The joy of growing vegetables

Report and Pictures by Eugene Moodubelle

Moodubelle, 21 February 2010: There are certain things in life which bring joy and happiness in the lives of people without having to spend a lot of money or going long distances. One can look around in one’s own environment, especially in rural areas and observe the nature at work with verities of flora and fauna, changing seasons, flowering of fruit trees and watching the changing phases of the moon and the cluster of stars in the clear sky visible through unpolluted atmosphere. Even growing vegetables can bring joy and happiness for a number of people not only because they get home grown and hygienic vegetables, but watching these vegetables grow right from sprouting of the seeds till they fully give their yield.

Certain circumstances brought me to my native village after retirement and this gave me an opportunity to spend more time doing something or the other which I would not have done during few days of holiday trips earlier. As both my wife and I had to spend most of the time at home, we decided to make best use of it. Though the land around the house is limited and covered with coconut trees, within the available empty space we began to grow certain verities of vegetables under the direction of my mother who gave instruction as to how deep to dig, what kind of manure to be mixed with the soil, how many times  a day the plants should be watered and with how much water, etc.

With the end of the monsoon season we planted seeds of pumpkin, bopla and brinjal. Watching the sprouts grow into small plants and later the pumpkin and bopla plants progressing gradually as creepers with their tender tentacles grabbing the tiny twigs of dry branches and later giving out flowers, saffron coloured in the case of pumpkin and white by bopla has been a treat to the eyes. Every day i would go closer to these plants and notice practically their growth and progress day by day and inch by inch. The creeprs were found to be moving freely in any direction of their choice where they did not encounter any obstacle. It was indeed a great fun watching these creepers climbing the nearby bushes and even trees.

As the space around the coconut trees was insufficient to allow the free run of the pumkin creepers we prompted them to move vertically by props of branches and tying strings in cris-cross manner in a pandal-like arrangement covered with small branches. The creepers did oblige and spread across the make-shift pandal and did yield three pumpkins which were found suspended in air, though one had the support of the coconut tree by the side.

Noticing the bulb like growth beneath the flowers meant that they would grow into a fully developed pumpkins and boplas after few weeks.  Watching these bulbs gradually grow into matured vegetable entities has been a joy of fulfillment that our efforts are being blessed by nature. However, there have been some plants which could not give any yield. There were also creepers which, though showed promise of good yield produced just three or four entities. But still it was a joy to watch these vegetables grow and mature.

Though we had not deliberately sown tomato seeds, two tomato plants just sprang up from the waste that was thrown at the base of the coconut tree. As we nurtured these plants they were generous in giving around two kilograms of tomatoes.

The vegetables that have been grown in the backyard were sufficient to meet our daily needs for a month or so and we also could spare few of them to some of our neighbours who also would oblige us with their own different verities of vegetables that we did not have.