Kitchen Garden Classroom!!

Big and small there are in total 12 pots and now all have some plants growing in them. They proudly occupy the North West corner of the deck and with every addition now they are covering almost half way to the entire west side of the deck. I start my day usually going out to deck and watering them on hot sunny days or for just seeing them on days when clouds acquire ownership of running the watering errand.  And that is my small kitchen garden nook.

Mint and sweet basil to add the aroma to the recipes and then for the main cuisine red and green peppers, okra, egg plan, green beans and bitter melon, all of them ready to bear fruits. For salads there are green and red tomatoes and cucumber. By the way cucumber is the newest addition in the family. The coriander leaves that didn’t grow well even after multiple tries still are a possibility.

But that is just the list, not the entire thing. The bigger thing is the process of watering them with my two little helpers carrying their own watering jugs. And their mom witnessing the whole process from the kitchen while preparing the food, and at times joining the watering gang; usually at the insistence of one out of the three watering boys (obviously I am included); usually the one who would get excited seeing some newer vegetables. The green beans plant was a gift from the little one to his mom on Mother’s day. Though he is too small to remember or acknowledge, but the small green beans on the plant look extremely good especially with the thought that his little hands had sown the seeds.

On top of all that nature’s laboratory is also a great place to teach some basics to the curious minds. Be it the roots with their tiny straws sucking the water in to the plant, “like you drink your juice out of the bottle with a straw” or be it the leaves extracting minerals from water and add chlorophyll to cook a meal (for the plant) with the light and heat from Sun, “oh! Like mummy or papa makes your macaroni and cheese over the heat from stove and water from tap”. Wonderful to hear when the little genius comments on the small veins in the leaves, “they must be carrying food and water like the veins in my hands carry blood, right papa?”  “Right Son that is exactly how it works” says a happy father.  

Thank you plants for giving us good and delicious things to eat, for making the deck a fresher place with a green look and clean air (yes of course even small plants in pots do clean lots of air and give us oxygen) and above all helping to make the learning process so much fun.

Next lesson, what to do when you encounter a bee on the tiny cucumber flower and you missed noticing it while watering. Well that counts for learning the basic survival skills, isn’t it?