First of all Thanks for visiting this page.
I am a (lazy)software engineer with an extreme passion for gardening and horticulture. I live in Bangalore, India currently. When I am not spending my time with plants, I can be found tinkering with some interesting stuff in GNU/Linux, python and occasionally worrying about global warming.
This blog is a space where I express my experiences and activities I am involved in, mostly with respect to gardening and at times I will write on odd off topics.
See other pages and Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Geek Gardener.
bibomedia said,
March 4, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Mohan said,
August 14, 2008 at 12:08 am
Hello there!
I am a new entrant into the world of gardeners. I stumbled upon your blog when I was searching for seedstarting. I found the information quite useful.
I was also trying to see if you can get seedstarting kits anywhere in Bangalore. I’ve bought a few seeds of pansies and stock flowers and am hoping to raise them ab initio. I saw in some of the snaps that you have put up that you have used plastic trays for small plants. I am not sure if the same would suffice seedlings. Do share some pointers, if you please.
Regards,
Mohan
geekgardener said,
August 14, 2008 at 3:38 am
Hello Mohan,
Welcome and Good to hear that you found my blog useful. In bangalore, you can get seed starting trays or trays with cavities. But if you are looking for a complete seed starting kit ( that might have a transparent dome to retain moisture and provide bottom heat), I doubt its availability in bangalore. Atleast I wasn’t successful in finding one.
There is a place in bangalore called New Tharagupet. There are lots of fertilizer shops who have this cavity trays. Find the one that suits and have fun.
You can also try Lalbagh or Varsha Enterprises in KR Road.
Regarding the trays, i have used both plastic trays and cavity trays for seed starting. I feel if the plant is not too sensitive to transplant shock, any decent tray should be fine.
Let me know if you cannot find one. May be I can help.
Hope this helps
Thanks
gg
Tarun said,
August 17, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Hello Geek Gardener:
I stumbled across your blog while researching on organic gardening in Bangalore. I currently live in B’lore and would like to start an organic vegetable garden. I see you have had some success with container gardening and would like to ask for your tips/advice etc. Would you be interested in seed/plant swapping? Sometimes seed packets usually have too many seeds for a single gardener to use, and I’d hate to see seedlings go waste when someone else can use them
I am trying to start a seed/plant swap club for gardening enthusiasts out here.
Also if you don’t mind, can you please email me the resource info from where you procurred vermiculite and perlite?
Thanks in advance and Happy Gardening….. May all your fingers be green thumbs
Tarun
geekgardener said,
August 18, 2008 at 1:47 am
Hey Tarun,
First of all, Welcome to the world of Gardening. Its good to know people with similar interests. I would love to share/swap plants/seeds. Infact I have been to trying to find folks who are willing to do that. I usually store the seeds or give it away to friends.
I got vermiculite from Chennai and Perlite from Varsha enterprises bangalore. All I have is their addresses, which I dont have right now with me. I am now in the US for a work assignment and should be back in couple of weeks. If you want I can give portion of vermiculite I have, once i am back.
I am in the process of putting together a website for gardeners in Bangalore and seed/plant swap might be a great start to it. Any help from you would be welcome.
Happy gardening to you too.
gg
Tarun said,
August 18, 2008 at 9:45 am
Thanks for the quick reply GG. I have just planted some Balsam, pansies and columbine this morning (an experiment since i am not sure pansies will grow that well here!) So hopefully when you get back I might have some seedlings to share. I would also like to help in the website endeavor. Do send me an email and we can try to get it going. I recently attended a workshop on terrace/container gardening conducted by AME in Banashankri. We can probably rope in the experts from there to help with the info. Do let me know.
Also do check out the concept of Square Foot Gardening. Seems interesting. Let me know your thoughts
Touch base with you soon and thanks for the offer of sharing your vermiculite.
rgds
Tarun
geekgardener said,
August 18, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Tarun,
Good luck with your experiment and can’t wait for the seedling
. Interesting to know about the Workshop. We definitely can get very good pointers/tips from AME folks. Damn.. I missed out the Flower show in Lalbagh on 15th Aug.
