I must admit I have been bitten by the gardening bug lately. I have absolutely no idea how this happened, but one fine day I woke up and realised that I wanted to have a teeny tiny vegetable garden of my very own!
At the outset, let me tell you, I am completely new to the gardening world and have no farming/gardening/planting experience whatsoever, so I turned to the one and only source all of us think of in times of need-- GOOGLE the all knowing. After going through God knows how many blogs and innumerable videos, I decided I would have a potted garden on my house terrace to grow my veggies.
Now that the type of garden was decided upon, I arrived at the next step- deciding what to start with. The first and most famous/loved/used kitchen item that came to my mind was Coriander, also known as Cilantro. It is a well known fact that coriander is among the most commonly used herbs in kitchens all over the world, and it is no different at my home. And well, the idea of having your own coriander at home, growing in little pots, which you can pluck and use whenever you need to (not to mention "FREE") is reason enough to want to end up growing heaps of it at home. Hence began my great adventure with Cilantro (or the lack of it).
The blogs and videos I had read and viewed made me think it was a piece of cake. But it was only when I actually ventured into it that I realised how tricky growing cilantro at home can be. After planting my first batch of seeds, I lovingly watered and watched the pot daily, waiting to see the first sprouts peeping out through the soil. And sprout they did, after a week or so. It is difficult to describe in words the joy I felt seeing those little leaves poking out of the soil! I must admit I felt like a proud mommy that day.
My coriander babies were coming up pretty well for quite some time, making me believe that I would have a first time jackpot cilantro harvest. My happiness and pride was however shortlived, as I woke up one fine day to see that my pretty little coriander plants (which were still pretty small and had just got their true leaves) had been neatly bitten off and eaten the previous night, with absolutely no evidence at the crime scene. As I later discovered, it turns out that pigeons, squirrels, and rats happen to like the taste of cilantro and I believe either one of them must have made a nice midnight snack out of my poor plants!
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| My first attempt at growing cilantro (before it got eaten!) |
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| My subsequent not so successful attempts-1 |
Needless to say, I was pretty heartbroken to see my dear babies mutilated and eaten, and it was only after a few weeks that I could muster the courage to sow a fresh batch of seeds. My initial luck didn't last though, as this batch simply refused to sprout, no matter how much TLC I gave it. Even the ones that did germinate didn't seem to have the will to survive, and would wither away in a matter or days or weeks. Nothing I was doing seemed to help them survive.
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| Attempt 2 |
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| Attempt 2/3 |
Thankfully, this time I was not disappointed. After months and months of hard work, anticipation and endless disappointment, I finally had a successful coriander harvest, which as of now has been stripped clean by my parents, with the exception of a few flowering stocks that have produced beautiful, fresh seeds. I have also planted a fresh batch of seeds in an abandoned tub along with a single garlic plant (now that's another story altogether), which I am happy to say have produced numerous promising sprouts, thus making me look forward to another successful harvest.
I guess now I can finally say I am a successful (kind of) cilantro farmer!
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| Success at last!!! |
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| The stocks that bolted have gone on to produce seeds... |
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| This batch has nearly been stripped clean, save for the flowering bits! |
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| My latest batch of coriander, with a garlic plant to accompany them! |
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