The Urban Gardener

finding Happiness in the garden

2012-01-16T20:20:00.004+05:30

I had no idea my garden was so trendy! The colour of the year is blooming itself silly in my garden.
Oh yes, feast your eyes on the most cheerful, vivacious colour ever. Tangerine Tango is what Pantone calls it. I call it Sheer Pep!
Doesn't it just put a zing in your soul and a swing in your step? They definitely got the Tango part right. Electrifying!

I think if Happiness had a colour, this would be it. Not the insipid pale-pink kind of happy.
No way! this is the in-your-face, ecstatic to the core, bursting-with-happiness, beaming-from-ear-to-ear, hopping and skipping and dancing, vibrantly giddy kind of happy!

And I'm finding all kinds of variations on the theme all over. Don't you just love this pop of colour? Ornamental Musas have a way of being eye-catching even in a garden crammed with colour. But put them in the midst of green foliage and wham! it just pulls eyes to them instantly.

Any plant which is a butterfly and bird-magnet as well as being low-maintenace, ranks very high on my list of must-haves in the garden. With the lantana you get all this plus cheerful colours too.
I have a wild lantana bush growing in the middle of my vegetable patch . It's grown and grown, like the legendary porridge in the magic pot, till it's spilling all over the place. It takes up a good 10' x 20' (or more ... definitely more) of the space but I'm a bit indulgent with it. After all, it's the perfect spot to lurk near in hopes of clicking butterflies. So I let it grow wider but not taller. I keep it pruned (or rather, hacked) to a controllable 6' height or I would have a lantana tree blocking out afternoon sunshine from my orchids.
The one in the photo above, however, is more well-behaved and is bred to stay humbly close to the ground. And I lovvve that colour!

The Pagoda Flower (or Clerodendrum paniculatum) is another burst of colour for the garden. I love mixing it up with shorter plants and then again, it looks great in masses of its own kind too. Like wave upon wave of orange-red fireworks.
Now picture that against a grey stone wall. Or even a stark white-washed wall. Or with a green grass backdrop ... so dramatic!

Oh, and the butterflies love them too. Do you really need any more reasons?

Need more of the 'shake-awake' factor?
If anything shouts "Drama!", it just has to the Anthurium. This one doesn't exactly fall into the Colour Trend of the Year category, but really ... does it need to?!
I love the glossy, brilliantly-hued spathes that sizzle their way to centre-stage each time. Every time.
And know what I love even more? That they're low-maintenance! At least in tropical gardens, they are. And their blooms last and last and last. Perfect for the busy gardener who juggles a hundred chores every day, don't you think? Happiness!

If bright colours are the trend this year, this must be in the Top 10! I love the uber-bright, soft as a powder-puff bloom of the Wax Jambu. I love the fruit too (naturally!) but the flowers are a great taste of yumminess in store.
Did I say taste? The flower is edible too, as any little kid in tropical lands will tell you. It has a slight sour tang which makes it too tempting to leave alone. I remember raiding the Wax Jambu trees in my childhood garden and nibbling on the blooms. My mom never objected because she loved it too. In fact, I think she's the one who introduced me to this tangy flavour.
The squirrels did protest, though. Long and loud!

It's not just colours that make me happy. Growing my own food puts me firmly on that path too. But it's a bursting-with-pride kind of happy.
Leafy greens are some of the easiest edibles to grow. So are the leafy reds. Doesn't the red amaranth growing among the green palak look festive? Especially in Mumbai with the mellow winter sun gleaming on them? Perfect holiday colour!

This Common Sailor butterfly doesn't have the brilliant colouring which seems to be favoured this year.
Or does he? Once he folds his wings you just might be surprised. Take a look here .
Hmmm.... maybe he's a pirate?

A bit drab, did you say? But then, butterflies embody the Happiness factor in any garden (or anywhere else for that matter). Even a sober Grey Pansy butterfly basking in the winter sunlight is enough to make my click-happy fingers tremble with excitement. Love those colours against the vibrant green of the lantana and banana leaves!

And I love those fake eyes on his wing-tips, goggling at the world. Brilliant! Any attacking bird would be misled into going for those 'eyes', giving the butterfly enough time to break free and escape. I love it when the underdog outwits the bigger, tougher adversary!

But if you want to find pure unadulterated happiness, take a tip from this Psyche. She stuck her whole head (not just her proboscis) deep ... way deep ... into this Vinca, immersing herself wholeheartedly into the moment. Until ...

..... aaaahhhh! BLISS !!!

Rush hour in the garden

2011-10-30T18:43:00.006+05:30

October is a busy month in my garden. No, not for me. I just flop around on my verandah or under the cashew trees, moaning about the killing heat in Mumbai. But the little creatures that also call my garden "home" are busier than ever. They are everywhere that I look, doing their own thing and generally making my garden look like it is abuzz with activity. Sooner them than me!

For starters, the dragonflies are all over the place. Zipping and swirling around, sometimes solo but usually in a cloud. I love dragonflies! Seeing them in action makes me an ultra-happy person because they hunt mosquitoes.
Did I mention that all the foliage in my garden seems to attract every single mosquito for miles around?The garden of Eden had a snake to harass the residents, mine has mosquitoes. Which also means that it has some very happy dragonflies.

I love this extremely vibrant Dawn Dropwing dragonfly who put an old orchid bloom spike to good use. He kept perching on it, sticking his bright tail up in the air and fanning his wings open in a display that kept veiling and unveiling his fuchsia-purple body. The poor guy was obelisking to beat the heat!
To read more about this gorgeous dragonfly, check this out.

The damselflies are out too, even in my apartment garden. They're such delicate little wisps that one usually doesn't notice them until they rise up out of some plant that they were perched on. But don't let their size (or lack of it) fool you. They are just as efficient at hunting out mosquitoes, flies and insect pests. I've seen one gobbling up a beetle which looked much too large to fit into the damselfly's tummy!

Then there are the butterflies .... Oh my God! the butterflies! They're everywhere. Flitting, floating, frolicking ... I love this season for the butterflies . My Vinca rosea patch is seeing rush hour throughout the day.
By the way, did you notice the little damselfly watching the Common Wanderer butterfly? That's the same little guy in the second photo. He was almost glued to the spot for hours.

You would think that with a name like Grass Demon this butterfly would be huge and scary. But no, he's really quite small. What really is larger than life is that proboscis of his!

'Huge and scary' should probably go to describe the Giant Redeye butterfly! This butterfly feeding on the Spiderlilies isn't very big, but take a look at its big ruby-red eyes! How beautifully weird is that?

If you're looking for unconventional beauties, here's one for your list. The Buff Striped Keelback is quite a small, thin snake and is absolutely harmless. Every so often I find one zipping across my yard, hoping that no one will notice him. This one was racing across the roasting sunny areas and heading for the cool shade of the heliconias. Hopefully, he was after some garden pests but more probably, he had his eye on the little frogs which like to hang out there too.

He has no idea just how lucky he is to miss being spotted by our resident Pariah Kite!
The Pariah Kites are nesting again on the coconut tree and keep a strict watch on everything that is going on. This one swooped down for a quick sip and dip in the bird-bath. And of course, some crows landed up immediately too. Just to keep an eye on him, you know.

October is also the month when the migratory birds start trooping in. I found this Hoopoe scanning some of the overgrown grass ( a last remnant of the monsoon super-growth). A crow swooped by near him and up went his startled crest. Such fun!
By the way, doesn't he look like the Creator drew some sample scribbles on his back while trying to design the Zebra?

The season is changing. It is still as hot as ever during the day but now there is a cool nip in the air at night and I love the transitions it brings. I love this season for the unusual birds that show up and also for some of the more unusual blooms. Even on the foliage plants, like this Phyllanthus myrtifolius which is widely grown as a hedge or for topiaries. It is not one of my most favourite plants but in October I seriously re-think that opinion. Because that's when it transforms into a blooming beauty!

'How not to make millions' ... and still enjoy a good book!

2011-10-17T21:20:00.003+05:30

Every once in a while I feel the internet is one of the best things that happened to me. From being a raw newbie who had a PC forced on me some years ago by my brother (he felt I was sinking into the world of plants and birds and butterflies too much and forgetting all about the modern one) to discovering a whole new world filled with like-minded people with similar interests, has been one of the most amazing journeys of my life.
Best of all, I also discovered that I was not the only one who enjoyed that world of plants and birds and butterflies!

Which is why I'm really excited about this new e-book I'm getting, 'HOW NOT TO MAKE MILLIONS - but still enjoy a rich rural life' .
Is that a great title, or what? It made me go "huh? what was that again?" the first time I read it. I wish I had thought of it first!
With a zinger of a title like that can't you just taste what's in store? I 'met' the author, Alan McDonald, on an online forum a couple of years ago and I don't know if I love his tongue-in-cheek sense of humour more or the very practical solutions he always has to offer. When one has been farming and gardening for around 60 years in places as diverse as Scotland, Portugal and Australia, one does pack a great store of garden wisdom !

'How not to make millions ... ' began as a series of notes when Alan started jotting down his experiences as a gardener and farmer, recording what and what not to do in the future. His intention, partly, was to create a record which his son could access anytime he wanted to, adding some notes too about their personal history which he thought future generations might find interesting.
Started in 1951, the notes took on a new life when Alan decided to transfer them to a computer. Very soon, he was persuaded on popular request, to convert them to e-book form (a big "thank you" to whoever was responsible for this feat!).

"My original aim had been to show my son that through his own efforts and on minimal income, he could make a farm out of any land irrespective of where it might be or its condition when purchased, and then enjoy a lifestyle that many people think would require a considerable income to support."

I love that, especially the last bit.
But, it didn't end there. Alan realised that what was good advice for his son was just as good for a wider reading public.

"As I moved around the world the book came to have a second aim, and that is to have all landholders think long and hard about how successive generations of future farmers can do the same thing by leaving their land in a more fertile state than when it was acquired."

Which makes the book such a perfect read. I love the whole "leave the earth a better place" angle.

"Even if your dream is to undertake some other pursuit rather than things agricultural, it is still necessary to produce as much of your own food as possible if you want to eat really well at minimum cost, so you must have a vegetable garden, preferably some fruit and nuts too, and space for some meat production if you eat meat."

You see what I mean? No-nonsense, practical to the core.
I'm not looking for new-fangled notions and concepts in this book. I'm going to devour it instead for the author's wholesome attitude to farming and gardening, practical advice on growing food and what a new landowner (or even a seasoned one) should look out for, especially, which pitfalls to avoid. And, 6 decades of hands-on experience and knowledge. I'm looking forward, especially, to re-discovering gardening and farming practices which may have become forgotten today but which deserve a second look. I'm looking forward, most of all, to a good read.

I for one, thoroughly treasure Alan's advice and recommendations. Even if he claims that a city-dweller may not possibly appreciate his book.
Well, you're so mistaken, Alan McDonald! I can think of a million reasons why I'm just itching to read it, and guess what ? I feel millions richer already!

Post-script : Take a look at Alan's blog here
(excerpts are quoted from the Preface, accessed from Smashwords )

Transitions and deja-vu

2011-10-04T16:55:00.005+05:30

October heralds a second summer in Mumbai . Shorter, but maybe hotter (or at least, it feels so). Already the deliciously cool, wet days of the monsoon season are a mere memory. And, as the days start trudging from unbearably humid and hot to skin-cracklingly sizzling, I wish that if we had to be gifted a repetition of a season the same year, it would be the monsoon which re-visits us. Definitely NOT Summer!
Every so often my non-tropical garden friends ask me why I get so deliriously ecstatic over the monsoons. I'm at a loss to pick just one reason .

I love it for the heavenly scent of Michaellia champaca that lures and trails me as I walk in my garden in the evening. It even wafts indoors and crooks a perfumed finger at me. And I put everything else aside and follow, losing myself in its heady scent.

... For the unexpected beauty that nudges me out of everyday chores, waiting to surprise me at every turn.
What used to be a very pedestrian driveway gets transformed into a beautiful swift-flowing, cool stream, complete with an offering to the river goddess...

... and dozens of little 'waterfalls' and 'rapids' that fire the imagination and create little adventurers of those brave enough to risk a slip and slide.
There goes all my beautiful garden soil rushing along downstream ... sigh! ... but the sheer fun of seeing a stream come alive in my garden is worth every grain of it. I love the character it adds to my garden space!

... For the hundreds of wild curcumas and gazillions of maidenhair fern that sprout on cue all over the place.
I love these plants! Curcumas in every shade of lilac and mauve and rich, deep dark purple and feathery Maidenhair ferns so delicately, exquisitely beautiful. I really miss them when they disappear soon after the monsoons. For me, they are the link my garden shares with the great mountain chain of the Western Ghats and its rich biodiversity. One tiny little outpost on the furthest tip. I can live with that!

... For all those lovely fruits that decide to start yielding now, including the passionfruits blushing among the curry leaves. (I've heard of "currying favour" but "currying passion"? ... that's a new one!).

... For the cool, misty and windy days that morph simple photographs into a blur of poetic colour. I love the fresh-washed green that is a regular backdrop for all the photos taken in this season. And I love how the monsoon light makes the reds sizzle in my garden photos (now you know why I surround myself with so many red anthuriums).

... For the myriad vibrantly colourful, totally unusual creatures that show up now.
Even before I finish marvelling at one, I spot another not too far away.

And another ...
Isn't this tiny Tortoise Beetle the cutest thing you've ever seen? All gleaming gold and tiny pattering feet with its own clear space bubble. Cute!

... For the mossy look that cloaks everything.
Soft, cushiony moss, lending an air of woodland groves, envelops every surface. From bricks on the pathways to the bark on the trees . Cushiony, that's the word, not slippery.
I wonder if there's any way I could get a soft moss bed to sleep on? Just looking at it makes me feel like lying down on it.