I have been eying on Square foot gardening(SFG). Its really neat way of getting the most out of your garden. I would love to practice that, but unfortunately I dont have a terrace now.All I have is four balconies and I am trying to use the maximum space from that. SFG is something i would like to try and see. I also have the soil mix for SFG( called Mel’s mix).
While I am here, I have asked my friend to water all my plants and he is doing a great job. I am little bit relieved.
Will let you know once I am back and for the vermiculite..hey ..thats no problem at all.
Cheers
gg
Tarun said,
August 19, 2008 at 9:40 am
I did go for the flower show and exhibition at Lal Bagh. Was pretty interesting since the theme was Hampi and there was an exhibit of a stone chariot which was made of roses and anthuriums. Really beautiful ….. Also there was an exhibit of I think the IIHR and the theme was organic gardening. Took some great snaps too
Which geographical area of B’lore do you reside in? I can totally relate to your concern about your plants. When I travel I HAVE to make arrangements for my plants to be baby sat
Cheers
Tarun
geekgardener said,
August 20, 2008 at 7:21 am
Thats great. I had been there during Republic day Flower show but I missed this one.
I am residing in Bilekahalli, Bannerghatta road and How about you ?. I used to have a big terrace before when I was living near KR Puram. Now I have balconies and obviously the space is little lesser I have to make some shelf based arrangements to accommodate more pots..
Are you going to garden in containers too?
gg
Tarun said,
August 20, 2008 at 9:13 am
I do have some garden space in which I planted flowering plants. Now I would like to grow some vegetables and so I am trying to start off in containers and will eventually clear out some seasonal flowering plants once they are done w/their lifecycle. I like a riot of colors in my garden…….
I live near the Sarjapur/Outer Ring Road Junction. I am exploring how I can also add some vertical dimension in some balconies – like growing Zucchini (eat a lot of that), beans etc. Just need to figure out the sunlight requirements too. Where did u pick up the rooting hormone? From Lal Bagh?
Rgds,
Tarun
geekgardener said,
August 20, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Tarun,
Nice to hear that. Regarding rooting hormones, the ones i have are
1. Keradix ( Humic acid; i think 2% )
2. Quicroot. ( I assume it is IBA; not sure about the concentration)
I picked up keradix from chennai Horticultural society and Quicroot was obtained from Varsha enterprises in KR road.
I havent really tested that rooting hormone on hardwood/semi-hardwood plants. Once i am back probably I might go cutting hunting.
I did test quicroot on softwoods like chrysanthemum and coleus(very easy). It worked well.
gg
Mohan said,
August 20, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Hello there GG,
Thanks a ton for the information you have provided. I was able to get the peat trays at Varsha Enterprises (Tarun here asked for the coordinates of Varsha Enterprises. Here they are: #103, Brigade MM Annexe, KR Road, Jayanagar 7th block, Bangalore-560 070. Tel: (080) 26764471. The shop is in front of KIET Polytechnic and very close to Namma MTR on KR Road and is open from 8 AM to 8 PM). I was also able to buy vermiculite and perlite for my other plants in the same shop.
I can’t wait to start seeding pansy and stock but a few people suggested that late winter would be best to seed them. There is a garden centre called Indo-American Hybrid Seeds close to Varsha where they have wonderful hybrid varieties of Areca and philodendron. I bought a few of them too.
Have you tried using Lechuza planters (www.lechuza.com)? I bought a few of them for the indoor plants and have just planted in them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed till I see them thrive. Even thought these planters are a bit expensive, they come in wonderful colours and blend into indoors extremely well. I should say that planting in these Lechuza planters is a cakewalk. Hopefully my plants feel the same way too
Regards,
Mohan
geekgardener said,
August 20, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hey Mohan,
Thats a good news and great to hear about your purchase. Keep the momentum going!!!. And thanks for posting the address and phone number. I heard that they sell vermiculite as well but at very high price and hence I offered Tarun a portion of what I have. I am working on a post on where to find what for your gardening needs. Its mostly about websites that ppl can refer and garden text/audio/video materials available on the internet. Will post it once its baked completely.
