Yesterday I didn't have any meetings or pressing engagements, it was fairly quiet, so on a whim I swung by the big DHA nursery while running some errands in the afternoon, thinking I might pick up a flower or two to add to the collection.
Ha.
Not only did I pick up a flower or two (geraniums), but I now have a small pot with succulents, three large pots for growing okra (known here as bhindi), and nine celery and nine parsley plants. Whoops.
I also made a new friend, Chaudhry Nazir, who runs the nursery itself. The workers at the nursery pointed me towards him when I asked for help. He is a tall, rail-thin, middle-aged man who was wearing sunglasses, a dress shirt, and a bluetooth thing in his ear. Looking at him your first thought would not be "horticulturist." I started explaining to him that I wanted some plants for my terrace, and his response was, "For what purpose? Anytime people come here to buy plants they want them for a certain purpose. So you want them for shade, for flowers, for fruit, what?" I hadn't really thought of it this way
So I ended up hearing all about his horticulture training, his love for plants, as well as the business he has exporting garden furniture from Thailand...I think he thought I was going to buy some bamboo chairs from him. But it was a nice conversation; he gave me some tips on how to use the compost he sold me (he recommended adding a few inches on top of the regular soil, not mixed with it as I would have thought). At the end of our conversation he gave me as a gift all these little parsley and celery plants, with instructions to replant them in bigger pots when I got home. I haven't gotten to the repotting yet but it needs to be done...guess I'll be making tabbouleh!
Upon arrival back home Amjad (who grew up on a farm) informed me that I had been going about my plant care all wrong, and that by watering my pots every day I was killing the seeds. His method is to water well once, just when they are planted, and then not again until they actually sprout. Not sure how I feel about it but since my method has only yielded a single cucumber sprout out of all the seeds I planted I must be doing something wrong. Amjad, Mushtaq and I carried all the pots up to the balcony, then, taking turns, brought the dirt up in bucketfuls as the bag was splitting from its own weight. I spread the compost (which I'm pretty sure is mostly just cowdung), and then Amjad, in his gruff avuncular way, supervised the planting of the okra seeds, poking the holes in the soil for me in just the right places and instructing me on proper seed depth. He has told me not to water so much, and not to water at all until the sprouts come up.
I figure I'll take his advice for now although I there is a tiny hard corner of myself that resents the intrusion (however well-intentioned) into my gardening autonomy; he even told me that he would check on the plants for me and tell me exactly when to water them! Just as a backup I'm going to soak more seeds overnight and see if I can't force them to germinate that way before I put them in the soil. It's been two weeks, I'm seriously losing hope for the bitter gourds and squash that I planted, as well as all the other cucumbers. Commence Plan B.
Ha.
Not only did I pick up a flower or two (geraniums), but I now have a small pot with succulents, three large pots for growing okra (known here as bhindi), and nine celery and nine parsley plants. Whoops.
I also made a new friend, Chaudhry Nazir, who runs the nursery itself. The workers at the nursery pointed me towards him when I asked for help. He is a tall, rail-thin, middle-aged man who was wearing sunglasses, a dress shirt, and a bluetooth thing in his ear. Looking at him your first thought would not be "horticulturist." I started explaining to him that I wanted some plants for my terrace, and his response was, "For what purpose? Anytime people come here to buy plants they want them for a certain purpose. So you want them for shade, for flowers, for fruit, what?" I hadn't really thought of it this way
So I ended up hearing all about his horticulture training, his love for plants, as well as the business he has exporting garden furniture from Thailand...I think he thought I was going to buy some bamboo chairs from him. But it was a nice conversation; he gave me some tips on how to use the compost he sold me (he recommended adding a few inches on top of the regular soil, not mixed with it as I would have thought). At the end of our conversation he gave me as a gift all these little parsley and celery plants, with instructions to replant them in bigger pots when I got home. I haven't gotten to the repotting yet but it needs to be done...guess I'll be making tabbouleh!
Upon arrival back home Amjad (who grew up on a farm) informed me that I had been going about my plant care all wrong, and that by watering my pots every day I was killing the seeds. His method is to water well once, just when they are planted, and then not again until they actually sprout. Not sure how I feel about it but since my method has only yielded a single cucumber sprout out of all the seeds I planted I must be doing something wrong. Amjad, Mushtaq and I carried all the pots up to the balcony, then, taking turns, brought the dirt up in bucketfuls as the bag was splitting from its own weight. I spread the compost (which I'm pretty sure is mostly just cowdung), and then Amjad, in his gruff avuncular way, supervised the planting of the okra seeds, poking the holes in the soil for me in just the right places and instructing me on proper seed depth. He has told me not to water so much, and not to water at all until the sprouts come up.
I figure I'll take his advice for now although I there is a tiny hard corner of myself that resents the intrusion (however well-intentioned) into my gardening autonomy; he even told me that he would check on the plants for me and tell me exactly when to water them! Just as a backup I'm going to soak more seeds overnight and see if I can't force them to germinate that way before I put them in the soil. It's been two weeks, I'm seriously losing hope for the bitter gourds and squash that I planted, as well as all the other cucumbers. Commence Plan B.
All the new plants, lined up in a row. I had tried to put them in an artful clump but was informed that it wouldn't look nice...sigh. I'll change it around when I repot all the parsley and celery.
My new succulent, gorgeous color.
Bag o'dung
Okra seeds!
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