.... For the air of supreme fertility everywhere. This anthurium on the right is so ready to pop !

... For the air of supreme fertility.
Oh, did I say that already? What else would one think on spotting the red ginger (Alpinia purpurata) sprouting even as it blooms?

... For all the little babies that show up now.
Monsoon is when my orchids go into baby over-drive. There are little keikis forming on almost every cane of the mature dendrobiums.
It is also the season when my outdoor-grown orchids start fleshing out again after being cooked and dehydrated in our roasting Mumbai summer. Did I tell you that I never pamper my orchids? They actually seem to prefer it that way!

... For the days when it rains and rains and rains. Until it seems as if my world has shrunk into a little cocoon and I'm dreamily snug in my little verandah, blissfully gazing out at my thoughts ... a little world within my world.

Just a few reasons. Not all, but just enough to detail my karmic connection with the monsoon. And now it looks like we're done for this year, so it's time to tuck these memories away. To be dipped into every time I need a serenity fix or a taste of what the next monsoon will do.

Because now it's time for Butterflies

... and Dragonflies

... and Orchids!

Plant ID

2011-09-09T16:13:00.007+05:30

Just for fun ... can you identify this flower / plant? I'm sure most of you love it. I know that I do. I saw it on one of my trips and got all excited because I had never seen it in bloom before. I just had to click a photo to show you.

Monsoons ... the agony and the ecstasy

2011-08-10T17:15:00.004+05:30

Mystical, magical monsoon in Mumbai makes me go "mmmmmm.....!"

Okay, I was just dying to say that. If it's one mmm too many, blame it on the season. The rain does that to me. Beautiful cooling rain after months of broiling in the heat and dust of summer. So very deliciously divine!

And, I love the plants and blooms it heralds. Wildly beautiful Curcumas popping up all over my garden, driving the bees mad with golden pathways to paradise. Safed musli with its spikes of white blooms. And the luxuriant green curtains of maidenhair fern waving from every wall and stone. All growing wild, but as welcome as any expensive plant swooped on from a nursery.

And I love the way the monsoon washes the city roads, transforming the lucky ones into tree-enclosed, vine-smothered jungle trails. (The others, horrifyingly, become mini-lakes but let's not go there now, okay? I'm still in ecstasy mode. )
The dust is gone, leaves washed clean and the dirt is entombed in a soft green sheath.
Green. Every shade and hue imaginable. So very energising.... and so very soothing.

The passionfruit vines are smothered in blooms, filling the evening air with its heady fragrance and dreams of delicious flavours to come. Anticipation is such a bittersweet thing!

My dendrobium orchids are in ecstasy mode too now. The monsoons trigger a heady season of riotous blooming unlike anything else I've seen.

And with every blooming season a mascot (or mascots) makes its presence felt. The vincas are awash with butterflies. This Skipper (Tricoloured Flat, if I'm not mistaken?) was the only one that would sit still for me. The others insisted on eating on the run.
A Common Mormon was visiting the Vinca rosea too, flapping its red-and-black dramatic wings.
Those regular, common-place Vincas seen in every abandoned plot of land all over the place are real butterfly magnets. But guess what ... none of those butterflies would even land on the hybrid vincas which I had planted in the same bed for a splash of colour.
Hmmm .... so much for glamour!

The passionflower has its share of hungry visitors too. I was really amused to see these bees picnicking. This once they didn't have to delve deep into a flower to get at the goodies. How very accomodating of the passionflower.
I just wish it would choose to bloom during the day so I could get a better shot, though.

Clicking photos on overcast days comes with its own set of agonies. I wish I could capture the mood and ambience of that beautiful time when we're envelopped in dark rain clouds promising to spill over any minute ( no! we tropical folk are not so enamoured of the sun ). My whole garden takes on a slightly magical look in this light but my Old Faithful, a Canon Ixus which has been with me throughout my blogging journey, has turned temperamental and is on its last legs. I suspect a lens problem and have been advised to get myself a new camera. I know I should but I'll miss this one so much.

Just as I'll miss all those unfortunate plants that have decided to join that great big garden in the sky. The monsoon season can be hell on plants too. Especially when it rains non-stop for days on end.
Which is worse, losing them to death by drowning in the torrential rain or by slow rot or by being blown away by the squalling winds? Or by having a big, strong tree topple over , carrying with it all the little plants that grew in its shelter? Or by being chewed alive by creatures that can't even walk? And those that can?
My orchids, especially, are susceptible to these silent killers which makes them so very squish-worthy.. I may (sometimes, if I'm feeling lazy) turn a blind eye to snails in summer but never ever in the monsoon season! They're Enemy No.1 then.

No, I take that back. They share that spot with another dreaded enemy ... the mosquito. You can't avoid them completely in the tropics but in the monsoon season, they become a ravenous, blanketing force driving me indoors as nothing else can. Which makes me so very grateful for two little garden creatures who are Mosquito Hunters Extraordinare :

and

Always welcome in my garden. And always a pleasure to watch.
Sometimes agony does give way to ecstasy too, right?

A Summer-ful of fun ... and a great offer

2011-06-02T20:32:00.003+05:30

If you wondered whether I had melted away in the summer heat, you wouldn't be that far off the mark. 1 month is way too long to miss updating, I know.
First I was travelling all over the place (more about that later), then when I got back my internet connection started acting up, disconnecting every few seconds until I gave up in frustration.
Then, the usual summer work in my garden caught up and I was busy, busy, busy. Not the perfect word to associate with our scorching summers here in Mumbai, I know, but I wonder whether anyone bothered to tell that to this Blue Banded Bee deliriously hopscotching among the Pentas?
(Don't you just love those colours, by the way? )

I'm quite partial to Pentas too. Partly because they're such cheerful bloomers, partly because they come in such vivid colours and mostly because the honeybees love them. Yeah, mostly because of the honeybees ... I love what they do for my plants. This particular plant had about 20 bees (at least) visiting for a leisurely sip. This one looks really deep in the cups, doesn't he? And so early in the morning too!

The crows are nesting. And guess who's got a nursery make-over? Sports-themed too! Can't figure out how she got it so perfectly colour co-ordinated, though.
Can you believe there's a crow in my garden with a flair for home decor?

You want to talk colour? I love this new entrant to my garden. I think these Red Pierrot butterflies stowed away on a couple of blooming Kalanchoes that I bought recently. Don't you just love them ... so dramatic!
Remind me to buy more plants, okay? Who knows which butterfly will follow us home next time?

If there's one bug which is always welcome in my garden it has to be the ladybug beetle (or lady-bird, as we're so used to calling them in India). I think the black-spotted red ones are really cute but I haven't seen even one in my garden (nor anywhere in Mumbai, come to think of it) so I'm more than happy with these Six-Spotted Zigzag ladybugs. Not so flamboyant but they do have a zany sense of style. And I do like their dietary habits! Any bug with a taste for aphids and scales and thrips and other nasties gets a warm welcome in my garden.

Oh! And guess what I found?
A whole slew of 1-day programmes organised by BNHS . I missed the Flamingo Watch at Sewri but I'm trying like crazy to see if I can make it for the trip to Yeoor Hills or even the Nature Trail at Elephanta Island. (okay, I missed those too ... this post has been sitting in my computer for too long! I hate it when my internet goes on the blink ) The mention of all those birds and butterflies have really sparked my curiosity.

So why am I on this hunt for trails when the summer heat normally has me yearning for a cool spot away from any physical exertion? One, because I really enjoy seeing the local flora and fauna in their natural surroundings.
Two, it's the perfect opportunity to introduce my kids to them. Normally school timings and activities get in the way but hey, the vacations are on now.
Three... and most important ... the vacations are on! and if I hear "Mama, I'm bored" or "What do I do now?" just once more, I think I'll scream.

So, I'm hunting up things for us to do together. And the more Nature-oriented, the better. Which is why the BNHS programmes are perfect.
The Trails organised by the Conservation Education Centre sound really interesting too, especially the Leopard Trail. I bet it's a hit with the teens! Me Tarazan, you ... er, Leopard?

And for all you moms (and dads) out there who are figuring out how to get junior interested in gardens and garden creatures and the Great Outdoors, here's this fabulous offer from Black Dog Publishing. They are offering all readers of The Urban Gardener a huge walloping discount of 40% off when you buy their latest book 'Kids in the Wild Garden: Fun Activities for the Great Outdoors'!
That's a sample page from the book in the picture above, by the way.And it's packed with fun projects (well-illustrated and with easy to follow step-by-step instructions) and ideas that kids of any age, from 5 years and up, will enjoy. I think I would love to make one of those butterfly houses with my daughter.
Actually, you know what? I think this is a great book for grown-ups too. I've only read snippets from the book and I'm itching to lay my hands on it.

Okay, all you have to do is to e-mail Jess Atkins ( jess@blackdogonline.com ) with your address and quote 'The Urban Gardener book offer' in the subject line when you place your order. For UK readers, the price after discount is £ 5.97 and for our US readers it is $9.57 after discount (shipping not included).

And, oh yes, there's one more thing you've got to do .... ENJOY! And do let me know how you liked the book, okay?

(pic. of page spread from 'Kids in the Wild Garden' courtesy Black Dog Publishing )

POST SCRIPT : IT"S RAINING!!! Love, Love, LOVE the rains !

An Indian Summer

2011-04-19T18:42:00.000+05:30

"SUMMER!" trumpets a hot-pink zinnia, zinging up the garden.
Goodbye cool nights and misty mornings veiled in dew.
Goodbye visiting birds from faraway lands.
Goodbye dreamy, mellow sunlit days, spinning magic in Mumbai.

"SUMMER!" exclaims the sultry Tithonia, flaming orange burning up the flower-beds.
Breathe in the fragrance of jasmines richly lacing the air.
Sneak a peek at the koel hiding in the dense canopy, ruby eyes glinting in the shadows.
Hail the nesting birds on every branch and nook and cranny.
Usher in the season of summer-welcoming, sun-toned fruits; tempting, teasing, inviting...

"Summer! " sighs the languid butterfly as she weaves her way from one colour-burst to the other, smothering them with kisses.
Binge on clouds of blooming trees painting the landscape in swathes of colour.
Immerse the senses in an overdose of summer-time triggers; of colours and fragrances and flavours and birdsongs and sensations.

"Summer!" giggles a bevy of orchids in bloom, flaunting their jewel colours from the precious shade.
Glory in the slightest breeze wafting over the steaming land.
Treasure the patches of deepest shade, the terrain of ancient, towering trees.
A hammock to swing on, a book to dream by, a swig of icy cool tender-coconut juice to sweeten the mood ...
Bliss!

Fruits of labour

2011-03-08T20:11:00.000+05:30

Spring is here in Mumbai (feels like Summer, though!) and I'm busy harvesting vegetables from my winter crop. So satisfying to see the fruits of one's labour!

In Mumbai, one of the easiest winter veggies that grow to harvest within a month of sowing are these red radishes. I much prefer these quick-to-harvest veggies... mainly because I'm too impatient for my own good.
Gardening is supposed to teach one patience, right? Well, it hasn't happened to me yet!

Cr-r-r-isp!!!
These have to be some of the most flavourful radishes I've ever tasted. Just bursting with goodness, like the ad-guys say. And they look so pretty too(er... I meant the radishes, of course)!

I was never too fond of radishes and their slightly pungent flavour. Till I tasted the home-grown, just-out-of-the-garden variety. You have no idea what a difference that makes. Especially since I didn't wait for it to get too big and woody but harvested it early.
But what made it extra-special was that this was planted by my daughter. Aaah! I knew you'd understand.

She had accompanied me to the vegetable patch and was fascinated to see the tomatoes grow.

The flowers of the bok choy are so pretty aren't they? My daughter was a bit annoyed that I had to remove them and other emerging buds. But she's right, they're good enough to go into my flower vases!

They're much tastier when the leaves are tender but if you can keep the flowers away (don't tell her!), you can harvest the leaves a bit longer.

Okay, maybe a couple of flowers among all that green is great soul-food too. Especially when they're such pretty flowers!

And then there was the broccoli (Yes! We do grow broccoli in Mumbai during our so-short winter season) ... a favourite with my kids. They could never understand why broccoli has such a bad reputation among kids in story-books and cartoons.

Anyway, the broccoli was the decider. She decided she wanted her own vegetable patch too.

Broccoli would take too long to grow. By the time it is ready we would be in the middle of summer, broiling in temperatures closer to38*C. But radish? The perfect sneak-in-a quick-crop vegetable!

Love's labour ...

... WON!!!

Garden highlights

2011-02-10T16:55:00.001+05:30

I missed posting about so many things that have been happening lately! There has been too much happening and I was busy scrambling to keep pace. And before I knew it, 2 months have passed without an update. Join me in my garden-ologue to catch up?

So, there was the mind-blowingly photogenic Jatropha that I just couldn't leave behind in a nursery .

In fact, it was so pretty I just have to post one more pic ... there!

And I wish I had told you about this discovery ... a big pond filled with the most stunning water-lilies, tucked away out of sight, just behind the nursery.
In space-starved, square-foot-miserly Mumbai! This city keeps springing the most amazing surprises. And this one really took my breath away.

Can you beat this for an early morning banquet for the soul?