And about IAHS, I have been there and that is a great place to find all sorts of plants and pots but beware that their price tags a bit dear. I did some purchase with them before and sorted out for cheaper altenatives. I see them selling an nice variety of coleus for like 50+ rupees. For rare plants and seeds yes I would go to them but do check if you can get them other nurseries.
Thanks for sharing about Lechuza planters. I was not aware of them. Any information on the pricing and where I can buy them would be very helpful.
We all should meet up sometime to inaugurate our first plant/seed swap event
.
Good luck with your seed starting. I can totally understand that feeling .Hey Where do you stay and what kind of a garden you have? Very curious to know
gg
Mohan said,
August 20, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hello there,
Thanks for the info about IAHS. Yes, I did realise that the stuff there is a bit pricey but what I noticed was that the way they care about plants was really good what with all the spacious setting for numerous plants, huge fan to maintain a draught, good hybrid varieties of plants et al. The quality of the grown-up plants was also better than some of the nurseries near my house. But having said that, I haven’t visited many nurseries since I’m still a newbie in gardening.
I reside in BTM Layout, near Madivala lake. We can definitely meet up to swap the seeds/plants. I currently have pansy and stock seeds in stock.
I’ve recently been attracted to indoor plants but I do have some space in my terrace for growing plants in containers. I still haven’t given it a serious consideration but it may be possible to have a terrace garden too, specifically for the lovely colours of the flowering plants vis-à-vis the green indoor plants.
Lechuza planters are available in Green Carpet (www.greencarpetgardencentre.com) in Koramangala, very close to Shanti Sagar and Vysya bank near Sony World. It is basically a house with converted garage space for selling planters and other garden accessories. The lowest price of a Lechuza planter – Mini Cubi (9 cm in diameter and 18 cm in height) – is Rs.1100/- whereas a Classico (70 cm in dia and 64 cm in ht) is between Rs.7600/- and Rs.8600/- (price varies with colour with choco design, black and espresso costing more). Like I said it is quite pricey and therefore I bought only a few smaller ones for my desktop; but the shape, design and ease of use are unmatched. One of its models called Delta has even got a Red Dot award for its design. If you are returning from the US, you can as well buy a piece or two. I’m sure they would cost half the price over there.
Regards,
Mohan
Tarun said,
August 21, 2008 at 8:37 am
Lechuza planters look so cool!! Thanks for the info Mohan. I think I have been to Varsha Ent – Went to the building to pick up some ayurvedic medications for my FIL and just strolled into their store. At that time I did not know what all they dealt with. So the next trip will def be more productive.
Also came across this and would like to implement it – now need to find a potter who can make something similar – http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/03/24/using-ollas/
Good luck Mohan on the seeds planting. I was getting too impatient to wait for the pansies so decided to plant them
I might attempt to plant some ginger today.
Cheers
Tarun
geekgardener said,
August 21, 2008 at 11:21 am
@Tarun,
Ollas look cool and sound very interesting too. Would be great if you can find someone who can make that for you. The other reason why ollas are cool is you can add a soluble fertilizer/compost tea and it will permeate very slowly.This will make a poor man’s slow release fertilizer.
@Mohan,
I remember the Lechuza planters now, When I used to work in the ITPL, they used to have these planters all over and they have a small glass tube sticking out ( I think for water level ). I didnt know it was Lechuza then. Now I know
Thanks for the Info. They sure are trendy .
Good luck to you both on your seed starting/planting. I am jealous of you guys and can’t wait to head back and start gardening again
BTW What kind of soil do you use for your pots ?.
Happy gardening
gg
Tarun said,
August 21, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I use a mix of regular soil, vermicompost, sand and coir pith. I made mistakes eariler and just used regular soil, so those plants are not doing too well since the soil has compacted and become very hard. One major project planned for the next few weekends is to carefully take these plants out and change the potting mix.
Mohan, have you planted any vegetables too?
