Gardening for food

Some of my friends are hooked to Farm City on Facebook. I can never appreciate the thrill of planting and gardening in the virtual world. I'd very much prefer to enjoy the sight of my plants withering,  flourishing and bearing fruit right in front of me. I want to be able to touch and feel them.

And what gives one more pleasure than gardening for your own food? Moreover, the windows of my room happens to receive the grace of the morning sun almost everyday. Hence I decided to try growing herbs on the window pane. Bought mint, Greek basil, coriander and parsley. The latter died a few days ago but the rest are doing quite alright.

Mint: Doing reasonably well for now, but might need to add fertiliser to fatten up the fellow.

Greek basil: I'm quite proud of this.. it's growing heathily and there're abundant leaves for me to pluck for my cous cous, fried rice and salads.

Lemongrass: This didn't come in a pot. I learnt from the BBC programme, "Growing Your Own Drugs" that you can actually buy the usual one for cooking from the supermarket and leave the stem in a glass of water. The roots will grow after a few days. After about a week, I can't see any roots yet but the tip seems to be greening and growing slightly.

Parsley: Just after a few days, more than half of the poor fellow turned yellow and was withering at an alarming rate despite watering and sunlight. But a miracle happened and the remaining stalks managed to pull through--and now it's flowering! Who knows, I might be able to harvest the seeds in the end?

People say that talking to plants will help to encourage their growth. But I can't imagine saying nice things to a living thing which will eventually end up on your dinner plate.