Then there's the bougainvillea extravaganza which I look forward to every year. All the hard-working, often-neglected bougainvilleas planted all over Mumbai come into their own and have been in full-'bloom' for a couple of months now. Every wall, fence, road-divider, and even every tree over which the bougainvilleas have stamped their authority, are a blaze of colour.
This one climbed up my towering Michellia champaca tree and brightens the winter sky when the M.champaca is not in bloom. (Incidentally, this pic has not been colour-enhanced, so you know how stunning it looks)

I missed posting about the almond trees waving red flags at the sky

And the asparagus turning into a cloud of blush-pink blooms

I missed posting about the sheer drama and poetry of the winter sky

And the thrill of finding gold strewn in my garden . I wonder if the honeybees know they're missing this?

But most of all, I missed posting about this absolutely beautiful, very unusual double-petalled anthurium that I found blooming its head off in my garden!

There's more, but I think I'll keep those for another post. And no, I won't take this long to post again.

It's been an eventful 2 months, don't you think?

Orchid stars ... and some extras

2010-12-18T16:25:00.038+05:30

My orchids are the superstars in my garden right now. Never mind that the nights have become decidedly chill ... by Mumbai standards, that is. My orchid divas are still dazzling me and showing that they still have what it takes. Oh yeah!

And the older they are, the more flamboyant they get. Like this Dendrobium orchid which has been with me for 10 years or more. Definitely long in the cane, but have you seen such long spikes of spectacular blooms on any fresh young things?

This one got dislocated from the coconut tree where it had been living when a heavy coconut leaf lopped it off. So it was hastily tied on to this cashew tree because it was bursting with buds due to bloom any day. And I definitely did not want to miss out on that!
My usual banana fibre ties were too flimsy so some coir ropes were brought in to help out. That still left something wanting. These lo-o-ong canes were too big for their own good. So, finally they had to be propped up with a slab of rock.
Oh the ignominny!
I definitely have to do something before this diva starts sulking.

Did I say something about 'fresh young things'? This would be one of them. Fresh-faced, pure as a ... well, a white orchid, and so very pretty!

I can't think of any space, no matter how ugly, that hasn't taken a step into the sublime just because of its association with an orchid. Like these iron spikes over a fence. No one notices those because they're too busy being dazzled by the orchid. Now that's called star quality!

If you thought all Dendrobiums looked alike, then take a look at this one. The colour's familiar but if it looks all twisted out of shape, then you've got an antler-type dendrobium orchid. I guess this would be a perfect match for all those wildlife buffs out there. But honestly, doesn't it look a bit like an avenging angel?
Just a bit?

If you thought the dendrobiums are the only ones out there, then you haven't seen my friend, Spathaglottis. One of the most common orchids grown in Mumbai, I think novice orchidists are comforted by its terrestrial preferences. After all, growing a plant which doesn't need soil can seem so unusual . And confusing.
The Spathaglottis, though, thrives in that medium unlike the Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis, Cattleya and others of that ilk.

But commonplace they are not. The Spathaglottis still knows how to spring a surprise. Its multiple hues, if not its ease of cultivation, are enticement enough to make the gardener go back to it again and again.

Yet if you're going by the variety of colours, there could be no one to beat the Phalaenopsis orchids for sheer drama. Purity of shape and theatrical in colour ...

... spotted, speckled, striped and in blocks of colour, the Phalaenopsis is the drama queen par excellence!

Yet every good show must have its villain

and the faithful friend. So too does our orchid.

And like every good Indian film, we just can't do without our glamourous Dancing Girls. Jai ho!

Flying zebras, shimmering dragons and other garden creatures

2010-12-06T15:35:00.003+05:30

This is one of the best times of the year to spot the local inhabitants of my garden. Especially the flying kind. The air is heavy with the unheard flutter of wings. Damselflies are always welcome. So very colourful and, even better, they have an insatiable appetite for bugs even bigger than themselves. I wonder where they pack it all away?

And, the high-fliers are loving this season too. Everywhere I look there are a zillion dragonflies on the wing, darting and swooping , like flying shards of shimmering glass. As I walk in my garden I almost feel as if I'm walking into a cloud of dragonflies but I have yet to feel even one brush against me. Mumbai could do with some drivers like these!

I bet you didn't know I had zebras in my garden! Oh yes, meet the Zebra Blue. One look at those wings and I'm sure you'll know how they got that name, right? The 'Blue' part came from its upper wing colouration.

The Brazilian Button Flower (Centratherum intermedium ) is a huge hit with the butterflies. I just have to linger near them and sure enough, there are always some of them visiting. This is one low-maintenance plant that really multi-tasks. Always filled with flowers and always thick with butterflies!

And if you see these flies hovering over your flowers, bring out the champagne! The syrphid flies are invaluable in the garden. Its larvae, you see, have a decided penchant for snacking on aphids and thrips! And just as good, the grown-ups are pollinators of several species of plants, including certain orchids.
And you thought all flies are villains? This one only has the blood-shot eyes to fit the role, everything else says 'good guy' about him!

Do you remember the Greater Banded Hornets who are regular visitors to my Pink Cassia tree at this time of the year? Well, they're back and so are the attendant hordes of flies and butterflies and other freeloaders.

I have rather mixed feelings about hornets and that's not just because of their nasty sting which can be fatal on occasion. On the plus side, they hunt bugs and many insect pests. On the other hand, they also hunt bees and that's definitely not something I'm happy about.

But again, every year at this time they descend on my poor Pink Cassia and nibble at its bark until a syrupy sap froths out, driving the butterflies crazy. Scenes like this of Common Nawabs jostling with the Common Evening Browns to get a sip of that elixir are everyday affairs.

Which is probably why little Treefrogs hop indoors to get away from all that hustle and bustle!

Orchids and almost-winter

2010-10-29T09:18:00.001+05:30

My garden is awash with orchid blooms right now. The summer-to-monsoon climate swing triggers this deliriously happy bloom-time for my orchids and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

They're all over the place. In pots, on trees... everywhere. And I have to admit, these dendrobium orchids look their glorious best tied or 'mounted' (as the technical term goes) on to trees. But obviously, that's their natural comfort zone!

My dendrobiums have been mounted on just about every tree that has a reasonably rough bark (forget guava trees!) for them to glue their roots to. They absolutely love the teak trees and mango and ... they're not fussy. So long as the bark is rough and the canopy gives them enough shade at noon while not cutting off all that lovely sunlight at other times, they're happy.
True, you can't move them indoors when you want to but just the sight of all those beautiful arching spikes filled with blooms makes it all so very worthwhile, doesn't it?

We're racing towards, Diwali, the festival of lights and laughter. The Calliandra has been giving me goosebumps of anticipation everytime I see its scores of red sparkler-like filaments lighting up the garden.

The end of blistering-hot October is in sight and I'm already getting a peek into almost-winter. That's what we have here in Mumbai ... almost-winter. Not as cold as you would associate with the word 'winter' but definitely not sweaty-hot, either. A beautiful, exhilirating chill that makes you feel so glad to be alive and gardening!

The butterfly farmer

2010-10-10T23:58:00.001+05:30

It's a boy!
If you've been wondering what I've been up to lately, well, I've been raising butterflies. In my apartment garden, of all places!

(warning : this post is photo-heavy. It is also definitely not for the squeamish )

I had moved most of my plants to my other garden before the monsoons because the apartment is too close to the sea and all that salt spray flying around in this season is bad news for them. Just 2 pots were left behind. One was a pot which originally housed a small curry leaf plant and I later planted a passionfruit vine in the same pot. Well, the vine took off like a rocket, climbing all over the grilles. So I let it stay.
Actually there was no option. It had conquered the kitchen window, and there is no way I can move that pot without severely pruning the passionfruit vine!
The curry leaf plant, though was not so happy with the situation. Now in the shade of the vine, it settled down to a life as a runt.

Then recently, I saw that my kitchen window had a visitor. A Common Mormon (who doles out these names, I wonder) butterfly was hovering around my Curry Leaf plant.
Now this is one butterfly that I would like to see more of. It is large and has such dramatic-colouring , especially on the female. However, it is also one of the most frustrating to photograph since its upper wings are always in motion.

Voila! A perfect pearl laid on the newest leaf. And several more to keep it company.
I think butterflies have a sense of order. They like to lay their eggs on the new leaves so the newly-hatched caterpillars can munch on tender food (think of baby food!) and work their way up.

On the third day, it hatched, barely bigger than a baby's eyelash. All bristly and quite frankly, very ugly!
I'm continuously amazed by the ingenuity of Ma Nature. Here was an abandoned baby, all alone in the world (except for his six brothers and sisters on some other leaf, but they don't count... they're too busy eating!). But looking the way he does, which bird or lizard would even consider eating him?
Incidentally, that leaf is less than an inch long so you get an idea of how tiny he is.

About four days later he is much bigger but still quite yucky looking in that gross 'bird-poop' stage.
Ingenious!
He can just lie there on top of the leaf, exposed to every insect-loving bird but not one can work up an appetite or the inclination to snap him up. And that, in spite of there being several birds with nests full of hungry, demanding babies close by!

A few days later and a whole lot bulkier, Common Mormon Junior suddenly decides he has had enough of disguises and hiding his true colours. So he decides to do away with his 'bird-poop' look.

Much better! Our Common Mormon has gone green with a vengeance. The old dark skin is left behind while he tries on his new avtar.
By the way, did you notice how big he has become? These older leaves are much bigger than the baby leaf he was on in that initial photo.

Hmmm .... looks like even baby (okay, teen maybe) butterflies have issues with facial hair. And hairy legs. But seriously, I had no idea!
And did you know they looked like this? I didn't!
This photo was taken immediately after he had moulted so there was a break from the non-stop chomping. He almost looks vulnerable, doesn't he?
I am fascinated by his eyes. Who knew baby butterflies have what look like a cluster of pin-point eyes?
I'm in total awe when I discover things like this.

Major house-shifting took place in the next couple of days. I woke up one day to find five of the caterpillars missing from the curry-leaf plants. I suspect the work of some sneaky mynahs which had been hanging around the last day or so. Someone should really teach them the difference between good bugs and the bad!

So that day I got a big leafy curry-leaf twig from my other garden (there's a jungle of them there so I can get as many as I want), put it in a vase of water and transferred the remaining two caterpillars indoors. Sure I had to keep adding new leafy twigs every day but it was worth it! It helped my curry leaf plant in the apartment garden recover a bit too.
Quite frankly I doubt whether I would've let them go on chomping their way to obesity if they had tried it on any of my prized plants. Curry-leaf plants are common here and easy to grow. Plus , my other garden has so many of them that I can easily replace them.
If I were to try raising any other butterfly, I think I would buy multiple host plants so I could reserve 1 or 2 just for them to munch on.

One of them still managed to disappear and I have no idea how. Maybe he fell asleep and let go of the twig and couldn't find his way back later. I think that must be it because I found the last one doing the same and looking comatose and he had to be helped back up the twig later.

Nine days later, this is what I found. He had definitely gone to sleep. Or was very close to it. He scrunched himself up accordion-like and even wove himself a safety-harness so he wouldn't fall off, I guess.
Doesn't he look like he's snoozing in a hammock?
And the eyes ... look at the eyes. They definitely look asleep, don't they?

The next day I couldn't find him. I went into full-scale panic and hunted frantically. Then I spotted him. See if you can.
No? Look closer at the lowest set of leaves on the left, he's the hanging 'leaf' closest to the twig. He'd metamorphised again!
I'm running out of synonyms for ingenious. Seriously!
One good thing, though. I don't need to keep replacing the curry leaf twigs with fresher ones. He's not going to be eating anything more. Definitely not for a long time.

A look from another angle at the Common Mormon pupa. He's still got his safety-belt on!
Don't you think there's a resemblance to Batman here? And I can definitely see what looks like the outline of his adult legs.

Then, on the ninth night after he turned himself into hammock, he started changing colour to a dark blackish-green. For a minute I thought I had killed him. Maybe I had left the air-conditioner on and it got too cold for him?
But no. Then I noticed that the space between the rings or segments at the top were widening. Sure sign that there wasn't much time left for his coming out party.
Oh great! This looked like an all-nighter but there's no way I would miss out on this.

Close to midnight, I looked again and saw what looks like his wings. Can you see it? I can even see the dots / scallops at the tip of his wings!
This is so exciting!
Every once in a while there are tiny little jumpy twitches that tell me that my butterfly is in a hurry to come out too. This is infinitely more fun than staring at a motionless chrysalis which I've been doing the last few days. But since that's all that's happening for a very long time, and maybe because I'm long past the age of sitting up all night with a baby, I take long breaks. Awake, but inspecting the chrysalis every hour to check if anything new has happened.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing really noticeable except for a gradual darkening of the butterfly in the chrysalis (which has by now become almost translucent in areas near the 'Batman ears' so that I can see exactly where the head starts). This is definitely not good for an impatient person.

And then around 6 in the morning, I go to the table where the vase with the twig is kept ... and there he is! Hanging delicately from one of those by-now leafless twigs, waiting till his wings are firm enough to open and he can take his flight into the new world.
After maybe an hour or so of just hanging there and building up his strength, he is ready to flap open his wings. And later, to crawl onto my fingers.
This has to be one of the most amazing moments in my life. To hold a butterfly , or rather, to have a butterfly hug my fingers ... pure magic!

Today, I checked my curry-leaf plant again. There are 3 new baby caterpillars on it. Here we go again ... I'm loving my new role as a butterfly farmer!
Or should that be butterfly nursemaid?

I must add, if anyone is lucky enough to witness the emergence of a butterfly, please do not handle the butterfly in any way. You are likely to damage its fragile wings and leave it crippled for life.

(The second and third photos were taken from an earlier post, "A gardener's dilemma")

Upwardly mobile vegetables

2010-09-14T19:11:00.004+05:30

The monsoon vegetables that I had planted are all yielding beautifully now. I had not realised just how many 'upwardly mobile' veggies seem to love this season in Mumbai.