Happy Gardening to all
Tarun
Mohan said,
August 21, 2008 at 7:34 pm
For peace lily, anthurium, syngonium and gerbera daisy I used Lechuza planters that comes with what they call Lechuza-Pon, which comprises pumice, zeolite, lava, and fertilizer. For a couple of other plants like Areca and philodendron, I have used the potting mix that I bought at IAHS. I still have to wait and see how the plants thrive. I thought of adding vermiculite, perlite and vermi-compost a few days later to the potting mix. I also bought some neem oil but I’m not sure if it would be needed any time soon.
Moreover for the pansy and stock seeds I’m not sure if coir peat alone would suffice or, as per the instructions at the back of the seed sachet, I still have to use leaf mould, sand and fertilizer. Since the seeds themselves contain nutrients I think they may be overfed by adding these.
Tarun – No, I haven’t planted any vegetables. I was hoping to plant red and yellow peppers since I love them in salads and they are way too expensive in stores. I would probably wait till I plant the pansy and stock seeds and if they grow well, I would probably be more confident to plant vegetables
Apart from zucchini and beans, have you planted any other vegetables?
Regards,
Mohan
geekgardener said,
August 21, 2008 at 9:48 pm
@Tarun,
I had made the same mistakes too , using just the regular soil and also I wasn’t aware of vermiculite and perlite then. Now I add perlite, vermiculite, compost and soil mix(lalbagh/IAHS) and coirpith. The resulting texture is really good and repotting is very easier that way. Good luck with your repotting
@Mohan,
You have a nice collection there!.
You are right, Using just the coir pith alone is good for seed starting but once it germinates you need to either transplant it to a different medium or feed it with a mild fertilizer solution while watering.
Here in the US, I see the medium is mostly soilless. They use mulch and pine bark mix plus other ingredients.
Do you guys know if we get mulch/bark chips? the good thing about them is as time goes by they decompose, adding humus to the soil and also improve the soil texture.
I tried the following vegetables
]
1. Ladies finger (Success)
2. Tomato (Success) [ Is it a Friut or vegetable
3. Chillies (Success)
4. Brinjals (Seed started well, but end result was failure since I did not transplant them into a right sized pot.]
5. Potatoes.(Success).
and now and then I seed start Fenugreek(methi) and harvest it in 10 days time. (its so easy to start and maintain).
I want to try bell peppers and Tarun if you happen to seed start them do post your experience.
gg
Mohan said,
August 21, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I dont know if and where we get mulch and bark chips but check out the following link: http://www.sivanthijoecoirs.com/contact.html, which says coco chips are replacement for barks and could be used as mulching agent.
Tarun said,
August 22, 2008 at 8:24 am
Mohan- I have grown regular chillies, methi, basil, and spinach. I am still trying to figure if my balcony has enough sunlight to grow zucchini and beans. I will be planting some brinjal, garlic, capsicum, okra and ginger soon. I love bell peppers too. Grill a lot of veggies :
GG – Did u start the potatoes w/eyes from a sprouting old pot? And how deep was the pot u grew them in? I am curious
Tarun
geekgardener said,
September 16, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Sorry for the delayed reply guys.
I am back in India and it took this long for me to get an internet connection to my home.
@Tarun
I didnt really intend to grow potatoes. one day my mom found a potato with a sprout and she thought it was too precious to cook and so it ended up in my garden. I had potted it in 12″ dia pot that was equally deep. I filled half of the pot with pot mix and planted that potato and kept adding soil as the plant grew. I got some 3 potatoes from that pot and one of them was really big and had a very transparent skin. There are several pages in the web explaning how to ‘chit’ a potato.
@Mohan: How are the pansies coming?
gg
Tarun said,
September 17, 2008 at 9:15 am
Welcome back….. I was wondering last week if u were back or not. Ok so I had success w/the balsam. The pansies are just begining to sprout, also had planted some ginger – so they are sprouting too. But the zinnias and columbine didn’t germinate. I think the seeds were too old ……I am getting some tomato plants from my neighbor today
So looking fwd to some ‘maters in the garden.
Good luck in the next venture and keep us posted on what’s going on
Happy Gardening!
