It's one thing tending to the garden, but it's definitely a different feeling when you finally reap the fruits of your hard work.
When we moved to this apartment almost 2 years ago, one of the main things that attracted us was the open space and private entrance to the villa that we have. Since then, we have managed to slowly grow different plants and veggies in this space.
Gardening is so therapeutic. Seeing the garden thrive despite the harsh desert conditions gives both a feeling of pride and accomplishment. All the more, when we start being able to reap what we sow.
I take very little credit for this though. More than anyone it was my husband who really worked so hard here. But yeah, I've had some harvests from here too, like the lettuce and basil. š. It excites me immensely when we get to harvest and I am able to cook them!
Bird Chillis
These bird chillis (Thai chillies) were sown from seeds that I collected after preparing chili-garlic sauce. Hubby made a space for them in the garden and finally, after a few months of waiting, we were able to harvest some of them.
They have actually grown as long as my index fingers!
They are actually still green but are quite matured already. I'm looking forward to use them in one of our dishes in the coming days.
Sweet Potatoes
Look at these greens! They are the leaves of sweet potatoes that we have grown from a single tuber that we cut into 4 and propagated.
For a few of months already, this plant has already provided us with lots of young shoots and leaves. What's amazing about plants, is that the more you prune their leaves the more sprouts they will give.
We normally blanch the leaves and season it with fermented fish sauce and maybe serve with other veggies like grilled eggplant, red onions, and crunchy ripe tomatoes. Oh dear, with this you better prepare a big serving of steamed rice. š
Today, we finally had the chance to harvest some of the tubers!
We got 4 pieces today- one was enormous, weighing 1 kilogram!
So far, I have already used the 3 smaller ones into two dishes - fried sweet potatoes and fresh lumpia.
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Tomatoes
Would you believe that these bushy tomato plants were accidental plants? We compost our kitchen wastes and the seeds that were tossed here grew. We just let them grow there and now they are also already bearing fruits.
We're just waiting for them to ripen and yum! Fresh tomatoes!
Looking forward for more.
There are a few more additions in the garden, like the bitter gourd (ampalaya) now starting to cling on, onions, papaya, and another accidental squash is starting to sprout in the big pit too, which we may just let grow again. The last "accidental" squash that we grew yielded us 4 big pumpkins weighing around 5 kgs. each. Such a generous plant. So we're keeping this one too.
Meanwhile, the kids transplanted today some mung bean sprouts from their science experiment. Hopefully, these will also thrive.
We are so thankful, we were eble to enrich this barren land and have our small green patch here. Having something to serve on our table that came straight from this garden is a miracle in its way.
ā¤ļø Arlyn