Beginning with Okra

The first Vegetable that I chose is my favourite. I love Okra in any form, particularly when it is made spicy such as Bindi Fry I can just keep on eating them. Apart from this little secret, the reason I chose Okra is it is relatively easy to grow in the hot South Indian climate.

I bought some Okra seeds, soaked them overnight. I took a handlful of small plastic containers (bags) filled them up with garden soil with a little bit of Bio Fertilizer, mainly vermi compost that I picked up from the local nursery. I put two seeds each, just in case. after three-four days I could see the germination happening. Infact most of the seeds germinated , meaning some containers would contain two seedlings. I let them grow like that, with partial sunlight. I exposed them directly to the atmosphere, and let them grow. I would sprinkle water twice daily.

The seedlings started to grow nice and overgrew the container in the second week. There was some unexpected rain that lashed for couple nights. luckily the seedlings that were left exposed survived!

Now in the third week, the seedlings are ready for transplant. Since this is a garden on the roof, my plan is to use portable containers such as clay pots for most of the plants. easy to move around, without worry of overloading the terrace with truck loads of soil. maybe someday I will do a little of that. For now, I obtained about a dozen clay pots, filled them up with garden soil and manure, both from the nursery. I am planning to use the nursery and other external resources for all such needs until such time I can make my own of anything.

I dug deep holes in the middle of the pot, took the Okra seedling with the soil from the plastic container, and planted them in the pot, made a tiny hill around the seedling, burying a litttle bit of the plant. The containers with two seedlings are the challenge, I removed both carefully after laying them down on the gound. separating the roots was done gently. Now all the seedlings are planted.

The kitchen garden has began.