At the end of last June, I decided to start a small garden next to my house. The plot isn’t very large because it’s vacant land that isn’t being used at the moment. After my husband built a garage, I decided to start this small garden just to meet our daily needs. It’s not large, but this garden is quite helpful in my kitchen when I need chili peppers for cooking. Although I’ve harvested a few times and the yield hasn’t been much, it’s enough to meet our chili pepper needs when my husband wants to eat sambal.
After about two months of gardening, I’ve learned a lot about plants. Especially tomatoes—in my opinion, tomatoes are the easiest plants to grow and don’t require extra care. However, it’s been raining a lot in my area lately, and some of the tomato plants aren’t growing well. They’re growing slowly, and some have even died—I’m not sure exactly what’s going on. But there are some tomato plants that are growing well, especially in the back area where the tomato plants in the polyethylene pots are getting tall and look healthy.
Several other plants are thriving, especially my cauliflower. I’m so happy to see that it’s now very tall—it started out just the length of a fingertip and has now grown to about 30 cm. This is an amazing achievement, and it’s starting to produce a lot of leaves. However, every now and then the leaves get holes from plant pests; as usual, green crickets are often found there. They eat the leaves—perhaps because I don’t use any pesticides, so they really love it there.
As for fertilizer, I rely on manure—such as duck and cow manure—and I usually use compost made from burned leaves and kitchen scraps from cooking, like onion skins, vegetable scraps, fruit peels, and even eggshells. I use all of these as natural fertilizer for my plants.
What I like best—and what always yields a bountiful harvest that keeps my kitchen well-stocked—is chili peppers. I’m so happy they grow so well there; I can even harvest them repeatedly. Chili peppers are indeed a kitchen staple I really need, so I always want to grow them well. In fact, just recently I sowed new chili pepper seeds.
In my garden, I have three types of chili peppers: curly red chili peppers, “setan” bird’s eye chili peppers, and “kampung” bird’s eye chili peppers. The “kampung” bird’s eye chili peppers aren’t big yet; they’re still growing well in my polybags.
It brings me so much joy to see the chili peppers turning red and ready to be harvested every day. I usually make sambal because my husband loves spicy food. Usually, whenever I need chili peppers, I just harvest them right here now. This is an amazing result for my garden.
Another plant that makes me impatient is red onion; red onions are known to have a fairly long growing period, and I often get frustrated because the bulbs just won’t get any bigger. Lately, the soil has been a bit damp due to frequent rain. You can’t harvest the leaves from red onions, so I usually make use of the broken onion leaves and collect them. I trim them so they look neater, but I’m not sure if this is actually good or bad.
Also, my lettuce is growing beautifully. I used to think lettuce was hard to grow here, but I was wrong—it actually grows very easily and well in my pots.
I’ve also planted basil and cilantro. These plants are very hard to find in my area, so I took the initiative to buy seeds and plant them at home. I hope they grow well here. As for the basil, it looks like I’ll have to transplant it into a larger pot so it gets the nutrients it needs.
My favorite plant—I really love this one because it’s always used in fried rice, noodles, and other dishes. I’ve already transplanted the celery leaves into a pot, and they’re growing really well. I even tried sowing the seedlings in new polybags; even though they’re still small, I really hope there will be lots of celery in my little garden someday.
Although this mini garden is filled with my curiosity about plants, I’ve started planting a variety of different types here.
There are also long beans, eggplants that are starting to bloom, and squash growing in pots—it looks like these need to be transplanted soon. On a whim, I also added potatoes to my seedling pots. I’m not sure if potatoes can grow in my area since they usually grow in highlands.
In addition, I have papaya trees that have already bloomed and are bearing fruit near my mother’s duck coop. They’re thriving, but one tree has been infested with pests—I’ve seen lots of red ants there.
The ants are stunting the plant’s growth, and it’s starting to look stunted. It’s such a shame, especially since this plant was just about to bear fruit.
So that’s a quick look at my plant journal for August. I harvested some red chili peppers—they’re absolutely beautiful. I hope my plants continue to thrive in this little garden, and I hope I’ll be able to harvest an abundant crop someday.
May this garden inspire you to clear a small patch of land in your backyard—nothing is impossible when it comes to starting a simple home garden. In addition to relieving stress, gardening can also help you practice patience as you wait for the results you desire. Warm regards to plant lovers and food lovers around the world. Gardening and cooking—two things that come together in our lives.
Hi Readers and Hivers, Thank you for reading and visiting my posts which are 100% copyrighted by myself, my own content, writings and photos, taken with the Samsung Galaxy A72 Smartphone.
A woman, firm and stubborn who is called "Nurul", born in July 1993, comes from Indonesia, Aceh province. My daily activity is work.
Besides working, I have several hobbies, namely reading, writing, cooking, gardening, making crafts, and traveling. From this hobby of mine, I will develop some inspiring content for all of you. I am also very happy to discuss positive new things with all of you.
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