate but they should be transplanted only when they are between three or four inches high. Before transplanting, keep the beds ready to receive them.

Now on an evening, water the seedling beds. Do not pull out the seedlings from the bed, but lift them gently along with some soil, using a three-pronged hand rake or a khurpi. Plant them in the beds along with the soil and water them one or two times daily till they are well established.

Alternate cropping

The best results are obtained by not growing the same crops over and over again on the same piece of ground. There are two main reasons for this; first, certain soil-borne pests and diseases attack only one type of crop and secondly, leguminous crops, such as peas and beans, have a special ability to take in atmospheric nitrogen and transfer it to nodules on their roots, from where it is released into the soil. It is a nice idea to divide your space into three portions, viz, A, B and C, and rotate crops in the following manner:

1st year

A : Peas and beans, tomatoes

B : Lettuce, spinach, fenugreek (Methi), other leafy vegetables

C : Carrots, radish (root vegetables)

2nd year

A : Lettuce, spinach, fenugreek

B : Carrots, radish

C : Peas and beans, tomatoes

3rd year

A : Carrots, radish

B : Peas and beans, tomatoes

C : Lettuce, spinach, fenugreek

The correct season for cultivating different vegetables should be borne in mind. The local nurseryman from whom you buy the seeds can advise to that effect. Cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, peas, beetroots and radish are generally known as winter vegetables in the plains of India. Turnips, carrots, beets and radish are planted a few inches apart. When the leaves are about four to six inches high, the soil is loosened, thinned and heaped around the plant. Carrot, lettuce and radish should be sown about once a fortnight to keep a steady flow to the table from the kitchen garden. Too much of them would mean wastage as they tend to lose quality readily.

Some of the vegetables that can be planted during the monsoons are brinjals chillis, capsicums, tomatoes, lady’s finger and gourds.

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