Dashes of Purple and Green🍆🌱

It’s been a while since I talked about my garden. Compiled with a lot of things going on in other aspects of my life, there’s barely time to appreciate the beauties around me. But after doing my evening rounds in the garden, I was extremely pleased with the things I’d seen. And I thought to share it with us today.

So, before I get to the highlight plant of the day. A quick update about my Thai chilli or Bird’s eye chilli, as I’d recently learned. We’d been growing bell peppers for quite a while, but the species weren’t just right and they were quite tiny, compared to what we’d expected. So, in the quarter of this year, we branched out to start growing Thai chilli. It’s been an amazing experience.

They’ve sprouted really well and have added an amazing degree of heat and tastiness to our food. Even though most people prefer them to get fully ripe and red, my Mom’s grown a bit of preference for the Thai chilli when they’re still a bit green. And after incorporating it into our meals, it’s proven quite tasty. When making meals for myself, however, I prefer them ripe. I had to cook a quick meal of jollof rice with beans, which is essentially rice made with tomatoes and of course, beans. I ran out of peppers and unlike other times when that meant a trip to the market, these were readily available, so I couldn’t have asked for anything more delightsome.

And now to the highlight plant of today. Some disease had gotten into my eggplant plantation last year and I’d watched quite sadly as they died. However, armed with a lot of information on the best ways to grow healthy eggplants, I had these new ones planted at the beginning of May. And they’ve grown quite tremendously.

We’ve already harvested a few. And I wish I’d snapped some of them when they were still growing. These are just about ready to be harvested for the evening meal. I’m thinking of a nice stew, or some equally tasty sauces that we could eat with plantains and yam or even rice. The heavy winds of yesterday night had tilted the plants down to the ground. So I took a quick picture of it before getting a stick to support it back up.

I’m thrilled at how rich and purply they are. We’ve been taking good care of them and looking at the time I realized, that it was time to give them their bi-monthly potassium spray. One of the things I learned after my not-so-great harvest last year is the importance of wood ash in the growth and health of plants. It’s not just a handy fertilizer but also serves as an active pesticide to get rid of pests like slugs and harmful insects to the plants.

Of course, since the wood ash contains salt and lye, it’s imperative that it is used lightly. The morning sun was just about out at this time, so I took the liberty of sprinkling them leisurely on the plants. You can see how different the plants look with the rays of the sun on them. Wood ash and water aren’t a good mix so it’s best to put them when the sun is up so that they can have their effect before the rains begin.

So from the eggplants to the Thai chili and our newest addition, Hybrid Soursops, they all got a well-needed dose of the wood ash. And I was just about ready to call it a day when I caught the eye of this little but already ripe eggplant. It looked so healthy, growing on its own and in the shade from its sisters, I took a nice photo of it and decided to let it keep being beautiful for a few more days.

So, that’s my quick update, you guys. I hope you all enjoy feasting virtually on these delights. Till next time, have a greenly beautiful day.🌱

Jhymi🖤

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_{All images are mine.}