Go green!

One of my other interests in life is growing garden vegetables and herbs. Earlier I have successfully grown mint/pudina in a small pot by my window. Mint is easy to grow from cuttings. Just remove all leaves from a stalk and plant the thick stalks in a pot and water daily. Within a couple of days you will find small leaves sprouting from the stalks.

In less than 10 days later, leaves will be mature enough to be used in cooking.  Just use the fresh leaves, leaving the stalks in the pot. Fresh mint leaves have an altogether different taste and great flavour.  The pot on the left in the above picture has stalks of mint/pudina which were planted just three days back. I can already see some small leaves on the stalks. I have been growing pudina since the last two years now, and never once had to buy pudina from the market all this time. In fact at times, I have even trimmed the leaves and given them to friends and relatives as these leaves grow in abundance in no time at all.

The pot on the right has some cuttings from spinach/palak which I planted today. This is the first time I have attempted growing palak. I don't know if palak grows well from cuttings, but I would like to at least try. I have planted a few thick stalks from the palak I got yesterday from the local market. It is necessary to remove all leaves from the stalks before planting the cuttings, so that the plant can utilize all its energy in growing roots rather than sustaining the leaves.  Once roots are grown, then the plant becomes sturdy and strong enough to bear the weight of the freshly grown leaves!  So give it a try today and grow fresh herbs and vegetables in your own little backyard or windowsill like in the case of us, Mumbaikars!