India with its diverse climate, soil, and seasonal produce, gives you an opportunity to explore and experiment with a number of fruits and vegetables, right in your backyard. If you love gardening, why are you limiting your backyard to just leaves and flowers? To get the best and fresh produce, you can turn your home garden into a vegetable-yielding land thus making a shift towards a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. No matter how small or large your garden is, or if you are a novice gardener or an experienced one, you can start by growing ground vegetables and enjoy the yields throughout the year. Here are some vegetables that are perfect to plant in a typical Indian home garden.
Potatoes
One of the most common and popularly eaten ground vegetables in Indian households is potato. Whether you’re making a sabzi, a filling for the crispy snack, samosa, or simply adding a bowl of mashed potatoes for children, the ground vegetable is an all-time favourite. Since the vegetable thrives in cooler weather, they’re perfect to add to your garden at the onset of winter. The carbohydrate-rich vegetable will be ready to be harvested once you spot the foliage turning yellow.
Carrots
Carrot or gajar is another renowned root vegetable, which is used to make a healthy glass of juice, a crunchy salad bowl, a dry sabzi, and even desserts like gajar ka halwa. To plant the highly versatile vegetable in your home garden, you’ll need sandy soil, dig about half an inch and then sow the seeds. In just about 70-80 days, the carrots will be ready to harvest.
Radish
Radish or mooli is a fast-growing root vegetable. The crispy vegetable is used to make salads, parathas, and chutneys in Indian kitchens. You can sow the seeds for radish in the monsoon or early winter season. With loamy soil with good drainage, regular watering, and a balanced fertiliser, your root vegetables will be ready within 45 days of planting them. Once their size reaches that of a golf ball, you can pull the radishes out and add them to your plate for a healthier diet.
Sweet Potato
Sweet potato, a root vegetable with subtly sweeter flavours than potatoes is a popular snack in Indian households. Often eaten after roasting them, chopped shakarkandi after sprinkling with chaat masala is a treasured healthy snack. Usually planted during the summer season, the ground vegetable grows well in sandy soil and is ready in 4-6 months to be harvested.
Beetroot
Beetroot, also known as chukandar is known for its deep red colour. To add a natural pink hue to dishes, ground or boiled beetroot is often added. If you want to get the produce without running to the store, you can get beetroots right in your backyard in just 60-70 days of planting. All you need to do is plant them in well-drained soil, sow them 1 inch deep into the soil, add organic manure and compost, and harvest once they are the size of a tennis ball.