Dream Vegetable garden. Please post current pictures

Current pictures of my vegetable garden!

More pictures

Some of the vegetables in the above pictures: Bitter melon, Tindora, Indian Purple Spinach, Egg plant, 3 types of Tomatoes, Snake guard, Loukee, Jalapeno peppers, 3 types of bell peppers, Purple beans, green beans, cucumber, Zucchini, Cilantro, Basil, broccoli, bush beans, flat beans, Indian string beans, bok choi, Clove beans (Nithya Vazhuthana) etc. I only use compost, cow manure, alfalfa pellets & alaska fish fertilizer in my garden for fertilizing. No synthetic stuff like miracle grow. So far everything is thriving. So far, I have harvested a lot of purple spinach, tindora, cilantro and some egg plants.

Yield at last!. Some of my recently picked vegetables.

aluvaboy, you have a great looking garden...do you have any bitter melon and hot peppers seeds to share? I'm new to gardening and can't seems to get my bitter melons seeds to germinate. I purchased online and they are all dead rotten seeds. I will send sase.

Thank you,

Alicia.

Alicia,

We have plenty of bitter melon seeds and I will be happy to share. Where are you located? I am in Rockland county, New York. The reason I asked you your location is because the growing season is over in my zone. I look forward to the next year. Please text your smart phone # to 845-821-2122. I will text you my address to send the SASE.

Thanks, Benita

Thank you so much Benita. I really appreciate your response. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and will be planting my seeds next summer. I don't have texting on my phone but if you have email you can email me. I have FB if you would like me to provide it to you as well.

Alicia.

Alicia, Please post your email address. Benita.

Hi Benita, my email is: aliciacammel@gmail.com.

hi Benita, can you please check out my trade list? I have a few more asian vegetable seeds that are not in that list. I looked at the vegetables list above and am interested in trading a few seeds - Clove bean, white bitter melon, purple beans in particular. Thanks!

Hi Benita

I also am interested at few of the varieties you have - Tindora, snake gourd and bitter melon.

Is your bitter melon type prolific for you? I am asking because the few bitter melon seeds that geminated and grew for me only gave me few fruits ( less than 5 fruits/plant). Since we have same climate ( I live in New York city), the type you grew would be suitable for me as well.

I have Chinese winter melon ( with white powder), cucuzza, amaranth, and may be tromboncino ( I haven't opened the squash yet, so do not know if seeds are good or not).

Thanks

Kate

I also have ridge gourd, but it fruited very late in the season if you are interested. thanks

Good looking vegetable garden

Hi Benita, you have an amazing garden! Have it done by double digging?

hm825,

My beds are all raised beds. They are made out of 8 inch wide treated lumber, which I salvaged from an old deck. I don't know what you mean by double digging. Each season I remove some of the soil from the beds and replace it with more compost and some cow manure. The soil I remove is used for potted plants. Compost is available for free from my town recycling center.

Hi Benita, I look at your photos. Can't see the beds are raised high. Now I know your beds are raised bed. I still don't know which method is good. I also myself don't understand. I only learn from youtube. One of them is double digging. It seems a lot of work. They dig the ground and give compost and manure also and make the bed raise high also. But not as high as a raised bed. You are lucky that compost is free in your place.

hm825,

My beds are raised beds. The reason they appear shallow is because I have mulched the walkways almost 5 inches. I spread weed blocker fabric in all the walkways and then have put mulch heavily. Mulch is also available for free in our town. ( Hey the property taxes are really high! They have to give something back to us. LOL.) At the start of the season, I also spray a pre-emergent herbicide in the walkways to prevent any stray seeds from germinating in the walkways. Otherwise Tomatoes, purple spinach and some beans seeds that fall into the walkway during the end of the season sprout as soon as the weather moderates. Pre-emergent help control this. Another point is although my beds are only 8 inches deep, the earthworms do their job for free and the soil is good to like 18 inches deep. So no problems with growing anything.

This is awesome! I wish I had the room for this.

Awesome garden Benita! I have some thing like this in my mind but don't know when I will be able to build a wonderful permanent garden like you. Great Work ! Happy growing !

Don't know why I never noticed this thread until now. That is a spectacularly beautiful vegetable garden, a true labor of love. I love all the trellises, especially that horizontal trellis. The white bitter melon & snake gourd are really interesting, are they hybrids?

I am always searching for any Asian vegetables which will grow in my climate, and would be interested in a trade for several that you grow, especially the clove beans. Please check out my Trade List, and contact me by PM if I have anything you might be looking for.

Thanks zeedman & Mbsk for the compliments. The white bitter melon and snake gourd are from seeds that I brought back from Kerala, South India. I am originally from Ernakulam, a city in Kerala State in India. I am not sure if they are hybrids though. Regarding clove beans, I don't think it will grow well in zone 5. I am in zone 6 and even though I germinate the seeds of clove beans indoors in March to be transplanted into the beds in middle of May, I seldom get good yield. From the two plants I had last year, I got about 5 pounds of yield. There was a ton of flowers on the plant when the first frost hit it in September killing the plants.

