Sunday 7 June 2020

Organic Farming | Cucumber, Indian Squash, Ridge Gourd, Bottle Gourd & Bitter Gourd

"We need more young people involved in farming because the future needs real food" - Helena Sylvester.

What if vegetables and fruits were not made available to us during this pandemic? What if there was a shortage? Do we have a back-up?

With such questions in mind, starting organic potting and organic farming seemed like a decent idea. After arranging some seeds of seasonal vegetables and herbs, some were sowed in pots, and others in the garden.

Despite watering them daily for five to six days, I couldn't see any results. While anticipating some of them to grow out of the mud, I was starting to wonder if they ever will. None of the cucumber or kheera seeds sprouted. Then I sowed some new ones, and this was the result:


Lesson 1: Have faith, have patience, and try again!

One or two days later, most of the Indian squash or tinda seeds looked like this:


And within a quarter day, I saw this:


This one wanted to say something:



But soon they started to frail away, and I realized they needed special care. Some of the saplings that survived are growing very slowly.

Lesson 2: Each dream needs to be nurtured differently. Some of them require a soothing environment to grow.

On the other hand, the two ridge gourd or turai saplings were just out there.


 



Lesson 3: Focus more on areas where you can grow effortlessly or with minimal effort. In other words, nurture your strengths.

Here is bottle gourd or lauki:


And here is bitter gourd or karela!


 

 


Bonus Lesson: Sometimes, beginnings are bittersweet.