Eating away!: The joys of an apartment kitchen garden...

You know, there is no better feeling you get when you eat freshly picked, home-grown produce, however little or small may it be. These jewels of the earth add a completely new dimension to our cooking, giving the food what the French call goût de terroir, or taste of the earth. We all know how much that 'organic' tag on a handful of neatly wrapped veggies or fruits rips us off, so why don't we resolve that problem, and grow our own.

Yes, residents of Dubai (or any other place for that matter), you heard me, grow your own. Of course, that's no big problem for people living in villas or in houses with gardens. But for us people residing in apartments, there is slight issue. We don't have space. We usually have small balconies half-occupied by clothes-drying-stands and mops, and so on. So what? No one's telling you to have a farm ready, right? All that is being said is that we all should have a few pots with essential herbs, and vegetables, which will ultimately save money on basics, will make your balcony look greener and better, and give your food the taste of the earth which kick your food up a notch.

Fresh Mint, A Ginger Sprout (Extereme right)

Two very Indian herbs: The tall one is a curry leaf plant, while the shrub is the holy basil (tulsi) plant.

I can confidently swear that a kitchen garden makes such a difference to your life... you suddenly find yourself with more knowledge on plants and gardening, your food seems much more fresher, your house looks greener, and finally, you end up saving some of your food budget, which would previously be spent on these basics! And thinking of it, even the disadvantages are hidden boons. If the plant ends up wilting and dies, the decomposing plant will become compost and will make the pot soil even more fertile! Don't we all love things with multiple benefits and no disadvantages? The only cost would be buying the saplings of herbs like mint, coriander, basil, and curry leaves which are slightly difficult to grow from seed, but otherwise, all your growing supplies are at home! For example, planting of chillies can be done from the dried chillies we use at home! Just cut open one of the dried ones and collect the small, disc like yellowish seeds. All you need to do now is wet some soil, rake it, and scatter the seeds! Easy as pie.

Coming back to the subject, we can plant a variety of plants in the apartment environment, but over here practicality and being sensible is key. All of us need to plant stuff that we actually use everyday. For example, we planted stuff like coriander, chillies, lemons, curry leaves, tulsi, basil, mint, tomatoes and onions, which we actually use most of the times. Once these basics are established, then the leftover balcony space is your playground.

Get some pots and soil and experiment with different seeds! See if they grow or not. If they do, well, congrats! If they don't, just rake the soil a little and put some other seeds in the pot. Try growing veggies, fruits, herbs, and even miniature trees. We tried growing passion fruit, watermelon, fennel, eggplant, beans and gourds in the balcony. The first four grew well, but the last two just sprouted and withered. That was a good experiment though.

Fiery Indian chillies, all home grown.

There's a nice, fat, juicy eggplant... yum.

A kitchen garden, to sum it all up, is not a tiresome bore, which you have to constantly watch and take care of. It is in fact, an investment of time and care. Ultimately, the plants will be the fruit of your effort, patience, and TLC (Tender Loving Care). The best part is, that when the plants start giving you what you want, they usually never stop. It's like they're repaying you for all the effort you put into them. (BTW, that was my philosophical side. I bet you're bored right? Don't worry, even I'm tired of writing about plants now. *cracking of knuckles and sigh of relief* )

A quote as the icing on the cake:

"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust."

--Gertrude Jekyll