Tarun
Mohan said,
September 17, 2008 at 10:24 pm
GG,
Hope you had a good time in the US.
Therefore I decided to halt further seeding for the time being and wait till I tend properly to the other plants.
I planted 10 seeds of pansies as a trial run and only 4 of them saw the light of day
Have you planted cherry tomatoes? Or do you know if they can be successfully grown here? Looking at the unavailability of that variety in shops, I wonder if I should try my luck with them.
Mohan
geekgardener said,
September 18, 2008 at 8:08 am
Hi Mohan.
The trip was very good.
Regarding the pansies, are those from IndoAmerican seeds or from Lalbagh. because the germination % tends to vary a lot. I had tried chilli seeds both from IndoAmerican and from lalbagh. It was so evident that the extra price you pay for the seeds in INDAM was worth it. I got almost 100% germination using their seeds. So you might want to give it another try
Would you believe If i said that I exactly ordered cherry tomatoes( and mixed coleus seeds) from grocoseeds.com. Unfortunately their shipping is so slow that It reached the hotel after I left the US. Now they are with my friend in US. Hmm… So I have to say no for your cherry tomato question and Also I am not sure if it will grow here.
If you have/get them You should definitely try it and enlighten us.
EDIT: Looks like you can grow them here.I had a look at Namdhari seeds webpage. Go to the section
INDETERMINATE Grape and cherry in the following link.
http://www.namdhariseeds.com/tomatotable.html
Happy gardening
gg
Mohan said,
September 19, 2008 at 7:38 am
I used Namdhari seeds for pansies. Raising plants from seeds require a lot more care than what I thought was needed and provided.
Thank you so much for the pointer on the cherry tomatoes. Looks like Namdhari sells those seeds; need to see if they have them in their shop in BTM Layout. I will be sure to keep you informed of the success (or the lack thereof).
Mohan
geekgardener said,
September 25, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Mohan,
Any luck in getting the seeds for Cherry tomatoes? The other day I happened to pass by BTM and I saw Namdhari’s shop. Correct me if am wrong, it looked to me like a vegetable shop/super market. Do they sell seeds too?
gg
Mohan said,
September 25, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Hi there GG!
Ha ha, I didn’t realise that it was just a vegetable shop. One of my neighbours told me that there was Namdhari’s supermarket near Udupi garden and I thought they might sell even seeds since some of their supermarkets do. Never been there though. And I haven’t had a chance yet to look out for the seeds. This weekend I would have some spare time to hunt out; I’ll let you know by Monday.
Nice to see your spinach sprouting leaves. Please do keep us posted on how they shape up.
BTW, from your home page, I am not able to see a link to your “About” page from a few weeks. I don’t know whether this behaviour is particular to the OS or to the browser (I use Firefox/Safari on Leopard OS). The only link visible on the left side is to Parks Brothers’s Weblog.
Regards,
Mohan
geekgardener said,
September 25, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Hi Mohan,
Take your time on seed purchase. If you could get those Cherry tomatoes it will be great. It will be good to try those varieties here.
Yeah the spinach is growing well. But I feel they are little slow. I think the reason could be the lack of nutrients in the soil. Mel’s mix is supposed to have 1/3rd of compost but the one i added is Bio Farm organic fertilizer and I am not sure what they use to make that compost. I am still keeping my fingers crossed to see how they fair.
Thanks for the info about the “About”. It ain’t your browser/OS. Thats just me.
. Now it should be back up with more stuff. So you are Mac fan! eh?
I was playing around the options that wordpress provides and as usual messed it up
gg
geekgardener said,
September 26, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Mohan,
I was so curious about the cherry tomatoes that I called Namdhari seeds this morning. Its a bummer that they don’t have it in stock right now. Also, Its pretty darn expensive. The person I spoke to, mentioned that 1 kg of those seeds sells at INR 90,000.( No Its not a typo). The regular 10gms packet that we get is around Rs 700-800. Looks like its not as easy as i thought. We are better off getting these seeds from US or buy cherry tomatoes and get the seeds from it.
