Gardening

I always had a lot of interest in Gardening. As a little girl I did not know how to get those beautiful Bangalore Roses also called Ooty Roses bloom in our garden.
We had the typical sturdy plants like jasmine, nityamalli, the ordinary yellow rose, different colours of a flower called spatika or december as it used to bloom around december, the drumstick tree, the curry leaf tree and the banana trees which were used more for their leaves, and also the Henna plant known as marudhani in tamil. All these plants did not need much nurturning and I used to keep myself busy digging and trying to plant some plants brought from friends' houses. There never was a gardener. We never bought any manure and the basics of watering the plants and tending them was done by us. There used to be occasional exchange (barter!) of the drumsticks with 'champaka' flowers which used to bloom in plenty in a tree in a nearby house.
This interest was kindled while in Palghat in Railway quarters where we had a gardener and a big garden with a lawn, and lot of coconut, mango and jackfruit trees. Our gardener used to plant vegetables also and we used to get brinjal (eggplant), ladies finger(okra) , cucumber and avaraikkai. we also had quite a few rose plants but they were all of desi veriety and not the ooty rose as the climate was not conducive for that variety of roses. All the work was taken care of by the gardener and I used to water the plants when he was not available. I had no idea about manure to be used to grow the plants nicely.
Well now that I live in Kuala Lumpur the ooty rose is still eluding me but I have become wiser as a gardener. I have a very small patch of garden in the front balcony of our apartment here.
I have started reading the 'pasumai vikatan' which is a tamil magzine which talks about agriculture and gardening and it has helped me in my gardening.

Now I don't waste the vegetable waste that we generate at our house. The vegetable peels and the fruit peels really add up to quite a lot of quantity. As my area of garden is very small I deviced a way to make myself a compost pit. I took plastic buckets and started putting the vegetable peels in it. (cooked items should not be put in it (that is the remaining food items)). I put the garden soil on the waste so as not to attract the flies and mosquitoes and once this bucket is filled up my second bucket is used . I am surprised at the speed at which the bucket gets filled up. This can be used as compost after about a month. I also buy the goat manure available in market and put it to plants after powdering it. I am very particular not to put any chemicals and I am really happy to see the plants grow nicely with lot of and flowers.
In this place plants grow very fast but lot of insects affects the growth of plants. I am experimenting again with some home made insecticides.
I am really happy that I am recycling the garbage and putting it to good use.
Hope to grow the great ooty roses in the near future. Here also I do have few roses but all of the normal variety.