So many gourds and other climbing vines were planted this time that my vegetable patch looked like a mini-construction site with criss-crossed bamboo and coconut-leaf ribs lashed together with banana-stem fibre . Until, that is, the vines started shooting all over the place, climbing up the supports and across the trellis in any way possible. Then it started looking like a jungle!
A very pretty jungle, though, with all those eye-catching flowers. Some of them pretty enough to be grown just for the blooms instead of the vegetables.

This climbing habit does not mean that apartment gardeners have to avoid growing them. The window box-grilles found in most apartments in Mumbai are perfect for them. Pot them up in a sunny window and let them climb all over the grilles. A couple of rods placed across the box-grille make a great trellis for them. And they grow so fast that you'll have a green curtain in no time at all!

A view from over the trellis gives it such a deceptively peaceful air. These bottle gourd flowers hardly give any indication of how big (or heavy) the vegetables can become.

And here's a peek under the trellis. This one is a baby (with fuzz and all) and still growing. They love the monsoons with the constant moisture in the air. But give them too much and you'll see some very disgruntled plants! Luckily my vegetable patch is situated on a slope which means that all the excess water flows off . It carries away quite a bit of the soil too but I'm working to fix that.

Quite a few of my American and European friends who garden were quite surprised that anyone would eat gourds. Most of them grow gourds for crafting and don't know whether to believe me when I tell them that tender gourds are very tasty when cooked. On the other hand, most of my Indian friends are absolutely shocked that I would actually allow perfectly good gourds to dry up just so I could use them for crafting !

The one gourd that I'm not too keen on is the bitter gourd which is a perfect reflection of its name. On the other hand I would definitely grow it for its pretty yellow flowers and interesting foliage. The knobbly vegetable does look quite quirky too, doesn't it?
To make up for its very bitter flavour, Nature seems to have loaded it with medicinal qualities that make sure it'll end up in every kitchen. Did you know that it is a great regulator of blood-sugar levels? Or that it is used to treat cholera in the early stages? Or that there are reports of it being used to treat tumors and certain disorders of the blood?

But here's the rub : if they're loaded with pesticides and other toxic chemicals, all those wonderful medicinal qualities aren't worth a paisa! I personally prefer to grow all my fruits and vegetables as naturally as possible, leaving it to the wonders of neem and natural predators to keep pests under control.

However, one natural predator had me sweating while trying to harvest these bitter gourds. One end of the trellis on which these bitter gourds and bottle gourds were growing, collapsed under all that weight. Which meant that I had to crawl under a 4-foot high trellis for about 7-8 feet before I could reach the vegetables hanging in the middle.

I started off very casually but after I had taken my second step I suddenly remembered that this is cobra territory! Surely I would see one if there were any around?
See them? With all those vines and weeds covering every spare inch of land? Not a chance! And what was worse was that just behind the trellis was where we had piled up all the rocks (vine-smothered now) found while clearing the vegetable patch. Just the kind of place where a whole brood of snakes would love to hang out and raise a whole community of little baby cobras.

Now, I usually get along quite well with snakes. We have a deal. I stick to my space and they stick to theirs and in between when they come to my garden to gulp down some rats, I even cheer for them. But I could just picture myself bumbling and crawling along straight into their nursery and in my nervous mind I had already stepped on at least 3 of them. And, I kept screaming at myself, "just what the **** *** do you think you're doing?!". In my mind, of course, my throat was too dry to let out even one tiny squeak.

But the killer? The absolute irony would be if I was bitten by a cobra (sure death... there are no hospitals or anti-venom for miles around!) while crawling to pluck bitter gourd of all possible things!

This is one snake that I particularly enjoy, though. I love tender snake gourd sautéed ever so lightly. (Can you spot the beans growing in the background? Another of the upwardly mobile vegetables that love the monsoon season). This is a new type of snake gourd that I've grown for the first time. It doesn't grow 2-3 feet long like the usual snake-gourds but remains short and stubby ... more like a slug. Perfect for a dish for small families!
And how do you like its flowers? I think it looks like a particularly frazzled starfish with a very 'upwardly mobile' hair-do!

(Did you know that you can find The Urban Gardener on Facebook now? The link is on the sidebar. )

Passionfruit magic

2010-08-30T20:52:00.003+05:30

It's here finally! My very own 'mmmmm!' moment.
The first passionfruits from my vine have ripened and I just had to share them with you.
Slice them in half and you'll see the most eye-catching combination of red, white and gold. I have to admit that the red and white looked so pretty that I was a bit reluctant to spoil that look.
For about 2 minutes !

Then I grabbed a spoon and got busy scooping up all that juicy, golden goodness. You just can't begin to imagine the flavour if you've never eaten passionfruit before.
Juicy, fragrant, sweet, tart, fruity flavours pop on your tastebuds and swirl around in a heady melange of sensory surprises. Summery fragrances seem to weave around your brain until you can't think of anything else.

There's so little of it, do you moan? But with so much concentrated juicy, sweet flavour who needs a watermelon-ful?
Each little golden smidgen is like a flavour-bomb bursting in your mouth and inundating you with flavours and fragrances till you're replete with the magic of it all.

When I was done indulging myself, I sat there wondering whether I should've waited and concocted some fancy dessert with it instead. You know the answer, right?
Naaah! Maybe another time.
Unless the passionfruit magic overpowers me again and forces me to stretch out for the nearest spoon instead.

A passion for Passionfruits

2010-08-08T20:01:00.002+05:30

One of the most exotic (or should that be quixotic?) blooms ever! The passionflower lends itself to science-fiction just as easily as its fruit does to gourmet cuisine.

How else would you explain the inexplicably weird radar-like contraptions that pop up above it?
Or the squiggly filaments, like a tutu gone haywire?

If the stigma and anthers look like alien pieces of technology, the flavour of the fruit too is simply out of this world! A hint of tartness and a touch of sweet melding in the warm sunny days to make its own exquisitely juicy, fruity flavour.

And it definitely has its own very distinctive fragrance too. Very summery, and fruity and tropical island-ish, of course. Check out perfumes like Keiko Mecheri Passiflora which draw on the fruity notes of the passionflower.

I had got a few passionfruits as a gift and saved up one to dry and plant. It ached a bit to not scoop up all that juicy pulp but I told myself that it was in a good cause. So I cut it open and spread the golden pulp on a few layers of tissue paper to dry.

I wasn't too sure whether it would grow because I had been told that the red passionfruits are difficult to sprout. Either that was a myth or I was very lucky because I got about 30 - 40 seedlings scrambling for attention.

You have to be pretty quick to transplant them into their own space, preferably where they can climb, because those curly tendrils take hold of anything they find and are soon clambering all over the place whether you like it or not!

I thought I had found the perfect sunny spot near a chain-link fence for one seedling but the vine just leaped and threw itself all over a nearby custard-apple tree. After encroaching on all available limbs and surfaces, it settled down to blooming exuberantly. And now it looks like one of those exotic experiments with 2 different fruits growing on one tree!

But it's such an amazing transformation, isn't it? From exotic, almost architectural blooms to perfect globes of speckled green, blushing red to summery sweet ripeness.

And if you thought that you're the only one who enjoys passionfruits, meet the Tawny Coaster. This pretty orange butterfly loves to lay its eggs on the leaves of the Passionfruit vine. This one didn't even budge when I zoomed in close for a Macro shot!
I wonder whether its babies will get a taste of passionfruits when they're busy munching on the leaves. I don't really mind. So long as they leave enough for some fruits for me!

Growing my own food

2010-07-14T14:16:00.003+05:30

Here's what I hope will be a sneak preview photo of the harvest from my vegetable patch. Somehow food tastes so much better when it's straight out of your garden, doesn't it?
We had a great harvest last year (and this photo is a partial record of that) so this year we decided to try and improve on it.

The first step was to increase the size of the vegetable patch. We somehow managed to cut down on the bananas and ended up almost doubling the space for vegetables. See what I mean?

I couldn't give up my lantana bush, though. It is still slam-bang in the middle of all the activity, attracting butterflies and birds to it.

By the way, did you notice the banana plants to the left? The one on the extreme left is heavy with fruit and is bending so much that it is almost in danger of falling over. My helper tried to prop it up with a small stick while he went hunting for a stronger one. I almost burst out laughing when I saw it... it was like trying to prop up a car with a toothpick!
If any banana farmer sees this he'd probably say I'm growing them all wrong. Officially, you're supposed to make sure there's only one plant growing and remove all the others growing from the same clump. But that's not the way I grow them. I allow most of the others to grow too but remove the ones which are of almost the same size / age. This way I have bananas ripening on my plants every other month instead of having to wait almost a full year to get the next bunch.

Cucumbers, gourds, beans and ladies' fingers (okra) are some of the monsoon vegetables that grow so well in Mumbai at this time.
By the way, you don't need a lot of land to grow most of these vegetables. A large pot in a sunny spot is perfect for okra but you have to provide enough space for cucumber and gourd vines to clamber and ramble. If you can guide them to find their way up or across window box-grilles which are a common feature of most Mumbai apartments, I think they'll be happy enough. Just make sure they're not in the way of salt-laden strong winds. Our monsoon winds can get quite vicious at times and I've had perfectly healthy, happy plants in my apartment garden die out on me in a matter of hours after one of these stormy sessions.

The flip side of the monsoon has to be the soil erosion in my sloping garden. I had worked hard at building up the soil and enriching it with well-composted cow manure and ash. But within a few days of heavy rains I found that most of it has flowed off downhill and left behind a whole lot of pebbles and rocks and other nasties.

Whoever said sparrows are hardly seen in Mumbai nowadays will be happy to know that they're thriving in my garden! In this uncultivated corner of my vegetable plot, I found a whole flock of them chirping and squabbling among the grass and weeds that the monsoon has encouraged.

Incidentally, did you notice the weed growing in the foreground (extreme left of picture), in front of the Caladium ? That, my friends, is Phyllanthus amarus, one of the most effective medicinal herbs traditionally used to treat jaundice and now has been found to treat Hepatitis B too. Just imagine how many other potential medicines in our gardens are pulled out as weeds.
As good an excuse as any if we want one to put off weeding, don't you think?

Anyway, back to the sparrows, I found this one perched on an old stump, keeping watch.

And his wife was busy stealing fibre from the dried banana-stem strips used to tie the trellis canopy together.

I wish she would have just pulled some from the bitter gourd plant. Definitely not my favourite vegetable, though my husband loves it. But I do love how it looks and its bright yellow flowers are quite pretty among all that green. I wish I could grow it just for its flowers and not let it fruit at all!

It's a wet, green world!

2010-07-12T15:35:00.001+05:30

Green is my world and as wet as can be!
I feel as if I'm living in a rainforest. Everywhere I turn, Mumbai is a palette of every shade of green imaginable. But nowhere more so than in my own garden.
From the deep, dark primeval greens of trees clasping branches with each other and creating cocoons of mystical calm, to the fresh clean greens of maidenhair ferns waving at me from every nook and corner of my garden.

Raindrops mist the petals and roll down leaves. Silvery balls of cool washing the earth clean and soothing it awake.
Or, thrumming in with lashing wave and frenzied winds, tossing blooms and whipping leaves, shaking my garden alive.

And in one corner of my garden I spot this little vine, planted years ago and half-forgotten. I had sown the seeds with no great expectations and was thrilled to see them grow. And grow, without showing any sign of doing much else.
It had clambered all over a custard-apple tree, ran along an electric wire and draped itself in great big looping garlands.
And then grew some more. Until now.
Now is the time the passionflower has come into its own. Perfect timing, don't you think?

Moss and snails and maidenhair ferns ... that's what monsoons are made of

2010-07-01T17:29:00.001+05:30

It's Maidenhair Fern season again!
Every inch of wall space is cloaked in black-ribbed fern green, waving in glee with every cool breeze that hint at a touch of rain. Maidenhair Monsoon is what it should be named in my garden!
It makes no difference whether it is stone or brick or mud, wall or just a happy incline, smooth surfaces or jagged cracks ... the Maidenhair ferns are partying everywhere!

And another Monsoon visitor, the wild Safed Musli, has woken up too. These are true Mumbai natives and don't need to be pampered like the exotics do.
There is a white-and-green carpet of these pretty flowers everywhere I look. It's almost impossible to avoid stepping on them and I wince everytime I see my dogs carelessly trampling them. But there seem to be at least 10 popping up to replace every damaged bloom-spike, so maybe I should just sit back and enjoy the moment.
And don't you just love that mossy rock look?

The rains haven't stopped the bananas from bearing fruit. This one has such a huge inflorescence that it almost looks as if it is on steroids!

And this is definitely one visitor I can do without! But come Monsoon, and sad to say, the snails and slugs are making their presence felt. This one was looking for a way out of one orchid pot to the next, before I sent it packing to The Great Big Garden in the Sky.
Gardening does make one so vicious sometimes!
If you don't believe me, ask these ants. I think they were trying to pull open the bracts on this heliconia and posting danger signs to anyone daring to come close.
Or were they trying to staple it closed?

Monsoon!

2010-06-19T09:25:00.002+05:30

The Monsoon is here! Season of moss and fern and everything green. Of lush verdant growth and moist cool days. Of receptive Earth, urging seeds to grow and plants to ramble.

All over Mumbai, Gulmohurs lay out a red carpet for the Monsoon. Everywhere I look I can see brilliant red swatches of colour painting the ground.
Red does seem to be the colour of the season. And it shows up so beautifully amidst all that Monsoon refreshed green.

My tardy Gulmohur alone seems to stick out as the last bastion. Late to bloom and stubbornly last to fall. I'm not complaining!

