Vegetable gardening

I was keen to try vegetable gardening and started the first lot on my own, after a little reading on the Internet.  I grew brinjal, capsicum, tomato and chilli -- I had fair results with the first three, but no luck with the chillis. Then I attended a wonderful workshop on container vegetable gardening by Mani of geekgardener and Raj of Organic Kitchen Garden blogs and learnt all about the correct way to germinate seeds, transplant the seedlings and feed the growing plants. With their invaluable advice, I 'm hoping to have better results with my second attempt. This time I've planted lettuce, beans, tomato and cucumber with seeds Raj 'sold' (at very nominal prices to ensure people do use the seeds) at the workshop.

Here are some pictures of the first attempt; these were germinated from seed and transplanted into small pots.

Brinjal

Capsicum

Tomato

These plants were further transplanted into large pots, which were to be their final home. Here are pictures of the mature plants with fruit.

Brinjal

Capsicum

Tomato

Finally, here are pictures of the harvested vegetables and the dishes I made from them. 

Brinjals and tomatoes and with a sprig mint also grown on my balcony

Bruschetta and grilled aubergine with yoghurt dip

Except for the garlic in the dip, all the vegetables in these dishes were grown on my balcony!

Plants in my garden

Crown of thorns

Dancing lady begonia

Crocuses

Pink crocuses

Bleeding heart vine - close up

Bleeding heart vine

My first post

A few people have suggested I start my own gardening blog and I've decided to go ahead. I get so much out of seeing other people's blogs, especially those in India, that I decided maybe I should contribute as well.

I've been gardening in Bangalore for about five years now. I have a small strip of garden on the ground floor and a balcony on the first floor of my duplex apartment. Since the ground floor garden doesn't get much sun, over time I've learned which plants will grow well with 2 to 3 hours of sunlight a day, a little more in the summer. They are firebush (pic on the left), mandarin orange, bamboo, ferns, philodendrons, bleeding heart vine (also known as coral vine), clematis (white), chinese evergreen and crown of thorns. I also have two beds in the driveway before our apartment, which get 3-4 hours of sun, and am currently growing hibiscus, guplphima, heliconia, star jasmine and crocus there.

I'm new to blogging and find I can't add more pictures to this post so will start another and post more pics there.