A photographic introduction to my Caribbean vegetable garden...
I can't really remember exactly how I got into gardening. Which is really strange because it was only a few years ago that I tried growing my first tomato plant.
I'm pretty sure it was a failure. (This was not from that first attempt!)
I didn't know what I was doing, but it was a start.
I think the idea of growing your own food is was what really attracted me.
Eggplant for dinner?
Somewhere along the line I had the thought that if it all went to shit - the economy, or Armageddon or zombies or something - I had no real life skills.
Being able to sit in front a computer and design pretty things wouldn't really help shelter, feed or clothe me. I wasn't about to become a master carpenter or seamstress so learning the basics of growing food seemed like a good plan!
But more seriously, I was trying to cultivate habits that improved and maintained a good frame of mind. We often make conscious efforts to maintain our physical health but I think, at least for some of us, the same level of effort needs to be exerted in learning skills that maintain our mental health as well.
And gardening, for me, is one of those skills. Research indicates that several aspects of gardening are really great at boosting mental wellness. From bacteria in the soil that boost serotonin, the dopamine released when we harvest our produce to the very act of just getting outside and moving around in the sunshine and nature.
Tomato nursery. The fact that you can grow a new tomato plant from a piece of another over and over again is magical!
The first vegetable (fruit?) I tried growing was tomato. It seemed so quintessentially "vegetable garden"!
And it seems that I quickly got the hang of it.
Learnt all about Blossom End Rot (BER) along the way
My husband was very supportive of my new hobby.
Basil
Basil is very easy to grow. The key is to prune well!
Then when the plant is starting to get old and woody - take a cutting and put it in some water for a couple days with some sunshine until you see some roots and replant (kitchen windowsill work wonderfully)
And voila - new plants !
Cilantro / Coriander
Living on a small island means a lot of our food and resources are imported. It also means sometimes things are imported that have no business being imported when they can be grown locally! I've seen Cilantro imported from Israel on sale here for USD$10 - that's $20 in local currency!
So I decided to grow my own!
Interestingly, I was able to grow from whole coriander seeds I bought in the spice aisle at the supermarket for a dollar or two!
Sweet Potato
The wonderful thing about living in the tropics is that there's no winter - so all year long is gardening time. To grow these sweet potatoes I literally just put some leftover ends of sweet potato that was bought at the supermarket into a barrel of soil , make sure it was watered if it didn't rain and a few months later...
More potatoes!
I actually really enjoyed learning to recognize and love the different flowers that even a vegetable garden has!
Garlic Chive flowers
Zucchini Flower
I never got any fruit from my zucchini plants though - A challenge for another day!
And of course my favorite, Passion Fruit flowers
Mmm tasty passion fruit! This vine went crazy!!
One of my other favorite things is seeing seedlings break the surface and sprout!
Malabar Spinach
It's such a hopeful sight!
You don't need a lot of land to start gardening.
Most of my gardening was done in containers.
Various lettuce, Arugula etc
In fact all my harvests - except for passions fruit and banana were planted in containers varying from traditional planter boxes for lettuce etc to 5 gallon buckets for Tomatos and eggplant. The largest container being half wooden barrels.
Chinese Cabbage!
Dinner from the garden.
purple basil and sweet pepper
Home grown sweet pepper is so delicious! I noticed how much richer it even smelt!
Tomatoes, eggplant, beans and more sweet pepper!
Bananas!
The banana tree fell over because that's something that can happen if you don't prop them well! So we had lots of Green Bananas to eat for a while!
So here ends part 1 of my photographic journey through Home Gardening
And here is a not so flattering picture of me after pottering in the garden one Saturday morning.