Long-forgotten Caladiums are now popping up everywhere. These were growing wild in a vacant plot of land when I persuaded them to shift to my garden.
I gave them a spot near the Vincas thinking that when the Summer blooms of the Vincas are done, the Caladiums would add their splotches of colour. But they seem to be very happy to grow side by side even when the monsoon winds have blown the Vincas all asprawl over the Caladiums which were cosying up to a young Geiger tree.
And as if that weren't enough for this picture of monsoon harmony, can you see the roots of the Dendrobium orchid (not in the picture) slithering down from the tree to join in all the fun?

One of the first things that I did was to make sure I re-stocked the water on the verandah with plenty of guppies and other fish to take care of any mosquitoes which have ideas of moving in and turning it into a maternity ward.

This is a large black jar which I had planted with some waterlilies and kept in the sunniest corner of my verandah. Unfortunately, the crows soon discovered this new watering-hole and with a couple of strong tugs, pulled out the interefering water-plants until they had clear access to all that lovely water.
It made no difference to them that there was a bird-bath kept filled with clean water just a few feet away. They obviously didn't want to mix with the hoi-polloi and staked out the jar as their own.
After several attempts at rescuing the poor waterlilies and several incidents of finding them tossed disdainfully to the floor again, I gave up. Now that jar is the pit-stop of choice among all the crows who fly in. Not the other birds, though. They, like well-brought up birds, prefer the bird-bath.

I keep a pot of bamboo behind the jar and I love seeing its reflection in the water. Somehow it looks just that little bit more eye-catching than the real thing. Especially when the fish weave in and out of the reflected leaves and sky. There's something a bit surreal about it.
I do add a couple of large leaves for the fish to hide under when the crows are on the prowl.

The Monsoons also bring a windfall, literally, for these Red-vented Bulbuls. This banana plant with a ripening bunch heavy on it, toppled over and before I discovered it, the bulbuls did. I found this pair feasting on it and looking a bit annoyed at being disturbed.

I dont know what they're grumbling about. They've been feasting all these days on the Carissa carandas, or 'Karonda' as they're commonly called here.

On the brink of the monsoons

2010-06-05T16:30:00.004+05:30

The Gulmohurs are blazing in my garden! I've been waiting for them all season long and I love driving down the Mumbai roads and seeing huge swathes of scarlet everywhere. These dramatic trees are grabbing as much attention as they can get now but it looks like their days in the sun are almost done.
The Monsoons are on their way!
This is my favourite season. I love the rains ... even when it blows all those lovely blooms off the trees. And even when it rains non-stop for days on end and everything is a big squelchy mess. Actually 'rain' is such a bland word for the sheer drama that our monsoons bring... I just can't wait for the show to start.

Oh, it's still as hot as ever in Mumbai but the sea got a whole lot rougher and huge puffs of thunderous-looking dark clouds have been teasing our skies. The countdown has started, though. The day the monsoons reach the Malabar coast of Kerala, the people of Mumbai start counting off the 10 days they have before the Great Monsoon Spectacle lavishes Mumbai with some much-needed rainy affection

But that also means that I have just that many days to get my garden monsoon-ready.
The preparations have been going on for almost a month now. The vegetable plot gets a lot of pampering, naturally. The monsoon season is the best time to grow vegetables here and the area where I grow my vegetables has been left fallow for the last 3 months. Building up, conserving all that earthy goodness for the season of abundance.
Then, about 3 weeks ago, the land was cleared of weeds, ploughed up and dressed with a healthy mix of sun-dried manure and wood-ash.

Did you know that wood-ash is an important part of traditional Indian farming practices? It is a deterrent for soft-bodied pests and is also fantastic for conditioning the soil. Oh yeah... the things you learn! I never knew this when I started gardening but I saw the local farmers regularly heap up tiny mounds of dry leaves and grass on their fields and burn them in May. Which makes a lot of sense; kills the weeds, kills the pests and conditions the soil. Of course, you have to be alert to prevent the fire getting out of hand but these are really small heaps, less than a foot high

Now the vegetable plot is done .... terraced on the slopes and heaped in small little mounds in other places. All I'm waiting for is the first drops of monsoon showers to soak in and I'll be out planting seeds.

But my garden isn't done with just that! The coconut trees are being fertilised too. Truckloads of manure and sacks of dried fish have been bought and put out in the sun to dry some more before being used. The sacks were a bit 'alive' much to the delight of this Magpie-Robin who hopped on to snack on the beetles crawling on them.

Wide troughs have been dug around each coconut tree and filled up with layers of dried manure, dried fish and wood-ash. On top of all this, a layer of green leaves is added ... the cherry on the cake!
I would've loved to add some pressed and powdered neem seedcakes too before the pit is covered up again but I didn't get any this time. I think I'll add some later on but I wish it could've been done now. It would've driven away a lot of pests and diseases.
By the way, did I mention that I only used natural fertilisers? I love making my earth happy. A happy earth means happy plants, naturally.

Of course, I have to admit that all this needs a lot of labour and very strong muscles and I had to hire some locals to help me out. Isn't it fantastic that India is an agricultural country so I don't really need to explain to them just what needs to be done . Nor do I need to even supervise the work... what a great excuse to get busy with my camera !

Adding a touch of beauty to all the hectic activity is a restless cloud of butterflies attracted by the strong smells of cow manure and dried fish. What a perfect counterbalance to make up for all that smelly stuff!

And, just as I'm typing this, the sky darkens and a cool breeze gusts through the city with a welcome swoosh of lovely, cool rain. It's a precursor to the real thing and will be called 'just a pre-monsoon shower' by the papers tomorrow, but oh what a wonderful gift for a city that has been seething and simmering in Summer's cauldron for so long now!

(I'm a bit handicapped now because my trusty desktop computer has conked out and I'm just not comfortable working on my laptop. So please keep that in mind when looking at the photos because I just can't make out how good or bad the quality is.)

Summer snapshots : Here comes the sun

2010-05-28T19:00:00.000+05:30

I can't help but brighten up every time I see the Geiger tree (Cordia sebestena) in bloom; they're so vibrantly cheerful, aren't they? And they're in bloom almost year-round here in Mumbai, but they're absolutely spectacular in Summer.
Big clusters of these fiery orange flowers really zing up my garden. What's even better is that all this extravagance is a great magnet for Sunbirds and butterflies. And for me.

Summer snapshots : one for the road

2010-05-27T15:35:00.000+05:30

Boiling hot summer days mean an enterprising bird must stoke up when he finds the chance.
A small rivulet, formed when 2 hosepipes snapped at their joint, soon became water-on-tap for this lucky crow.
I guess he got even more lucky with complimentary appetizers thrown in. That green seedpod of the Michaelia champaca is so conveniently within beak reach.

A drop for the Sun

2010-05-11T10:10:00.009+05:30

Tiny drops of water mighty bath-tubs make!

It's the peak of Summer here in Mumbai and the brain-broiling Sun has been merciless on just about every living creature (not counting the flowering trees , they seem to be loving it!).
I have my natural rock bird-bath filled up as usual and it has been seeing rush hour from sun-up to sunset. All the birds from tiny spice-birds to the Pariah Kites come here for a quick sip-and-dip to cool off.
Then, yesterday I saw the strangest sight.

On hot summer days I make sure that I water the orchids early in the day. I had stopped to hose down a nearby banana plant too and was getting on with my work when a slight movement caught my eye. I turned slowly (I've found out the hard way that quick movements usually result in lost photo-ops) to see that the 'rain' I had created had just turned into someone's water-park ... in the nicest possible way !

There was this tiny little sunbird slipping and sliding, whirring her wings and wiggling her belly among the tiny little drops of water clinging to the banana leaves.

If you've seen water on banana leaves you'll know that it doesn't drain off in a wet patch like it does from other leaves. It clings to it like tiny little silvery drops , defying all laws of gravity. And every once in a while a couple of tiny drops roll together to make a big fat blob.
And the Sunbird (I think it was a Purple Sunbird but it's not easy differentiating the female Sunbirds) had found this readymade waterslide created just for her enjoyment.

You should've seen how much fun she was having! She would slide around, soaking in all the drops of water, and every once in a while she would stop to look around nervously.
I was worried I would frighten her off so I didn't move in too close. Plus, the chain-link fence separating us was a major barrier that didn't make for easy photography. Still, I did manage to click a few snaps and these are the better ones of the lot.

Her splashing about did advertise the presence of cool water to other birds too. A curious Paradise Flycatcher showed up to check out the action but fled when she saw me.

A male Purple Sunbird wandered by too but by the time I had got my camera ready he was already in a neighbouring property and was busy gorging on nectar from an Ixora. (I added this photo to give an idea of how pretty these birds are. You can see just a glimpse of the metallic gleam of his feathers. But do check out more photos here and here. )

The female Sunbird though was still splashing in her bath and I could almost imagine her glee. It was almost as if that water, just a few drops though they might've been, was like a magnet gluing her to that spot until caution prevailed and she flew off refreshed.

Which got me thinking that maybe I should do this more often. Those few drops on a leaf might just make a world of difference to a parched bird in Summer when the temperatures leap fierier than ever. And will, hopefully, make those flying jewels stick around more in my garden.

Maybe you could do the same? It doesn't take much, as Indian Homemaker can tell you ... a shallow bowl of water is perfect for the smaller birds. If you place it among a few shrubs or potted plants, that will make them feel safer and more confident that they can linger. And I'm sure the Sunbirds would love to slip-slide on some wet leaves. Not much to ask for, is it?

The warm hues of Generosity

2010-05-10T11:20:00.008+05:30

Yes, I know I didn't post anything the last couple of days as I'd said I would, but there's a really good reason why... the postman rang! And when I saw the big, book-sized envelope, I whooped, "Yes! yes! yes! its here... finally!".

You see, Phillip from Dirt Therapy had announced a giveaway some time back and guess who won? Me!
I never win anything. Not even lucky dips . Oh wait! there was a plastic ruler which I won when I was in the third standard, but that's it. But you see what I mean, if even that had to stick in my memory like a red-letter day?
Yet, here I was winning an absolutely delicious offer of the most drool-worthy colourburst of a book by Tom Fischer, appropriately called, 'The Gardener's Colour Palette' ! Phillip's own beautiful garden could've been the perfect advertisement for that book!

I did have my doubts whether I would ever get to see this book considering the continents and oceans it had to cross and then there are ever so many slippery fingers who would be handling it . So you see, I was absolutely elated that I had been proven to be a pessimistic ol' so-and-so.

As I hastily signed on the postman's receipt, my first impulse was to rip open the envelope as I usually do (patience is definitely not my forte). But one look at it and there was no way I could do that . See what I mean?

Now why do I never think of such perfect finishing touches?
Phillip, that envelope will never see a dust-bin. It has gone into my stash of sentiment-alia.
As will this lovely note.

And the book? Pure magic!
The text was an absolute revelation. Fluid, almost lyrical , and filled with word-pictures that paint profiles of flowers I've never seen before so vividly that I could swear they're literally bursting out of the pages. The text pulls you in until you just don't want to surface from that colourful painting.
Tom Fischer, I wish I could write half as hypnotically well as you.

I love the easy-to-refer layout showcasing essential information that you don't need to wade through a lot of text to find. And the addition of recommended companion plants is perfect!

And the photos! The book is crammed with such luscious photos that make me feel like I'm in a bubble of concentrated colour. Each photo makes me sigh over them and many make me wish I could pick up my roots and settle someplace where all those lovely blooms will grow for me.

We don't go by Hardiness Zones in India but I should think mine would be Zone 10 like Florida. And I'm so relieved to see that this is one book that hasn't left out the tropical gardener. There aren't that many choices for us here, but still, they're there and many more than I expected. Many of them are plants I've never been sure would grow in my climate zone. And I love the chance to add more colour to my garden.
But I think that would be the only negative thing I can say about this lovely dreamspinner of a book : not all the plants shown here will grow in my garden.

And the verdict? Dont wait... go buy this book! And I wish I could see the change in your garden after you do. I'm already plotting on a lot of changes in my own.

Thank you, Phillip, for being such a generous soul and not hanging on to this book for yourself. I doubt if I could've been so altruistic.

Summer snapshots : Purple jewels

2010-05-07T21:00:00.001+05:30

This wild Ipomoea (I think it is called Ipomoea carica ) is seen clambering over every available inch of space ... over sand, rock , tree or building... and blooming its head off so exuberantly!

In Mumbai this creeper has taken over vast stretches of untended land and roadside scrub. Can you imagine seeing a whole sea of mauve and purple flowers beaming at you? No wonder it's called Coastal Morning Glory!

Summer snapshots : Twice as nice

2010-05-06T21:00:00.003+05:30

The Magpie-robin is one of the most interesting birds in my garden. I wonder whether it is his double-barrelled name that makes him work twice as hard and sing twice as fluidly as any other bird who comes visiting.

I often see him hopping around on my lawn, head perked at an angle, alertly scanning it for bugs. He loves my birdbath and is a frequent visitor, flying in for a quick feather-ruffling dip before flying up onto the cashew branch above it and settling in to treat the whole garden to his latest compositions.

Summer snapshots : currying favour

2010-05-05T21:06:00.001+05:30

The blooms of the Curry Leaf plant (Murraya koenigii) has a besotted bee busy tring to ... well, curry favour.
Incidentally, the blooms actually smell a little pungent. Just the way Indians love their curry!

Summer snapshots : cashew like it

2010-05-04T21:00:00.005+05:30

My cashew trees are now adorned with hundreds of golden fruit and their quirky (but oh so tasty!) nuts dangling outside the fruit.

I'm not too fond of the fruit (or cashew-apples as they're called). It leaves an unpleasant aftertaste and stains like crazy. Some people prefer to eat it with salt but I think the Goans seem to have found the perfect use for it... they make a heady liquor called 'feni' with it.

