why stick to c h i l l i e s when you can bell a red pepper thats what dr t venkatesan did in his kitchen garden at his harrington road home if youre popping spearmint why not apple mint too graphic designer malavika pritham chakravarthy gave it a go at her patch near auroville the next time you make sambar how about putting in some chopped thumbathangai instead of beans a vegetable found these days only in the villages of tamil nadu m krishnaswamy of mylapore grows it to remind him of his childhood in the last couple of years several kitchen garden enthusiasts across the city and a little outside its borders are now going beyond the usual crop of ladies finger and beans digging into their native roots as well as taking a nip at harvesting the more exotic curiosity and a desire to add variety to their palette seem to be whats plowing them on after decades of growing tomatoes and brinjals dr venkatesan decided he was going to try his hand at red and yellow bell peppers to his homegrown menu i was nervous whether it would work in chennai as my daughter had brought the seeds from the us but it was a success says the 77yearold who loves the extra colour they give his food in besant nagar retiredcustomsofficialturnedgardeningenthusiast ss radhakrishnan is most excited about the cherry tomatoes he has planted it was plain curiosity he says ive planted native tomato varieties for years but when i saw a photograph of these little cherry tomatoes i knew i wanted to taste them says radhakrishnan who for a year has been spearheading a kitchen garden movement through the voluntary organisation good governance guards kitchen gardens have a pretty long history in india with the all india kitchen garden association being set up in 1967 to help people tackle issues such as shortage of food and rising vegetable prices later on says santhi balasubramanian of the tamil nadu agricultural universitys information and training centre kitchen gardens sprouted everywhere because of a rising fear of pesticides being used to grow vegetables we have had more than 300 people walk into our office this year wanting to set up their own garden she says we are now beginning to see people exploring newer vegetable varieties too she adds chakravarthy who has been gardening since childhood has added corn sweet corn new zealand keerai three types of basil and three types of mint spearmint peppermint and apple mint to her onions cucumber and garlic i like food any kind of food which is why i keep experimenting says chakravarthy who has also grown a passion fruit plant in a pot the apple mint sprigs for instance i got from a friend when she returned from italy i planted them and discovered that while you cannot really cook with them they are great in juices she sayssheela prabhu from madurai has a cherry bush growing in