Seek, and ye shall find...
Guides: the timeless how-tos.
Journal stories are seasonal and personal; guides are evergreen. This is the reference shelf, the how-tos we point people back to again and again, organised by where you are in your growing.
10 mistakes new kitchen gardeners make (and the easy fixes)
Nearly every beginner makes the same ten mistakes — and every one is dead easy to dodge once you know it. Here they are, with the fix for each.
Bio-controls: putting good fungi and microbes to work
Some of the best organic pest control isn’t a spray at all — it’s a living thing. Meet the beneficial fungi and microbes that quietly do the job for you.
Building great organic soil (the whole secret, really)
Feed the soil and it feeds the plants. Here is how to build the dark, crumbly, alive-with-worms soil that does 80% of the gardening for you — pots or beds.
Feed your garden free, from kitchen waste
Your bin is full of plant food. Rice water, eggshells, banana skins, tea leaves — here’s how to turn everyday kitchen waste into free, organic feed for a thriving garden.
Flea beetles: the shot-holes in your winter leaves
Dozens of tiny round holes peppering your spinach and mustard, and little beetles that ping away when you get close? Flea beetles. Here is how to see them off, organically.
Foraging: 6 wild edible greens in your neighbourhood
Some of the most nutritious greens in India grow free, wild, and ignored — right around your neighbourhood. Here are six worth knowing, and how to forage them safely.
How to get rid of aphids, organically
Tiny green, yellow or black bugs clustered on your new growth, leaves curling and sticky? Aphids. Here’s how to send them packing without a drop of chemicals.
How to grow a curry leaf plant (kadi patta) at home
Skip the seeds, buy a sapling, and you can have fragrant kadi patta on tap for years. Here’s how to grow a generous, bushy curry leaf plant in a pot — including our slightly ridiculous AC-pipe trick.
How to grow ginger and galangal at home
Both grow from a knobbly bit of rhizome at the start of the monsoon — but one hates wet feet and one loves them. Here’s the difference that decides your harvest.
How to grow green chilli (hari mirch) at home
Full sun, a decent pot and a bit of patience, and one chilli plant will keep your kitchen in hari mirch for months. Here’s how — organically.
How to grow methi (fenugreek) at home
Fast, foolproof and ready in under a month — methi is the crop to grow when you want a quick win. Even the seeds from your spice jar will do.
How to grow tulsi (holy basil) at home
Sun, a pot that drains, and the discipline to pinch off the flowers — that’s very nearly all tulsi asks. Here’s how to keep yours lush and leafy for months.
How to start a kitchen garden in India
The shortest honest path from “I’ve never grown anything” to your first harvest, in six steps.
Leaf miners: those squiggly lines on your leaves
Pale, wandering tunnels all over your spinach and tomato leaves? Leaf miners. Mostly cosmetic, easily managed — here’s how, and when not to worry.
Mealybugs & whiteflies: the white cottony bugs
White cottony fluff under the leaves, or a cloud of tiny white flies when you brush the plant? Here’s how to clear mealybugs and whiteflies the organic way.
No seeds? 6 things in your kitchen you can grow
No seed packets, no problem. Six everyday things already sitting in your Indian kitchen can become a whole garden — some reliably, one or two on a hopeful wing and a prayer.
Organic pest sprays that actually work
Six home-made sprays, what each one targets, and when to reach for which — from the trusty neem bottle to a spoon of baking soda.
Pot sizes, demystified
A 10-inch pot holds one tomato. An 18-inch pot holds a brinjal. Here’s the quick reference for everything else.
Quick-growing leafy greens for a fast harvest
Want something on your plate fast? These four leafy greens are quick, forgiving and keep giving — the impatient beginner’s best friends.
Sticky traps & physical controls: the no-spray defences
Before you spray anything, reach for the simplest tools of all: traps, a jet of water and your own two hands. Often they’re all you need.
The basics of organic kitchen gardening: a beginner's primer
Everything a first-timer needs in one place: how a kitchen garden actually works, from starting seeds to harvest — plus the seedling-care rules and the six mistakes that trip up nearly everyone.
The power of mulch (your soil's best friend)
A free layer of dried leaves or straw that halves your watering, smothers weeds and feeds your soil. If you do one new thing this season, mulch.
Thrips: tiny insects, scarred leaves, big virus risk
Silvery scarring, distorted leaves and slivers that flit up when you disturb the plant? Thrips. Small, sneaky, and worth taking seriously because they spread viruses.
Vegetables you can harvest in three months
New gardeners need a win, and these four deliver one in about three months. Plant them, tend them, and you’ll be picking your own dinner by season’s end.
What to grow in summer: a planting guide for India
Enough to feed a family of five through the hot months — what to plant, how far apart, how many, and what to pair it with. The summer kitchen garden, organised.
What to grow in the monsoon: the Konkan coast edition
On the Konkan coast the monsoon rewrites the rulebook. Here’s what genuinely thrives in the rain, what quietly rots (sorry, tomatoes), and the one timing trick that decides the whole season.
What to grow in the shade
A shady balcony isn’t a dead end — it’s just a different menu. Here’s what actually thrives without much direct sun, and what to stop trying to grow there.
What's eating my plant? A quick organic pest identifier
Squiggly lines? White fluff? Sticky curled leaves? Match the symptom to the culprit, then jump to the fix. Your one-stop “what is wrong with my plant” guide.
White powder on leaves: beating mildew organically
White powdery patches, fuzzy grey growth or black sooty film on your leaves? That’s mildew. Here’s how to stop it slowing — and eventually killing — your plants.
Why is my coriander dying? (and how to fix it)
Your dhania keeps dying and you are about to give up. Don’t. It’s almost always one of four boringly common mistakes — and every one of them is dead easy to dodge.
Wilt: when your plant collapses overnight
Moist soil but a plant that’s suddenly drooped and won’t recover? That’s wilt — a fungal or bacterial disease. Here’s how to stop it spreading and prevent the next one.
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The best gardening advice is the kind you can actually use this weekend.