I also heard that Namdhari Agro fresh in Koramangala sells vegetable/flower seeds as well. So just in case you are planning to buy some seeds you might want to try that one.
gg
Mohan said,
September 26, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Hi there GG,
Thank you so much again for the information. You are very enthusiastic about planting cherry tomatoes. Their sweetish taste is tempting but certainly not at the sky-high cost of Namdhari seeds! It does sound sensible to get them from abroad.
Thanks for the pointer on Namdhari Agro Fresh (near NGV). Yeah, I heard about that when I went to buy Lechuza planters; will make it a point to visit there the next time I decide to buy some seeds.
May be spinach requires more fertilizer than usual to pack up so many nutrients in their leaves.
Good to see the links back on your blog.
Well I turned into a Mac fan slowly and gradually ever since I purchased an iPod a few years back, even though I work on Microsoft technologies
Mohan
Sunita said,
January 18, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Hi GG! I’ve been trying to visit your plot at Blotanical but there’s some mess up. you could try contacting Stuart about it (just go to the Help button and check around… leave him a message. He usually gets all these little hitches fixed real fast)
Anyway, I was trying to get in touch with you to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. And it’s great to see the Indian flag flying at Blotanical. There seems to be too few of us around over there.
Lokesh said,
February 15, 2009 at 10:26 am
Beautiful. I love your blog. Is there a rss/xml feed URL i can use, rather than check the site often for updates ?
Preethi said,
February 16, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Hello gg,
Just happened to see some of the old posts on cherry tomatoes.I have some seeds left from the online order via thompson-morgan…anyone interested ? I can send them across
regards,
preethi
Preethi said,
February 17, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Hello gg,
This is the one I have. ‘Tomato balconi red’
http://www.tandmworldwide.com/seeds1/product/399/1/
I am not sure of how well they will do here since my plants are just in the four leaf stage. But some of the others that I have tried from T&M has done well last year …. I would love to have the yello pear variety that you have. Will also search for some other varieties that I might have from last year.
Thank you,
Preethi
Preethi said,
February 19, 2009 at 10:34 am
Hi gg,
T&M delivers to India, but the seeds are expensive. And a few of them havent done well at Bangalore, especially the flowers. But most of them have done well.
Please do send the Dept of horticuture directions since T&M is an expensive option for me though I do order quite often since I go crazy seeing the varieties they have. If you let me know the address to send to, I will send the tomato seeds over.
I have a small garden since we live in the ground floor. I work at IBM, but love gardening. My garden is now in shambles since I have two daughters and the younger one is just three months old now.
regards,
preethi
allygeorge said,
March 16, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Hi,
Got to see your blog and am loving every line that I read. I am a working mom(IT industry) and a beginner, who just started off with gardening and I have about 30 Potted plants. Its my desire to have a vegetable garden as well. Please give me sufficient pointers on Planting soil, seeds, cuttings, nurseries in Chennai. We stay in a flat and so I can only do Container Gardening.
allygeorge said,
March 16, 2009 at 1:37 pm
It my humble suggestion that it would be of more ease if you can add some categories! and yes, even i have the same theme for my blog
http://allygeorge.wordpress.com
Ally George said,
March 18, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I am all smiling, reading about Joshua
Thanks a lot.
Bharath said,
May 13, 2009 at 9:01 am
Hi ,
Some problems and a lil luck. Firstly the luck – got hold of a hardware guy who mixed and matched stuff from his store, and presented what looks like a very workable 1/2″ tank nipple.
As for the problems, was tough drilling – the smallest bit in the hole-saw drill bits kit, comes upto about an inch ! So struggled to fit in the half inch nipple, into this hole. Also, the drill bit kept on slipping off while drilling (possibly something I did wrong – :-/ )
Anil said,
June 25, 2009 at 5:42 pm
http://www.annadana.com
has a good collection of openpolinated varieties. tomato & chili, sweet corn, squash…
they accept donation as in membership, 1500Rs for home gardner
you get 15 variaties of your choice
brinjal – ~100seeds
capsicum/chili – ~80seeds
sweet corn ~ 30seeds
lettuce – ~ 500seeds
squash – ~25seeds
tomato – ~100seeds
you can do a online transfer & email the form & the transfer details to the email.
they will courier the seeds in 2-3 weeks time ( sent from seed bank in Auroville )
check availability with seedbank@annadana.com first
http://www.annadana.com/actu/new_news.cgi?id_news=227 has the forms & catalog.
