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Local Varieties v/s Hybrids

Local Varieties are in the lead - with raddish and cluster-beans scoring really early in the game (3 days only). It could be anybody's game, but a round of applauses for the early strikers, Local Varieties!!

Cluster-beanie-babies
(Chitki-Mitki/Gawar)

Birth of a baingan plant (brinjal)

Onions in the making

Hard work!

It really is a lot of hard work getting the garden ready! But it was fun, and with Shambhaji and Shivnath's help, we managed to prepare 4 beds, mix in vermi-compost and farm yard manure (FYM), make furrows, select and sow seeds and finally water the beds!! All in three and a half hours on a Saturday morning. Some pictures below to tell the tale.

Mixing of FYM and breaking down the clumps of soil

Shambhaji and Shivnath take the lead

Four quadrants, watered and ready!

As usual, I'll use my geeky naming system - we have 4 quadrants - and it's easy to remember which is 1 - 4 (clock-wise, starting top-left, they are 1 to 4).

• Quad1 has mooli (raddish) - 3 rows of the local variety and the remaining hybrid
  
• Quad2 has a few rows of baingan (brinjal), and a few of shimla mirchi, (capsicum or peppers)
• Quad3 has all the leafy stuff - palak (spinach), tambadi bhaji (English name??) , lettuce and some parsley (I'm not sure the seeds were healthy, so we planted just one row - not too confident we'll have any parsley growing)
  
• Quad4 has gawar/chitki-mitki (cluster beans I think) - 4 rows of the local variety, and the remaining hybrid
  

Breaking new ground...

I managed to plant a few seeds yesterday! It rained a little and was overcast - but I wanted to get started so I did. :-)

Maybe I didn't read the right things, but when I went to the garden, I had no idea where to begin. So with Santosh's help, I dug a few furrows, planted some seeds, covered them up with mud and left it at that. Seemed simple enough. We planted onions and brinjal. There's more where that came from. I'm going to do some proper reading. I'll post something about how to start I guess, for other beginners like me.

I found a booklet on kitchen gardening written by the Agriculture Officers' Association in Panaji, Goa. It is called "Kitchen Garden Manual". It was printed in 2003 bu the officer's assocation. If you are in Goa, you can contact the Agriculture Dpt at their new office in Tonca (phone nos. +91-832-2465443/2425910/2436851/2226445) to see if they have copies available.

This booklet describes (not in detail, but enough to give one a sense of things) how to plan the layout of your garden, how to prepare the land, water management, pesticides (unfortunately, organic agriculture is under the heading "New Concepts in Kitchen Garden"), diseases etc...

Rain rain...Go away....

Party pooper!

It just won't stop raining. It's raining like it's the middle of July!
Paddy has been harvested in some areas in Taleigao - I saw them taking away bag-loads of rice. Those who haven't harvested yet, must be cursing the weather.

October Clouds...

We've decided to plant this Friday - come hell or high water - literally.