My first garden

When we first bought our house, the thing that I loved most about it was it's beautiful backyard. It had so much more space than the 600 sqft apartment I was used to. My little potted plants didn't have to fight for sun space on the balcony anymore. Although, now looking back in hindsight, it was also a hell of a lot easier to manage.

One of the first things I wanted to when we got the house was to have my parents over to help set up our first organic garden. Everyone else did all the work, I just picked out the plants I wanted. This was going to be a breeze -or so I thought. I was sort of cheating and looking for plants that were easy to grow and naturally pest free.

Most of the Indian herbs I use almost daily I already had, such as tulsi (holy basil), ajwain plant (caraway), lemongrass and curry leaf plants. I did have to buy some Thai basil, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano from Central Market.

My parents brought me a baby guava tree, a pomengranate tree as well as all the basics - Thai chilies, ichiban eggplants, colored bell peppers, brandywine tomatoes and a few other heirloom varieties and okra. I wanted to grow more things but I also didn't want to overdo it, know what I mean?

So, they were all busy digging and tilling and working hard in the muddy wet soil since it decided to rain hard the night before they arrived. Here are the fruits of their labor which I got to enjoy all summer long...