Anil said,
June 25, 2009 at 6:01 pm
oops missed the DOH part before posting, incidentally DOH got seeds from Annadana
http://www.annadana.com/actions/karnatak.html
krishna prasad said,
July 26, 2009 at 8:27 am
Dear Manikandan,
Nice to the blog and also article in today’s DNA. Sangitha told me many times about you.I represent Sahaja Samrudha- organic farmers group. Personally i love gardening and conservation of rare vegetable varities. I would like to meet /discuss/ visit your garden.
pl send your email id/ contact no
Krishna Prasad
9880862058
prasadgk12@gmail.com
Balachandran said,
July 26, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hey GG,
I’m glad to have read abt you in DNA newspaper today. I’m someone who have started believing in bio-diversity and global warming. With a 4 and 2 year old at home, I also believe gardering at home is probably the safest way to feed them!!!.
I’d like to get started with some vegetable farming. Can you help me where to get the organic seeds??
Regards
Bala
cheluvaraj said,
July 27, 2009 at 11:41 am
Hi GG,
yesterday i read an article in DNA, great work. we too started our terrace nursery and vegetable garden. just started 3 months back. planning to buy a 4.5 acres of dry land and start my Natural farming soon. we started putting all the resources and started documenting the progress here. green.in
cheluvaraj
Sudharssan-Arvind said,
August 4, 2009 at 8:10 pm
hello mani bhaiya (a.k.a) geek gardener
this is sudharssan and arvind….. we read your blog and its really cool. also ur photo in the newspaper!
keep up the good work….u`r doin ur bit in the struggle against global warming.
truly a genius.:-)
bye.c u.
Asha said,
September 2, 2009 at 10:26 am
Hi GG,
I stumbled upon your blog and so excited to see a gardening blog based in Bangalore! Hope to read your gardening adventures regularly.
Benazir said,
September 20, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hello,
Where can one learn the basics of gardening in Bangalore?
sridhar said,
October 15, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Hi GG,
I live in Chennai. I grow plants in front of my house. I am interested in Verminculture. Where can i buy earthworms in Chennai.
Manjula said,
October 29, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Hi GG,
I was so happy to come across a site where we can discuss gardening ! bangalore really needs it! I have a terrace garden where I have been growing tomatoes, basle, beans, chillies,coriander, curry leaves & seasonal greens. I’ve picked up quite a few tips from your site, thanks.
Rashmie said,
November 6, 2009 at 11:31 am
Wonderful blog with great pics and tips! I will definitely keep coming back to read up more and more…
Thanks for sharing all this practical information…
Rashmie
geekgardener said,
February 15, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Thanks Lokesh. You can use this link in your reader. http://geekgardener.wordpress.com/feed
Happy gardening
gg
geekgardener said,
February 17, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Hi Preethi,
Yeah, I was going mad about growing cherry tomatoes and found a place to get them too. Its so nice of you for that offer. I would love to try them out. If you are interested I can trade them with ‘Yellow pear cherry tomato’ variety that I bought from Dept of Hort. Hulimavu. Any info on what variety of cherry that you have?
thanks again.
gg
geekgardener said,
February 18, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Hi Preethi,
I read about Tomato Balconi Red. Excellent… From the description, its a variety meant of container growing. I am already excited about it
. Does T&M deliver it to India? I am planning to get seed samples of many different varieties of tomato from Dept of Hort. I currently have yellow and read pear for sharing. These seeds are not hybrids and not chemically treated as well. Dept of Hort. is purely organic.
