A Bittersweet Attempt: Our Bitter Gourd Success

Hello, my dearest hive gardeners here at @gardenhive community! I hope you're doing well and enjoying gardening.

This is my entry for Week 26 Hive Garden Question – ‘What is the best thing that happened in your garden this season?’ It’s been quite a while since I last participated in this challenge, and I’m ecstatic to share my story again. This is a story of a successful first try.

My family has been into planting since I was a child. My father is a farmer, and we owned a parcel of land that we used to support our needs by planting different crops such as cassava, sweet potato, peanut, and corn. Not long ago, when we shifted our focus to planting vegetables. Multiple times we failed in our first try, but not this time.

Around the end of May, when we started planting our first-ever Bitter gourd as a family. It was like a gamble since we saw past failures from my sister and her husband’s first try at planting this vegetable, but still, my father, mother, and I were really determined to try. And to our surprise, it has been a success— from the first harvest at the end of June until this very moment that we are still harvesting, we haven’t encountered difficult challenges in tending to our ever-thriving bitter gourds.

(This variety is different from other fruits we have; the fruit is white instead of green - amazing!)

I can say that this is the best thing that has happened in our garden this season – the unexpected success of our first try to plant Bitter gourds.

We are delighted by how resilient the 30 vines that we planted have been, considering they were transplanted during the last part of the hottest month of the year in the equator, which is May. They have managed to survive, grow well, and remain healthy, and are still yielding a substantial harvest to this very moment. We couldn’t believe that they would last this long. We have been harvesting for around four months now. We are also grateful that heaven has showered rain since June, after the scorching May, which we believe contributed to the success of our first attempt.

Our Bitter gourd’s success story is a reminder that sometimes success comes from taking chances despite the fear of failure. Even when my sister and her husband’s experience has shown setbacks, determination, hope, and teamwork turned uncertainty into triumph, leading to unexpected blessings. Just like our bitter gourds, resilience and patience will always bear fruit in the right season.

Thank you for taking the time to read my entry for this week’s challenge. I am excited to read your entries as well and visit your calm space in our lovely community.

(This article was originally made by me and all the photos attached are mine.)