The Plant Diary - 11th November, 2026
The four brinjals are the first thing I see when I enter my garden. This is a very good brinjal plant. I had no tending to do with it. The saplings just grew.
This is in sharp contrast to the chilly pepper plant next to it. Its been ridden with white flies and fungus, and I've had to keep spraying it with Neem oil and a natural fungicide spray to keep the fungus at bay. I've been plucking away the curled leaves - a sign of infection. New leaves are now coming on the plant and I have two chillies growing out of it as well.
The big radishes are all harvested, but one plant remains, slowly maturing.
A new black nightshade plant has been growing between the hibiscus and rose plants. These are non-poisonous varietes that grow in India. The black berries they produce are very tasty, so I'm eagerly waiting for them to come.
The cucumber and yard-long beans plants have been the real surprise, putting out big leaves. The yard-long beans plant is now taller than me, climbing away on a rope that takes it to a net above, where the ivy gourd and jasmine plants are. If everything goes well, we'll have cucumbers, beans and ivy gourds hanging from the net, which would be a delight.
I realized today that hands are underrated as tools. I have a pot into which I added compost and some nutrients and the soil was a bit lumpy. After trying tools for a while, I just put on a pair of gloves and gave the soil a massage. It was looking smooth in a few seconds. I should remember to use my hands more often.