I am curious to know about your garden. Do you do container gardening or on a piece of land?. I am totally into containers.
gg
geekgardener said,
February 19, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hello Preethi,
I kind of figured how dear the seeds from T&M are from their website. Good to know you had success with most of them. I am sure you know about Namdhari seeds. They are very good and the prices are reasonable. I once used to buy from IndamSeeds(Indo American Hybrid Seeds) and they are quite expensive and the number of seeds you get for the amount you pay is very less. Namdhari is good in that. You get 1gram (usually) for INR 30 on most of the flower seeds and trust me they have very good collection.
Dept of Horticulture, HuliMavu. is on Bannerghatta road. You can come from Shoppers Stop(BTM) to IIM and continue on Bannerghatta Road. You will cross HSBC office on your left and if you go further, you will see AECS magnolia school on the left. Keep going further. On your left you will see ‘Guru garden’ something. Right opposite to it on the right you will see Dept of Hort. Next to it is Coconut Development Board.
It must be very difficult to manage everything and still show interest in gardening. Amazing…
I have a balcony and a small terrace for gardening.I am very interested in achieving self sufficiency in terms of vegetables.I know its a very difficult goal to achieve but what the heck.. dreaming is still free.
I will send an email to you about my address.
Happy gardening.
gg
geekgardener said,
March 16, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Hello Ally(hope i got it right).
Welcome to blogging world and my gardening blog too. I am happy to hear that you liked the contents. Having a vegetable garden is very rewarding. For nurseries in chennai, I think readers like Arundati, Chandramouli(inartliesmyheart.blogspot.com) might be able to help you as they are also put up in chennai. For seeds, I am sure chennai has many places and bangalore has much more than that too(Mostly due to the climatic differences). For container soil, I use cocopeat+perlite+topsoil+sand+compost. Or sometimes simply redsoil + sand+compost. It depends.
Please feel free to ask any question you have or share any information you have. I love to share what I know and learn what you know.
gg
geekgardener said,
March 16, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Thank you so much for the great suggestion. I have been feeling very guilty about it every time I write a post. I concentrate on ‘tags’ but fail on categories. Will work on that. Your blog reminds me of mine when it started. and Joshua is so adorable
keep blogging.
geekgardener said,
June 26, 2009 at 10:35 am
Hi Anil,
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for the info. I am already a member and get seeds from Annadana. They are such a wonderful bunch of people doing an amazing job of saving heritage seeds.
gg
geekgardener said,
July 26, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Hello Bala,
Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. I will be glad to be of some help to get you started on gardening.
There are couple of places where you can get organic seeds from. Annadana foundation is one and another is Department of Horticulture, Hulimavu. Let me know if you need any help.
gg
geekgardener said,
July 26, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Hello Krishna Prasad,
I am so happy that you visited my blog. I have heard about you from several people. I will be happy to meet/discuss with you. I will send my details to you in a another personal email.
geekgardener.
geekgardener said,
July 27, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Hello Cheluvaraj,
Thanks. Terrace gardening is fun isn’t it. Esp when there are more challenges w.r.t to space. I am sure you will have more fun farming in acres of land. Good luck with your endeavor. Nice website and pictures of terrace nursery.
THanks
gg
geekgardener said,
August 13, 2009 at 9:47 am
Thanks arvind and sudharssan. hope you are all doing good.
geekgardener said,
September 2, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Hello Asha,
Welcome to my blog and I am glad it is of some help. Do watch this space for more posts to come !
Happy gardening.
gg
geekgardener said,
September 25, 2009 at 9:09 am
Hello Benazir,
With internet you can learn a lot from http://www.youtube.com and you can post your question here or to my email. I will be more than happy to answer if I can. Also, I am planning to start weekend training on gardening soon to spread the awareness and to make kitchen garden a part of every household.
gg
geekgardener said,
October 15, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Hello Sridhar,
You can check with Green lands chennai. Last I had a conversation with them, i was told that they have a huge vermicomposting unit and I am sure they will be able to help you find earth worms
gg
geekgardener said,
November 1, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Hi Manjula,
Good to hear from another gardener. Looks like grow most of the veggies we need daily.
Happy gardening.
gg
geekgardener said,
November 9, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Hello Rashmie,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Do watch this space. I am going to write a series on kitchen gardening…
gg