Kitchen Garden a.k.a Herb Garden

Hello friends. I have been sharing my journey from a sandlot to a peaceful and serene garden over the last couple of posts. You can view it here :- Final Garden Makeover

I read somewhere ” To plant a seed is to have hope in tomorrow.”  I don’t know how long, we may stay in this house ~ but I know, if any of our trees survive, it will be a source of joy for the next tenant.  I may not be able to enjoy the fruits of the tree but atleast, its something positive and fruitful that I left in this world where greed and consumerism has been a major cause for mass deforestation.

We have a lovely narrow patch in the backyard right behind my kitchen, part of which was being used as my DIY work area ( more like dumping ground !! ) with loads and loads of wooden planks, pallets stacked up and paint cans everywhere.

The dead sandlot

In all my previous homes, we grew all the herbs in pots but this year, I decided to be more adventurous ~ why adventurous ? Becoz herbs don’t survive outdoors in the summer 😦  But I felt it was worth a try. We’ll see.

We bought several pots of baby plants from the nursery in Al Warsan area, which included :- Basil, coriander, Tulsi, green chilli, capsicum, aubergine, okra, green beans and tomatoes,

We also bought a few larger plants which will “hopefully” grow up to be trees such as Fig, lemon, pomergranate and Curry leaves plant.

After clearing that patch, we decided to use the pallets, to make large rectangle frames.  Three frames were laid next to eachother with a small gap in between. We then  prepared the bed of soil and compost and later had the plants planted.

Baby basil

 

Baby coriander ~ a must in almost all indian dishes

Tomatoes ~ You have to provide a trellis or a system which can support the tomato plants becoz they tend to become very heavy once they start bearing fruits.

 

Raised bed with Pallets for cabbage and aubergine.

My kitchen garden made with pallets 🙂

Quite honestly, it has been just booming since then !! Very little maintenance and we’ve had an endless supply of tomatoes, green chillies, curry leaves and coriander leaves.  All the trees have rewarded us with their first fruits. Yippee !! All the photographs below are of almost 3 – 4 weeks after being planted.

Basil and capsicum

 

capsicum

 

Can you spot the lemon ??

 

At this point, the cabbage started having uninvited visitors ~ green caterpillars.

 

These cherry tomatoes were so sweet once they turned red.

 

The coriander just took off ~ it grew into a bush !!

 

These are curry leaves.

 

Strawberries

 

Can you spot the fruit ? What fruit is it ?

I love the shape of the leaves of this fig plant.

 

Yummy ! Green chilly

 

Lemons

tomatoes sprawling everywhere.

 

Tulsi

And that’s where the fairy tale ends !! Ofcourse, this will not last long. Come May, the heat will dry everything out 😦   We have tied a nice canopy from Ace Hardware above the tree area so that they manage to survive the summer.  In the summer, even a tiny protection from the sun goes a long way .

So from November, right uptil now, April ~ we have been happily blessed with the fruit of our small hardwork.  Not only are the tomatoes more juicy but they are so much more sweeter than the store bought ones.

If you’re living in Dubai and even if you have only a small balcony to spare, I highly recommend that you plant a few tomatoes, green chillies and coriander in pots. Just remember to give some form of elevation to support the tomato plants. You’ll be surprised and delighted at how quickly the plants grow.

I am sharing my little kitchen garden a.k.a Herb garden with all my friends at their fantastic parties here.

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So glad you visited me today. Come again 🙂