The nuts of the ripe cashew-apples are sun-dried and stored to be roasted later. But as for the tender green ones... who knows, they may just end up as the parrots' breakfast.
Bon appetit!

Summer snapshots : crowning glory

2010-05-03T12:14:00.006+05:30

Purple threaded with gold to cloak the Queen's Crepe Myrtle. That's about as majestic as you can get, don't you think?

Welcome to my new 'Summer snapshots' series of picture-posts . The summer-induced exuberance in my garden and all over Mumbai has filled my album with so many photos which I thought you'd like to see. So here they are ... enjoy!
I hope to post regularly so do check in often.

Summer sherbet : Mumbai's flowering trees

2010-04-28T11:46:00.000+05:30

Summer hues brew a heady rainbow cocktail.
Leading the parade, straddling Spring and Summer, is the Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula), so perfectly called Golden Showers. Its long drooping strings of cheery, sunshiny blooms on almost foliageless branches transform it into something King Midas must've surely dreamt up.

Yet another yellow, the Copper Pod or Yellow Poinciana (Peltophorum pterocarpum), soon blankets the trees. Lining miles and miles of Mumbai roads, these golden spires draw the eye up, turning it literally into a City of Gold.

The Curry Leaf plant is in bloom now too. White clusters of blooms with their slightly pungent scent have the butterlies flocking to them.

One of the prettiest trees of this season and one of my personal favourites, has to be the Pink Cassia (Cassia Grandis)!
I love those strawberry-icecream pink flowers smothering the bare tree, followed by the tender green leaves shortly after.

Don't the buds look pretty? The downy pink calyx almost pulls my fingers to touch it.

And just because I like it so much, here's one last photo . Dont you just love those varying shades ?

I've always been fascinated by the delicate pink and white flowers that stud the Rain Tree (Samanea saman ) . These powderpuff-like flowers feel so soft against the cheek that it was always a toss-up whether I liked the flowers more or the wide umbrella-like canopy topped with feathery leaves.
This is one of Mumbai's most common avenue trees and many a motorist out on its blistering hot roads in summer has blessed the relief of its cool shade .

Also colouring Mumbai right now is this flameburst which I spotted on an island while on a boat ride. Could it be Flame of the Forest or maybe the Coral Tree? I'm not sure, I was too far away to make out just which tree it is, but doesnt it look spectacular?

See what I mean? It looks almost as if the whole island was on fire!

Meanwhile, painting the roads right now is the latest entrant, and the city is awash with purple!

Pride of India (Lagerstromia speciosa), also called Queen's Flower or Queen's Crepe Myrtle is another of my favourite trees. The blue-green buds are just as pretty but they really come into their own with the crinkly-petalled blooms painting it in such vivid colours.

So, what's next? I'm getting greedy and I just can't wait to feast my eyes on the spectacular Gul Mohur (Delonix regia) which should be bursting on the scene in a couple of weeks.

(The first photo of the Laburnum was sent to me from Maryknoll, but all the others were taken by me in Mumbai )

The colours of Summer

2010-04-24T08:04:00.000+05:30

Nothing ... absolutely nothing ... paints the vibrant colours of Summer in Mumbai even a fraction as much as ...
Read more here

(This is not a full-fledged post but rather, a link to another post, 'Mumbai : The colours of Summer' at my India-a-h! blog. I thought a lot of my readers here would enjoy the post too. So I decided to cross-post it here ... or rather, to lead you to it. Hope you like it. And take it with a large pinch of adventure and with the spirit of Summer ! )

A sensitive topic

2010-04-22T16:39:00.001+05:30

Hush! Now here's something rather sensitive. Can you guess what this slightly pinecone-like thing will eventually turn into?

Okay, here's a closer look ... watch out for those thorns, though. They're among the meanest things I've ever come across... lethal weapons, indeed!
I love those first peeps of colour ... hot pink flashing through all that green!

Mimosa pudica, touch-me-not, sensitive plant, humble plant ... so many aliases for one tiny little plant!

Novelty plant or noxious weed, depending on where you garden.
In my part of the world, it has to be among the most stubborn, difficult-to-clear weed. Found almost all over coastal India, I've seen these little plants blanket just about every kind of terrain.

The feathery leaves that coyly fold up when touched, give it such a delicate, absolutely harmless appearance ( and its basketful of names).
Until one sticks a hand close to it ... ouch! All those wicked thorns can make you feel like you've been stabbed by a zillion stilletoes and had acid poured into the wounds!
Pity the poor gardener, then, who has to weed these deceptive weeds out of every garden patch only to helplessly watch just as many appear within days.

It was only after I moved to Mumbai where the mimosa seems to have been concreted out of existence, that I realised that maybe the mimosa does have its finer points ( I had always been too busy cursing it out for all the cuts and scrapes it gives anyone who gets too close, to see them) .
Such as, its soft, light as a wisp, powder-puff-like blooms. Imagine whole fields dotted with these candy-floss pink buttons set in feathery green ... see what I mean?
And those delicate-as-lace, quick-to-react leaves which give it the added attraction of being a plant which actually does something.

Which is probably why my 12-year old daughter, who after her first school trip to an organic farm, came home proudly brandishing her first plant purchase.
A Mimosa pudica!

Guess who came to dinner?

2010-04-16T09:15:00.000+05:30

Imagine you're hurriedly walking into an unused room and as soon as you open the door, you see this.
'This' was a harmless Rat Snake but the fright it gave me must surely be reverberating through the DNA of at least the coming 3 generations of my family!

Rewind : A couple of months ago a crew of painters and their hangers-on had taken over my house. The destruction they brought in their wake still has me tearing my hair out. In one particular bathroom they ended up cracking tilework and leaving big splotches of white cement trying to patch up more broken tiles. In retrospect, their finishing touch must've been pulling out the drain cover and then casually placing it back without bothering to cement it down.
In any case, the end result was that it looked so bad that we closed up that room till we find the time to fix it up again.

The other day, I remembered that I had to check on some stuff there and hurriedly went in. Only to realise that something was not quite right. And there to my left, just 2 feet away was this very scared Rat Snake, obviously thinking the same thing! He had climbed up on the sink and was literally trying to climb the wall.
I freaked out! Now I'm used to seeing snakes in the garden and actually enjoy it (from a safe distance) but I have never ever had one of them actually inside my house. I think I was more startled because it was so totally unexpected.

It didn't really register in my mind that it was only a harmless Rat Snake but all I could think at that moment was there's a snake in my house and that's crossing all lines that we've drawn down the years.
In all my years of living here, they've never done that but preferred to stay in the garden, chasing frogs or rats or whatever else took their fancy. And I've been thankful to them for that. But it has always been "you stay in your space and I'll stick to my space" between us. So why had that changed now?

The answer to that was a big frog lying near the drain. It had obviously come up through the loose drain cover and the snake had followed it in. I wonder what he thought of this strange new territory ...
Anyway, our helper came in armed with a long stick and flicked it down on to the floor near the drain. The speed with which it zipped back down that drain was amazing!

Poor little snake! He had come in looking for a nice quiet meal and all he got was gatecrashing humans!

Of tigers, crows and handmaidens

2010-04-03T14:33:00.006+05:30

Tigers are frolicking all over my garden these days. Tiger butterflies, that is.
The hotter days and blooming trees in Mumbai have something to do with that I think. Everywhere I look there are trees in bloom and an attendant cloud of butterflies and other nectar-loving insects dancing around them. They act almost besotted with the heady summer fragrance. Can't blame them!

This gorgeous Blue Tiger butterfly refused to leave the lantana bush alone. I usually have to chase and stalk them all over the garden to get a half-way decent photo, but here they were, cosying up to the lantana blooms mindless of who else was around.

Could this be the reason why?

The Common Crows are making their presence felt too. But then, they are rarely shy and don't mind intrusive bloggerazzi following them around.

This tiny little butterfly hides one of the most brilliant blues I've ever seen within its wings. At rest, no one would give them a second glance but like the other butterflies of the Lycaenid or Blues family, their flight is punctuated by brilliant flashes of the most vibrant blue from the upper part of their wing which is usually folded and hidden away.
Almost like butterfly Morse code!

Another Tiger, the Striped Tiger butterfly, loves the banana grove. I love its tiger-y colours and I can see where it got its name, can't you? What a contrast in their personalities though!
Isn't it amazing how much it resembles the Monarch butterfly?

I found this Striped Tiger hanging around the cashew tree which is in full bloom now. I've always considered the cashew flowers no great shakes in the looks department but the butterflies are mad about them. True butterfly magnets!

The cashew blooms also attracted this stunning Handmaiden Moth which has to be the most impossibly colourful creature I've ever seen.

Don't believe me? Take a look at her close up. And keep in mind that the camera couldn't capture the deep jewel reds and blues which look a bit faded here. This is one creature that makes you gasp in awe. And makes me thank my lucky stars that I have them around in my garden.

So were these butterflies the prototype for some of the most beautiful flowers? Or is it the other way around?

Springing into Summer

2010-03-21T16:15:00.001+05:30

It was Spring just the other day, now it looks like Mumbai is leaping and catapulting into Summer. Or are we already there? It's hot enough for it anyway.
In any case, I'm luxuriating in the look of crimson-studded Red Silk Cotton trees lining my road. Bare-branched, thorn-lined, yet so spectacular!

Birds love them! I caught this one with his head buried deep in a nectar-filled flower.
I've read that these flowers are edible and are, indeed, favoured by tribals. I wonder whether I dare try one? hmmm....
( I must add ... these 2 photos are untouched by Photoshop or anything else, except for adding the watermark. So, yes, the sky is that blue and the flowers are that bright red!)

The teak trees are standing tall, freshly leaved (just love that fresh green!) and topped with huge crowns of flowers. Last year's seedpods seem to have escaped the attention of marrauding parrots so far but they have other things on their mind right now.

These parakeets love the vantage point of the still-bare gul-mohur tree... from here they plot and plan and conspire which cashew tree to conquer next.
All of a sudden they whoosh! up into the hot air, a voluble green cloud of loud screeches and squawks. Settling down in a quarrelsome, gossipy bunch to some serious nut-crunching while the cashewnuts are still green.

Spring it is, coos the hidden Koel, sending out lonesome, plaintive kuoooos in search of his mate. His call sends the crows into frenzy, scrambling to find the intruder, this doppelganger in their midst. And hide he must, deep in the densest branches with only his ruby-red eyes to give him away.

Pinks and pastels find their place now.

Now is the time for every bloom, bug and praying mantis to think of changing colour.
Before the temperature soars higher and sizzles everything into a shivering inferno of reds, oranges and everything tropical.

Orchids in winter

2010-03-11T23:51:00.002+05:30

I was in the mood for orchids some weeks ago but my mind kept telling me, "it's off-season!"
Winter, or rather, as much Winter as coastal Mumbai gets, still had its grip on us .
It is never Winter as those outside the Tropics know it, yet those bitingly chill winds that roll off the back of the frozen Himalayas are cruel enough to kill or severly damage Dendrobium orchids and the other warm-growing orchids in my garden. I lose more than a few to them every year.
And what makes it worse is that I grow all my orchids outdoors so there is no shelter from those cutting winds. Especially for my Dendrobiums which are tied on to the trunks of various trees. Those I couldn't move even if I wanted to.

Then as I looked around my garden, I found first one and then another orchid in bloom ... good enough to satisfy my craving.
Leading the list was that absolutely gorgeous Dendrobium which had not one, but two spikes full of flowers (top photo).
Then there was this unusual yellow Phalaenopsis, speckled with hot pink.

I quite forgot that this is Phalaenopsis season in my garden! They like a temperature swing of about 10* to initiate spiking and it looks like they're quite happy with what they're getting.

This Phalaenopsis is relatively new to my garden. This is the first time that Phal 'Mini Orange' is blooming for me. I'm trying to picture it in a matte black ceramic planter .... mmmm!

Spathaglottis , one of my never-fail orchids. And a terrestrial, unlike the other epiphytic orchids. This is one of the few orchids that you can grow just like any other garden plant.

And the dwarf hybrids are just as pretty, if not more.

Then, there was this lovely Cymbidium. But I can't claim credit for this one. I must confess that I bought it in bud from a flower show that was on in Mumbai recently. Isn't it beautiful? It was way too expensive but worth every rupee for the sheer delight I feel every time I look at it.

And then, of course, I had this one stashed away in my apartment ... Phalaenopsis 'Winter Carnival' .
How apt!

Celebrating Spring

2010-03-02T17:54:00.003+05:30

Holi hai!
Yesterday was Holi, the Festival of Colours welcoming Spring. The festival of exuberance, outrageousness and, yes, of mischief.

Today Mumbai is lolling in the aftermath of an overdose of celebration, trying to wash off lingering traces of colour from hair turned electric blue and ears dyed shocking pink. Executives struggle to cover up neon green noses and school kids scrub at violently purple fingers.

All the while reliving the fun of battles fought. Of clouds of coloured powder flung. And squirting water pistols, and hurling water balloons to *splatch!* so satisfyingly in a drenching burst of colour . Exuberance is the qualifying word on Holi.

How can I leave my garden behind in this celebration? Splotches of outrageous colour are making their presence felt here too.

From elegant mauves and lilacs

to stunningly regal purples,

and blooming in an explosion of fiery orange

streaming into a cool river of green

spilling over in a flurry of shocking pink,

glorying in the golden hues of the sun,

washing the day in passionate reds entwined with sulphurous yellows

trumpeting joy and celebration in brilliant hues

of bright cheery yellows

and deliriously happy sky-touching blues.