I have a severe groundhog issue where I live. That is the reason, I went through the pain of building a garden like what you see. The perimeter of the garden is a concrete brick wall buried deep to about 18 inches to prevent the groundhog burrowing under. The chain link fence is built on top of the wall. So far I have been able to keep groundhog at bay until they outsmart me. These critters are highly intelligent and it is only a matter of time, they figure out a way to make their way in.

This year I am planning to install a sprinkler system utilizing harvested rain water. I have managed to get 10 plastic drums (55 gallons) to harvest the rain water. Will keep everyone posted as things progress. The winter has been unusually mild this year and I expect an extended growing season this year. Happy gardening everyone.

aluvaboy,

Do you please mind sharing which state you live in. We recently moved to New Jersey and would love to know if somethign like this is possible here :)

JK,

I am in New York State. Zone 6. I live a mile from the New Jersey border. This set up is definitely doable any where in NJ. Where in NJ are you located? If you are close by, you can visit me and see things first hand.

Thank you so much. I live in north brunswick. I would need help/guidance on the timings, when to start seeds indoors and when to transplant them outdoors. There is a lot of information for general veggies not on asian/indian veggies.

Do you have tindora cuttings that you can share? I would love to visit your garden.

Wow, this is awesome! Do you have pics of your upcoming set up for 2017. Like your username...my wife is from aluva :)

This year I am planning to post pictures right from the start. People have been asking to start a blog. I am not going that far. But will post as many pictures as I can. This winter has been very mild and I hope we will all have an extended growing season. For vegetables like clove beans, we need it in the ground as early as possible.

Yes, I am originally from Aluva in Kerala, South India. Have been living in Rockland county, New York for the last 27 years.

Nice! Bookmarked this to follow. Look forward to the pics.

Looking forward to your pictures. Your garden is amazing and a great inspiration. I'm another desi who recently started vegetable gardening in NJ. Last year was the first time - I bought some seeds for my Mom when I was in Italy on vacation, and that's how it all started. Now I'm hooked. Last year I was able to grow San Marzano and Oxheart tomatoes from seeds, along with Cayenne Peppers. Also grew some Eggplants, and a bunch of herbs, but not from seed.

@ "J K" - I'm very close to North Brunswick - used to live there earlier across from the Shoprite. Small world. Now in Monroe. Its time to start your seeds, especially peppers, you can wait another 10 days or so for tomatoes, or start now if you think Summer temps are going to come earlier than last year.

Aluvaboy can you share clove bean seed if you have.Thanks

ezhilmalini, please provide your email address. I will reply.

My email Ezhilmalini@yahoo.com.

Thanks

Hi aluvaboy can you share the root of the tindora or ivy gourd plant my email is sirishagannavarapu@gmail.com

aluvaboy,

I'm interested in some of your white bitter melon and if you have Malabar spinach. I'm also looking for Wiri Wiri hot pepper seeds. I have about 15 species of hot peppers to trade if you are interested.

My email is: aliciacammel@gmail.com

Thank you,

Alicia

WoW! Your garden is awesome! I like your wooden and metal structure for climbers.

I have tried to grow bittermelon last 3 yrs but failed. What are names of long green, white-ish green vegetables?

I see it was 2016 posting. I wonder how well you did this year 2017, even better?

Kay,

Thanks for the compliments.

The long green, white-ish vegetable is a snake gourd.

2017 was also a good year. The weather was not as favorable as 2016. Still We managed to get good yield. I did not post too many pictures this year because I changed my job. Now have to make a 60 mile commute one way.

Bitter melons are very easy to grow. Well draining soil with a lot of cow manure and full sun are the only requirements. Also a sturdy trellis for it to spread out. I use cattle panels sold by Tractor supply Co. It is available in 4 feet x 16 feet size. My trellis just for bitter melons and Snake gourd are 8 feet x 40 feet. I am in zone 6. I start germinating the seeds indoors in April and will have it transplanted into my raised beds by end of May. They start to fruit by mid July and steady yield until the frost kills the plants by end of October.

I am sorry to hear that you have to commute 120 miles a day. That is a lot of time, gas money and what not. I am glad that you had a great year in 2017 again.

Thank you so much for your tips to grow bittermelon which I have a good memory of my childhood.

Wow, you have an awesome garden. Love those fresh vegetables, especially the bitter melon.

Nice garden, You are lucky

Aluvaboy, do you still have white bitter melon seeds??? I would love to trade you for some of my Indian pumpkin, and Indian squash. The seeds were sent to me from Pakistan. I also have 2 species of spinach and okra as well. All from Pakistan.

Thank you,

Alicia.

Dream vegetable garden. All the pictures of your produce is awesome. Any seeds to share? I am looking for tindora, bitter melon, Indian snake gourd and any other. I am happy to reimburse you nominally.

Awesome Garden Aluvaboy! I'm looking for Indian seeds - gongura, bitter melon, tindora, indian snake gourd or any other indian. I have no seeds to trade as of now as i'm beginning gardening just this year- would pay for postage. Hope you can spare some seeds and help :) Thank you

Hi do you have have tindora cutting?