Kitchen garden from scraps

This is perhaps going to be the last  "garden"' post for 2017.

Winter is setting in Southern Texas. My balcony garden is still growing strong. The bitter melon climber has taken almost the entire garden. Indian flat beans is also beaming healthy.

I feel happy when I look at my garden. Most of my babies are my own, they are not from nursery! Most of them are forgiving as well and each of them have an unique story!

The other day as I was wiping off the kitchen sink, I saw this!

For the uninitiated, this is a half used Garlic pod, which was left unkempt at one of the corner of sink. But, I guess, Mother Nature decided to intervene here, and hence you can see the new roots and shoots popping out of the pod! I have faithfully transferred the pod to my garden, let's see what happens!


Today I want to talk about how I use kitchen scrap to regrow my garden. As I said, I don't visit nursery often. I regrow from leftovers, I collect seeds from veggies and fruits and regrow them - in old containers, milk tins etc. Here is my previous post on how to reuse kitchen scraps.

This year I am growing Ginger in my garden and am satisfied at the moment with its growth and vigor. Select a piece a piece of Ginger which has a bud/eye in it and pot it. The area should be sunny, but not under direct sunlight.

Ginger plant re-grown from Ginger root

An easy recycling project comes from the milk powder containers. Agreed these containers are quite small hence can house only small plants , but still there is no harm in potting some annual plants! The tin containers can be given makeover with acrylic paint. And , oh yes, don't forget to make some holes at the bottom of the container!

Milk powder container to gardening pots

I often use egg cartons as seed starter. This helps me to prevent overcrowding.

 Growing Fenugreek ( Methi) here

Some veggies are just magical, you can regrow them over and over again!
What do you do with the left over spring onions? New sprigs can be easily grown from the left over pieces. Soak the white part ( root) in water for couple of days before re-potting them into soil.

Regrowing spring onions

Did you know that food tastes way better when you grow them in your own garden?!!

The pied piper of Hamelin - Halloween costume

Sometimes I wonder how the festivals across the world are tied to an invisible yet unified spirit. Although thousand of miles apart, but the celebration of Bhut Chaturdoshi in India ( mostly in my state West Bengal though) has almost the same theme with All Soul's Day in Europe, Halloween in USA and Day of the Dead in Mexico! And the dates of celebration also  coincide with each other.

Bhut Chaturdoshi is a way of remembering our forefathers. This festival also coincides with Diwali, the festival of lights. Chaturdashi means 14 and this to represent the previous 14 generations.  Earthen lamps are lit all over the home to fight off the evil and also to remember the forefathers.

Traditionally, Halloween was never celebrated in India ( but I do see it is gaining popularity now-a-days). But there were other celebrations which involves wearing fancy costumes. One such celebration was called Charak er mela, which is held in the month of April to signify the end of Hindu calendar. Another fun tradition  was "Go as you like" costume parade in the schools. Kids would dress up in myriad of ways - right from a circus clown to a tiger or a little mafia!

In continuation with my last year's tradition, this year also I decided to put up a costume for our son!
As usual I thought of using old clothes and trimmings to create the costume. Initially I had thought of creating an owl costume, but as I embarked on the project, things started becoming too colorful to be an owl. So I declared this dress as a Pied Piper of Hamelin!!

My Piper was running a fever on the eve of Halloween, so things were a bit quiet this time. Here are the steps and glimpses!

1. I ripped open lot of his old pants and shirts to create patches. Initially I traced out the design on a paper before cutting out fabric pieces. Cut out all pieces and put them in a sequence before you start sewing. Try to visualize how this is going to look!

Take out as many colors as you want, the more, the merrier! I should confess that I had used Elmer's clear glue to put the patches on the shirt before I stitched them with hand, but probably it was not a brilliant idea. But given the shortage of time, I had no other quick way of managing the project.

2. Stitch the pieces, try not to leave any empty space between the patches.

3. Once the shirt was over, it was time to get the cap  right and I used an unused grocery bag ( yes you heard right, an unused grocery bag to make a cap!!!)

4. Cut open the grocery bag

Step 5: Fold it in half and cut a little circular corner

Step 6: Turn inside out and fold again ( you may use pins to hold the corners) Stitch it

Step 7: This is how the folded hat looks. Bring together the other corners and stitch them.

Step 8: Turn inside out and you are almost done!

Step 9: Consider some embellishments? Some feather and pompom balls!

The Pied Piper dress is there!

How was your Halloween this year? Do you make fun costumes as well?!