Whites and pastels have no place on Holi ... except as an invitation to transform them into heart-throbbingly pulsating colours of the brightest hues. It's celebration time !

Back in the garden

2010-02-18T14:31:00.003+05:30

I'm back ( pun unintended) and am busy scrounging in the garden to see what I missed during the last few years ... ooops! sorry, last few weeks ( seemed like decades, though).
Do you know how fast things move in the garden when there's no way you can be up and about to appreciate them?

Well, first there were the lovi-lovis (Flacourtia inermis ). I've been waiting for years to see the first fruit on my tree and now here they are, brilliant red and plump with lip-curling, eye-scrunching tartness!

Then, I found this lovely peaches-and-cream tinted bud on a creeper that had draped itself all over the wild lantanas.
Plump seems to be the trend of the season, doesn't it?

It turned out to be a lovely, pure white wild Ipomoea, lighting up the lantana bush. I wonder where the peach tint disappered?

Oh, now I see it!

The mango trees are in bloom! This is something that we look forward to the whole year through. From now we can start our countdown to the heady mango-season. Oh yum!

One of the trees is speed-racing ; it has beat all the others and is already bearing clusters of tiny baby mangoes.

This is such fun! I love these baby mangoes. They look so cute and chubby, filled with the promise of sweetness to come. Summer in a baby pod!

Just as cute are the baby cashews. They're on show now, peeping through clusters of flowers and still liver-red. They've a long way to go.

Now this find was brilliant! I've never seen such a gorgeous electric blue anywhere in my garden before. So what is it? One of the forewings of a particularly exotic beetle?

Or....? It fit my daughter's baby finger perfectly.
Hmmm... maybe it was a beetle, after all. I wish I could've seen it alive and beetling around!
If anyone knows what this mystery beetle (I think) is called, please let me know. I love keeping track of who's living in my garden or just visiting.

Until next time, here's looking at you.

Bringing in a new year

2010-01-08T19:53:00.001+05:30

This new year I hope you'll find plenty to sing about

that there's a whole lot of colour zinging up your life

that you'll find your place in the sun

And that you'll find sunsets as beautiful as every glorious sunrise

That you'll find plenty of "me" time

And that you'll find inspiration everywhere you go.
Happy 2010, everyone!

Completion

2009-12-28T10:55:00.002+05:30

Another year whispers to its close. Mellow nostalgia tints the air. All that was bright and fruitful now shushurs a quiet completion.

"Our job is done, our days were long ... now let's rest," murmurs every vine and grass.
So the Sun beams a tad bit dimmer and Night lingers that much longer. And the Earth turns down the music of crickets and birdsong, pulls up a blanket of dry leaves to cuddle under, and breathes a contented sigh.
It's time to dream now. Of days gone by ... the exuberance of Spring , the carnival of Summer and the giddy excitement of the Monsoons.
Dream of triumphs of bounteousness. Smile at challenges met.
Dream.
For a new year awaits in the wings. Impatiently, excitedly. Filled with more dreams and even more Hope.
Time enough to welcome it. But first, let's dream.

A walk on the wild side

2009-12-15T14:03:00.001+05:30

So I found myself a new orchid. Found growing in the wilderness that adjoins my vegetable patch while it's lying fallow, waiting for the next lot of seeds to burst into life. Isn't it beautiful?

And then there was this beauty. I really fell for its bell-like shape and clusters of flowers...
ummmm..... hold on a minute! Can we re-wind please?

Oooops! Sorry ... okay, I exagerated a bit (a lot?) . That first photo, like the second, is not of any exotic garden bloom. They're common wildflowers ! They spring up all over the place here in Mumbai and are religiously weeded out.
Pity!
If they were just a bit bigger and a lot tougher to grow, I think they would've found their way into every gardener's wish-list.
As it is, the poor Lindernia crustacea (first and third photos) has been relegated to a wannabe status. As pretty as any orchid ... if only someone would look at it long enough to realise it.
And the pretty pink Boerhavia diffusa has been burdened with the most unfortunate tags of 'pigweed' and 'horse purslane'. Have you ever heard of anything more unfair?

Some wildflowers are lucky. Like the lantana. Pretty, a riot of colours and big enough to flaunt it. And the birds and butterflies love it too. Which more or less guarantees it a ticket to any garden, don't you think?

Then there is this very pretty blue flower which looks so much like a Skyblue Clustervine.

But while the Skyblue clustervine reaches for the skies and billows over fences, this little look-alike carpets the ground with tiny blue dots. Perfect groundcover!
During the monsoons, this is one of the plants I rely on to hold on to the little bit of soil I have in my garden before it is all washed away. Who cares if it is wild or even a weed (*gasp!*) so long as it's helping me out and looking so pretty while doing it!

And meet Cinderella. I don't know how and why this little wildflower came to be called the Cinderella weed but Synedrella nodiflora has to be one of the most commonly seen wildflowers in Mumbai's concrete jungle.
Incidentally, cinderella seems to have hitch-hiked all the way here from tropical America. One of the original hippies? The pumpkin coach seems to have been dumped long ago anyway.

This flame-red Ixora is native to Mumbai. I've seen it growing wild all over the place on my way home.

And of course, they force their way up from small cracks between rocks. Which looks quite spectacular considering that everything else refuses to grow there. The contrast bewteen the grey-black stone and the fiery blooms have to be seen to be truly appreciated. I quite like their pointy-shaped buds too.

Which brings me back to wondering ... when does a weed stop being a weed and get appreciated as a garden flower? Is it when they are big enough to be in your face, instead of slightly shy with teeny-tiny blooms ?
Or is it when they become too tough to grow? Maybe in another Hardiness Zone?
I've seen photos of what gardeners from other countries call weeds. Believe me, there are more than a few that I would love to have growing in my garden.
Just as I'm sure that this Vernonia cineraria below must be intriguing for some gardeners out there. Just don't tell them it's a weed here.

King of the garden

2009-12-04T16:38:00.005+05:30

A shrill whistling screeeee! announces the arrival of the King.
Crows bristle, rodents run for cover, and snakes slink away and hide now that someone new has taken over the top spot on the food-chain in my garden.
Behold the Black Kite alias Pariah Kite! Pariah is too ignominous a nickname for the King of my garden but the tag of Black Kite seems to be shared by other birds too so I'll just stick with Pariah Kite.

The Pariah Kite is one of the more commonly seen birds in our city. Seen from far, that is. If you look up at the sky, chances are that you'll see at least a couple of Pariah Kites sailing across Mumbai. Lazy swirls high across the skyscape soon transform into a powerful swoop when they spot something interesting.
They've learnt to adjust to city life and will just as soon scavenge as hunt, I'm told. I find that a bit sad for a bird that is obviously primarily a hunter. But city life can be tough on birds too.

Last year the royal couple looked over my garden and decided it would do to bring up their new heir to the kingdom. They moved into their penthouse suite on top of the tallest coconut tree and set about cleaning up the neighbourhood straight away.

Housekeeping is definitely not their strong point because their nest has to be one of the sloppiest I've ever seen.
But their hunting! I've seen them fly with snakes in their talons and then transfer it to that of their waiting mate. In mid-air!
Of course, the fact that I was standing below them and if they had fumbled in their passing-the-parcel act, a very angry 'parcel' would've landed on me, makes my blood freeze.
But my garden is suddenly more clear of thieving rats and other nasties than it has ever been. For which mercy I would happily crown the Black Kite Emperor of the garden .

Of late, they seem to have become more confident of moving in close even when I am around. Or maybe it's just the irresistible lure of my birdbath. Whatever it may be, it seems like the heavens are a bit closer when they choose to come down to earth.
Doesn't he look majestic? He's got such an imperious look in his eye.
Oh... and I like his trousers too.

A quick scoop of water and it's back to duty. Master of all he surveys and making sure every creature in the vicinity knows it.
Don't miss that wicked beak and huge talons. All the better to rip and rule!

A gram of blue, please

2009-11-20T08:54:00.002+05:30

One of the tiniest butterflies in my garden goes by the very odd name Gram Blue. When I first read it, I thought, "gram? A gram of what?
I kept linking it to the weight measure until I realised that it probably referred to its favoured host plants , beans and members of the lentil family. In other words, grams.

They are flibberty-gibbets (I even feel like one ofthose nuns from 'Sound of Music' when saying that) of the first order. Rarely ever still and never allowing one to creep up on them. The slightest movement and they're off again, dancing over the flowers.
For some reason though, they seem to be very partial to these Brazilian Button Flowers (Centratherum intermedium). So that's where I park myself when I want to see them sit still.

But where does the Blue in its name come in? Take a look ...

I've hardly ever seen it with its wings flat open, except for a quick flash once in a while. Open and shut before I even have time to press the button on my camera. But its such a beautifully vivid blue, isn't it?

I'm guessing that those two eye-like markings on its hind wing have helped it escape from many a predator. The funniest thing is that this one below kept rubbing its hind wings together so that it looked exactly as if those eyes were looking around.

I read that these 'eyes' along with the thin tail (yes, they have a tail on the wing. See the first photo) fool predators into thinking that that is the head. So even if a nasty latches on to the hindwing thinking that's the head, the Gram Blue can break off easily and escape. Smart!
By the way, this guy looks like a real survivor, doesn't he?

The Gram Blue is not exactly a welcome butterfly, especially when I'm struggling to grow some beans. A handful of caterpillars can soon make sure that all my effort is for nothing. And I wouldn't even know it is there because it usually hides inside the pods while feasting! So no Favoured Visitor tag for this guy.
But if I could see that flash of blue more often, I think I could definitely reconsider.

What a potent surprise!

2009-11-06T14:39:00.003+05:30

You know how sometimes you suddenly come across something which knocks you off your feet and leaves your jaw scraping the floor? I had one of those moments recently when I was idly browsing through Flickr.
I finally found an ID for a wild plant with pretty little white flowers which shows up in my garden every monsoon. I had very fancifully named it Peace Bells in my mind since I had no idea what it was.
Peace Bells? Ha! nothing peaceful about these little plants.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is Safed Musli, valued as one of the most potent aphrodisiacs from the plant world.

Now do you see why I'm feeling a little dazed? It's almost like finding out that the nice, sweet little girl that you went to school with is now a centrefold model in the more volatile type of magazines!

With the ID I found, I kept searching for more information until I realised that more than one plant from the genus Chlorophytum is commonly referred to and used as safed musli since they all share the same medicinal properties. And my Chlorophytum breviscapum is one of them.
Yes, the same family as our humble Spider Plant but, no, Chlorophytum comosum is not in that elite list.

It is a ground-hugging plant which appears all over my garden after the first rain of the monsoon season. Very soon it sends out stalks of pretty little white flowers . Even its seed-pods are eye-catching! I find their unusual tri-coned shape fascinating.

Did I mention that its white tuberous roots have aphrodisiacal properties according to Ayurvedic medicine? Apparently that's not all that it has. I read that it is supposed to be anti-ageing too. And great for building up immunity levels.

And the funniest, most ironical part of all? Years ago, while talking idly of the commercial possibilities of my gardening hobby, I was advised to grow safed musli as that was considered the most profitable crop to grow.
And I just laughed it off.
After all, I had no idea how to grow it or even where on earth I would get the planting material!

Every little flying thing

2009-10-26T18:02:00.001+05:30

My garden is resonating to the beat of a zillion little wings.
The October heat is still here but the hint of cooler times to come is also zinging up the air. The slightest of nips in the morning make it a joy to wake up early. Luxuriating in the coolness also means butterfly season in Mumbai. For not only do we get the usual flutter-bugs like the Common Crow above, but a whole swarm of them seem to be riding the cool winds and have reached here just in time.

By the way, have you noticed what a rich dark-chocolate and cream can do for you? Especially when it's teamed with black and white polka dots?

I suspect the hornets have a lot to do with this sudden appearance of so many of the winged kind in my garden. Remember them and their annual tea-party? Well, they've started preparing for this year's bash.
So far only the Common Evening Browns have shown up. They're all over the Pink Cassia tree. Them, and about a million flies.

And, of course, the Common Baron.

The Thunbergia grandiflora has been seeing a lot of activity too. I saw this gold-specked bee getting very possessive about them and decided to leave it to him. Cowardly of me, I know, but that stinger obviously means business!

The Common Wanderer wisely decided to stay with the flowers. I love the way these very common-place Vincas are the biggest magnets for so many butterflies.

And high up in the teak tree, this parrot kept a good watch over everything that was going on and kept shouting down advice and instructions.

The dragonflies are all over the place too. Some like this Blue Percher seem to prefer perching on low-growing weeds and I don't notice them until they fly up from almost underfoot.

This Wandering Glider (or Globe Skimmer) was a beauty, though. It was perched on a Dendrobium orchid spike and was so comfortable that I could walk all around, taking photos and he still didn't budge.
I liked this photo because it shows up his shimmery wings so well.
And the back of his head. Have you ever really noticed a dragonfly's neck before?

Something else that I noticed ... the rippling effect on the Common Evening Brown's wing. Brown is not exactly my favourite colour but on this butterfly, it looks like crushed raw silk, doesn't it?

The damselflies came out to play too. I was a bit taken aback when this Coromandel Marsh Dart jumped out to shout "Boo!"

They followed me to my apartment too. Amazing! My apartment building is on a very busy road and I was surprised to find that all that dust and traffic and noise haven't put them off.
I found this Blue Grass Dartlet trying to find a perch on a wall. I love that colour!

I didn't find out who was responsible for this half-eaten bird's-eye chilli, though. I suspect the bulbuls , but going by the pungency levels of these chillies, the culprit may have just hit the stratosphere by now!

