My most popular post-Buying seeds online

Among all the posts so far on this blog, i just realized that there is one post which most people are keen to visit, and that's none other than http://indiagardening.blogspot.in/2010/06/buying-seeds-online-in-india-finally.html- " Buying Seeds Online in India - Finally a website"

I realized that if one googles "Buying Seeds Online", this blog gets listed right at the top and the post above is shown. Thanks readers for this. However, i feel that the post was done long back and since then, there are quite a few options to buy seeds online. I will soon review some websites that sell seeds online. 

Buying tip for online shoppers:

I've been using cashkaro.com to save money on websites I use anyway like Flipkart, Yatra, Jabong and more. I thought this would be useful for you too. It's free to join and you can easily save Rs 10,000 every year. 

How to Grow Ginger - A super plant to grow in India

Ginger forms a part of everyday cooking in India. Called as adhrak in Hindi and Injee in Tamil, ginger is usually crushed and added to any dish to spice it up. Ginger tea is famous too. Its medicinal properties are well know and ginger helps clear common cold as well as digestion problems. 

Ginger plants

How to Grow Ginger
Growing ginger is very easy. When you hop to the vegetable store, look for ginger which has small sprouts coming out of it. 
Soak the ginger with sprouts in warm water overnight. 
Loosen up soil and plant the ginger with the sprouts facing upwards. 
And all you have to do now is water it and wait for it to grow. Soon, in less than a week, you will find the plant with few thin sharp leaves , and lo.. the ginger plant has started growing.

After 45 days, you can harvest and take the ginger. Be sure to now plant back a small part so that you can get more ginger soon!

For those who have grown Turmeric, you will find a lot of similarity to Ginger - the way the roots are, the growing pattern and all. 

Garden Tool Set - Now at a discount price

The following set of three garden tools is now on Discount Sale. Click here http://www.snapdeal.com/product/the-decoration-store-garden-tool/236282?pos=60;156 for details and online purchase.

Decorating the Garden - A super buy

Here's a beautiful add-on to the garden. Its a climbing squirrel. Such Garden Decor are sure to spice up the garden. Kids will love these if they see these.
These are available at http://www.fabfurnish.com/My-Garden-Climbing-Squirrel-33178.html

Solar Lamps - A beautiful addition to the garden

Solar Lamps are a beautiful addition to the garden, especially in South India where the sun is bright and shiny almost throughout the year. The benefits are two fold - since the lights are in the garden, they are exposed to the sun anyway, so it makes sense to utilize the solar energy. Its a wonderful way of contributing our mite to the conservation of resources and using non-conventional sources of energy. Another major benefit will be that we will avoid running electric wires across the garden. 

We owe so many things to the Sun, including this:

No doubt there are several occasions on which prayers are offered to the Sun according to our Hindu Culture. 

A nice website for buying seeds online

Here's a nice website that offers seeds online at very genuine prices. And the site is:

plantsmans.com

The site provides a variety of flower and vegetable seeds. Some interesting categories include "Indian" variety seeds and "English" ones. 
In the vegetable category, we have seeds of beans, lady's finger, Bitter Gourd, Bottle Gourd, Varieties of Brinjal, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chilly, Coriander, Cucumber, Musk Melon, Onion, Peas, Radish, Palak, Tomatoes and turnip. 

The site has come up with some interesting offerings - amazing deals on combo packs that have been conveniently categorized as:

• Summer Kitchen Garden Kit
• Winter Kitchen Garden Kit
• Summer Flower Seed Kit
• Winter Flower Seed Kit

We get close to 130grams of seeds spanning about 10-12 crop varieties for a mere Rs. 99. 

IndiaGardening Strongly recommends www.plantsmans.com as a great destination for buying seeds online.

Making your own seeds

Interesting - isn't it. It took me quite some while to realize that making seeds is easier than making Plants! Yes, you heard me right. That's because the time and effort required to make seeds is quite less. 

Now that I've captured your interest, let me tell you how exactly to "make" your own seeds. The procedure is quite simple. 

Take the vegetables like lady's finger/ beans/ double beans/ drum sticks/ peas etc. that contain the green seeds in them, and put them in a polythene bag. Ensure that the vegetable is dry. Put this polythene bag in a refrigerator and forget it, (I mean it) for about 1 week's time. After a week, open the bag and observe that the vegetable has got fully dehydrated(lost all water/ moisture) and has become dry. Carefully open the outer cover of the vegetable and lo - what you have in front of you are seeds - those beautiful things which can now go into your garden and with adequate care will sprout into beautiful plants.

You can also use this dehydration method to remove moisture from potatoes and other vegetables before making fried chips out of them - this way, they are crispier and consume very less oil.

The time to start growing Beans

Its that time of the year when the summer is almost over in South India and its going to start raining. Now is the ideal time to start planting Beans. There are two varieties of Beans - one is a beautiful climber and the other is a plant. Both  grow very quickly - the plant is almost stable in a fortnight and then, starts yielding the vegetable in another 20 days' time. 

BEANS

Some tips to grow beans:

1. Try to grow atleast two dozen plants - only then will the yield be sufficient to make any dish. 

2. Don't grow in direct sunlight. A little shade will help.

3. Do not water heavily - it will lead to the plant decomposing.

4. Any natural nutrient can be added after two weeks. 

The vegetable can also be eaten raw when it is fresh - you will find it very sweet.