Today I finally got myself organised to go to the garden nursery to buy some things for the garden. I had a plan to grow lettuce, tomatoes, some herbs - all to save me from having to 'soapwash' all the time. Of course, 'Madam ' cannot do it on her own, so my driver (Anthony) and gardener (Sewapa) jump on board and off we head.
It's about 20 minutes further away from town in a more rural area. On the way there we had our first argument, over buying seedlings rather than seeds - "but Madam the seeds are SO much cheaper!!" Seriously, the cost is negligible but there was another problem coming my way....... it seems none of the nurseries actually sell seedlings !! So the first place we were at I found one mint plant and some tomato seeds. Not exactly happy!
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It was nice to see that nurseries are the same world over
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| Just no herbs or vegetables |
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So Anthony and Sewapa then started arguing (in Hindi) about what to do next - Anthony was upset that Madam didn't have her plants and Sewapa was angry at Anthony for saying we could find them in the first place. So we decided to head back closer to home and find some seeds - as these were now the only option. We stopped at a 'nursery' which actually looked just like a deserted garden plot, with its own stray dogs and piles of garbage. But there was an elderly lady and a teenage girl sitting on the ground who jumped up and eagerly to show us their 'goods'. We left there with coriander and cucumber seeds, and two bags of fertilizer (really it was just red, clay soil mixed with a single shovel of cow manure, but that's the Indian version of fertilizer). I tried to convince Sewapa that we would need pesticide of some sort, or the humongous snails and caterpillars were going to have a smorgasbord on my little vegie patch, but NO, he knew best!!
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| The young girl was the salesperson and that is Sewapa |
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So now we needed pots ! The soil here is SO claylike that I insisted on pots - much to Sewapa's argument. Another couple of kilometres away we stopped and jumped out into what can only be called a 'shit heap'!! Oh my goodness, the smell was horrendous!! But I did see the pots, so over I ventured with my breath held tightly. There were major negotiations between Anthony and the owner over the price - we got the two pots (see below) for $10 - they only wanted $12 but Anthony insisted on haggling - it really is too hard for me to even try when it comes down to only $2 difference, and these men are sitting in squalor.
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This is our garden bed where Sewapa believed he could grow my herbs and veggies
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So we are now ready to start our little herb garden so that I hopefully don't have to wash them in SOAP each time I want a salad. xx
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