(Amila, thanks for helping me out with the names of the dragonflies)

Diwali lights

2009-10-20T12:42:00.000+05:30

Happy Diwali, everyone!

I found this begonia which seemed to mirror the look and mood of the festive season so well that I decided to make her the star of this post. Is it just me or do you see the fireworks in the first photo and the diya in the second one too?

I know, this post is a bit late and I should've wished you a couple of days ago but the struggle of Good over Evil was literally taking place in me . I was completely being slammed around the place by the most pestilential flu virus there ever was and as many fireworks as were being lit outside, I could feel ten times that number flashing and burning in my head.
(Which is why I'm checking whether I'm still in the grip of fevered imaginations regarding those first 2 photos )

And for being so nice about it, I'll leave you with a couple of photos of the real thing which I saw outside. By the way, kids are still in the fireworks mood all over Mumbai. I love the colourful ones but totally hate the noisy ones that leave me with a ringing zzzzing in my ears.
With all the fancy fireworks being invented each year, I wish they would bend their creativity a little bit to come up with some non-polluting ones soon.

But aren't they just happy-making beautiful?
sigh... ! I love festivals!
Any festival. Of any religion, state or nation. Something which brings joy and celebration is always a good thing, isn't it?
And the sweets aren't half bad, either.

A tree falls over

2009-10-06T20:15:00.003+05:30

Tragedy struck for our little community today. A magnificent old Portia tree (Thespesia populnea, also known as Indian Tulip Tree or Pacific Rosewood) which was growing outside our apartment building toppled over. It was tall and like all Portia trees, it had a wide canopy. Wonderful to pause under in the blistering hot summer days!

More than anything, it gave a degree of privacy to the residents of the buildings around it. Like most Mumbai apartments they're too close for comfort and the thick leafy branches of the Portia tree curtained off each building from the other.
For me on my higher floor, I was on eye-level with all the birds that flitted in and out, drinking the nectar and eating the fruit of the Portia tree. It was a constant source of entertainment.
And the green! What a soothing wash of green to calm the eye and mind.

Some months ago the place where it was growing was the site of much redevelopment and the area around the tree had been claimed as a road. In an attempt to save the tree, a low wall was built up around it, filled in and finally concreted over. Whoever did it must've thought that would make it more firm.

For the last 2 days, Mumbai has been seeing a lot of rain and just as it petered out and the sky was clearing up, there was a loud crash. Everyone from all the buildings around ran out . What a sad sight! Our beloved tree was tilted over dangerously with the roots snapped off on one whole side, and the concrete slab propping it up like on of those leaning-boards you hear of actresses using between shots..

Is the redevelopment to be blamed? I'm more inclined to think that the fault lies in its branches. Since there was a building too close to its western side, the branches on that side were pruned more harshly than the others. As a result it got a slightly lop-sided effect. Shorter branches on one side and longer heavier branches on the other. And following 2 days of heavy rain, I think it just toppled over onto the heaver side.

I wonder whether it can be saved...
Maybe if the newer, thinner branches are pruned off, the tree will not be so top-heavy or lop-sided. Then if a big pit is dug the tree can be lowered into it and there is still hope for it?

What would you do? Keeping in mind, of course, that fancy tools and equipment are not an option...

And the award goes to ...

2009-10-04T15:10:00.004+05:30

The Blotanical Awards have been announced and I'm thrilled to find a lot of my favourite blogs winning major awards. Take a look at these excellent blogs.

First there's Frances from Faire Garden who's made an almost clean sweep of just about every award from Blotanist of the Year to Best Photography and a whole lot more. This is one blog I'll never tire of visiting. All those awards just go to show that I'm not alone in thinking so.

And Meems from Hoe And Shovel whose Best Florida Blog is so well deserved and which also explains how she came in as one of the best in the Best US Blog category. What I find particularly interesting in her blog is that we share almost identical gardening conditions despite living at opposite ends of the world, so I can relate so well to her posts.

Victoria at Victoria's Backyard who has a wonderful way with words won the Best UK Blog.
Trudi, from Yesterday Today Tomorrow In my Garden, who is a voice of encouragement to bloggers, both new and advanced, won Best Oceanic Blog. But then, I always knew she would!

And winning the Best South American Blog is my friend, Helen (who goes by the name of islandgal) from My Rustic Bajan Garden, who also found a place among the Best Landscaping Blog finalists. Way to go, Helen!

Bangchik from My Little Vegetable Garden had a dream run too, winning Best Asian Blog and a whole lot of other awards. I love the way he posts almost every day so there's always something new to look forward to.

Of course there were so many more categories and so many more wonderful blogs but somehow these stuck in my mind. If any of my friends who are among the Finalists don't find a mention here, it's not because I don't think highly of their blogs (oh, I do!) but because there are just too many to name.
And some blogs that I was so sure would win, did not. That was a little disappointing but that's the luck of the draw, I guess.

And what about The Urban Gardener? Well, we bagged First Runner-up in the Best Urban Gardening Blog category, which is so fantastic! I still can't believe it. The winner is The Patient Gardener , do go over and take a look.
The winner of Best Gardening for Wildlife Blog (another category that we were nominated for) is deservedly, Shirl's Gardenwatch . Again, do take a look at her blog. I went over and was horrified to read her exposé on what Strimmers do to the small creatures in the garden.

I've loved this whole Blotanical Award event purely because it has been encouraging to find myself unexpectedly among the top-five finalists in three categories, especially because I was placed there by my fellow garden-bloggers. Thank you!
And thank you to all those who voted for me in the finals.
May your tools never rust. And may it rain or shine just as your plants need it. And may your typing fingers dance more on the keyboard with each passing day!

Now, please do go over and check out the winning blogs. Believe me, you're really going to enjoy yourself!

September Soul

2009-09-30T20:51:00.001+05:30

September strums a scarlet rhythm.
Blood red ... fiery red ...
Sensuous, sultry, passionate, scandalous,
Glorious, vibrant, sizzling, sinful red ...

An enter the blood-stream and saturate the senses red.
A flood the brain and tantalise the mind red.
A throb in the heart and tug at the soul red.

It is Summer's last hurrah. The monsoons have been sent packing.
Now, bring on the show-stoppers... cock a snook at the chill winds waiting to shiver down from the icy Himalayas.
Not yet, not yet ... there is still time for a dragonfly to frolic. Spinning, whirling, darting, tip-toeing ...

The fiery sun blazes still, lighting a zillion crimson flames across the land.

Crimson, vermilion, scarlet, razzmatazz ,
Coral, ruby, cinnabar, cerise...

Shake you awake, scream in your face,
Set fire to your soul,
Pour soul into motion

Strut and sway, scorch and swirl
For that's the way of the September world.

One lovely award

2009-09-25T14:10:00.001+05:30

Guess what I got? The One Lovely Blog Award from Rajee at Rajee Sood . And that's what I've been saying about her "Home in style" blog. Go check it out. That lady sure has some very stylish ideas!
Thanks, Rajee.
Now I would like to pass this award on to some of my favourite bloggers.

Indian Homemaker at The Life and Times of an Indian Homemaker - for her very spunky blog which alternately has me dissolving in giggles or vehemently nodding my head in agreement.

Arch at Rang Decor - one blog filled with lovely spaces that I wish I occupied.

Kerri at Colors of the Garden - filled with the most wonderful plants and flowers. Her photos are as good as a feast to the eyes.

Joy at Garden Joy 4 Me - I always thought Canada was a very cold place until Joy with her warm, friendly blog showed me that no matter what the climate is, the people there definitely aren't cold.

Meems at Hoe and Shovel - for having one of the most enjoyable blogs about her very lush and bountiful Florida garden.

Thomas and Shilpi at Walk the Wilderness - with some of the most stunning wildlife photography that I've ever seen. I keep telling Thomas to come and collect all the wildlife in my garden, at least the bugs, but he keeps ducking the issue.

I didn't see any specifics about how many bloggers I could pass this award to, and left to myself, I think I would go on and on. But maybe, now's a good time to stop?
Thanks again all of you for publishing such lovely blogs that I could spend hours and days reading them.
And thank you, Rajee for giving me this award in the first place.

Its raining Blotanical blessings!

2009-09-24T20:00:00.003+05:30

How did I get so lucky?
The nominations for the Blotanical Awards have been announced and The Urban Gardener has been nominated for not 1, or even 2, but 3 awards.
THREE !

There's one for Best Urban Gardening Blog.
Another for Best Gardening for Wildlife Blog.
And yet another for Best Asian Blog!

And what makes it really so very extra-special is that the people doing the nominating are fellow garden-bloggers from around the world.
Thank you, my blog buddies. I'm humbled ... and slightly nervous about meeting expectations. Plus, really, really thrilled that you consider The Urban Gardener worthy.

Now comes the wait to see who bags the awards finally.
Most of my 'competition' are very good friends from way back when I was new to blogging. So there's this sense of "hey, I hope your blog wins" when I read their names next to mine on the list of nominees.

Now, please excuse me just a little while I go and wipe this super-wide happy grin off my face.
Oh, I know I haven't won yet. And, I know I most likely won't ever win. But for me, this moment is more than enough!

You've come a long way, baby!

2009-09-24T18:06:00.001+05:30

This post is not for the squeamish. If you count yourself among that number, consider yourself warned that there are plenty of photos here which are very explicit and, some may say, downright ugly.
Mrs. Common Mormon may beg to differ on that, though.

Remember her and her tiny pencil-point sized pearl of an egg? Well, it turns out there were 2 of them. That clever lady managed to slip one in without my seeing it!
Well, within 3 days, they had hatched and I found these tiny, scrawny runts the size of an eye-lash, if not smaller, looking totally lost on those curry leaves. I had to go macro to get the photo above.

They really grow when they put their mind (do caterpillars have a mind?) to it. This photo was taken the very next day. See the change in him / her?

Five days later, they were almost as long as the leaf and looking stuffed. This is what I call the bird-poop stage. I think you can see for yourself why. The resemblance is even more striking when seen from a distance.

By the next day Ms. Caterpillar was looking all wrinkly-skinned. I thought she had got some fatal fungal disease or something and was shrivelling away before my eyes.
Ha! No way ... she just wanted a new wardrobe.
Pop a few seams ...

... get into position to wriggle (anyone who's ever tried wriggling out of super-tight skinny jeans should recognise this pose) ...

... wriggle, wriggle
... pop a few more seams ...

... squirm, squirm
... oooh! That's better....

.... almost done...
A final flick of the tail and ...
ta-DAH!
Haute couture at last!

A gardener's dilemma

2009-09-20T08:44:00.002+05:30

Such a tiny, innocuous-looking pearl.
Glistening new and perched precariously on the down-slope of the freshest, limpest, thinnest leaf possible.
So fragile, it looks like the slightest shiver of a capricious breeze can send it careening down into oblivion.
But just what am I getting so ecstatic about? Let's rewind, shall we?

In my garden, I often run and stalk and chase after butterflies to get a photo of the exotic creatures who visit my garden. One of the most elusive of these 'winged rainbows' is the beautiful but very unimaginatively named Common Mormons.
Elusive? They're masters in the art of tantalising and then flitting away before I could get my camera fixed on them.
Mata Hari could've learnt a thing or two from them!

Just when I think I've got close enough for a good shot they're up and away again, their very flight hiccuping with laughter (at me, no doubt!) .

Rarely, very rarely, I manage to get a shot which though not good, still tells me why I find these creatures so fascinating. Now, if only they would sit still!

Finally, I did manage to get one to do just that! Not in my bigger garden but in my miniscule, chewing-gum- sized kitchen garden (which is just a fancy name for a collection of pots placed in the window box-grilles) in my apartment.
This lady would've waited as still as a rock . You see, I think I'm one of maybe just 2 people growing Curry Leaf plants in this apartment block.
And she needs them. Oh yes, she does!

I've got you now, my beauty!
Mine to watch at will. Your babies will soon be my models. Earth-bound, as much as you are flighty and elusive.
Mine to photograph and capture every single day till they break free with their fresh new wings. And still they'll pose for me for hours until their fragile wings are strong enough to shatter the strong grip of the earth. And they'll fly free ...

But this leaves me with one big dilemma... what'll I do when that tiny, innocent pearl turns into the world's biggest eating machine! Should I let them be and watch my Curry Leaf plant ruthlessly chewed and stripped bare of all foliage ?
Or should I squish them now before they're grown? Forget all my visions of watching these beautiful butterflies?

I'll tell you what I did ... this morning I got myself a new Curry Leaf plant !

Mumbai's feathered citizens

2009-09-10T16:06:00.015+05:30

It all started with a very cheeky thief.
I was standing right next to my Custard Apple tree and admiring the fruit ripening when I saw this green bandit tearing open the sweet fruit and helping himself, as bold as you please!
After I had finished insulting him in every language I knew (and every self-respecting Indian is fluent in at least 3, if not more), I had to admire his sheer gall! I mean, I was right there and he was stealing my fruit away right under my nose. Almost as if he were entitled to it. Or like a true street-smart city guy who saw an opportunity and snatched it.
I swear that it was my sneaking admiration that made me look out for other birds that call Mumbai home.

Where there is one Large Indian Parakeet, or even a Roseringed Parakeet, there is bound to be more. Sure enough, his buddy was sitting high up on the teak tree, tearing the seed pods to pieces.
Teak seeds when there was sweet custard apple at hand? Hmmm ... maybe he was on a high-fibre, sugar-free health trip!

That's not all that'll take their fancy. They're especially fond of tender cashew nuts. When the nuts are still green, the outer shell is still soft enough for their strong, tough beak. They come in huge flocks and descend on my cashew trees, screeching and squabbling amongst themselves. In a few minutes, the ground under the tree is littered with empty nut-shells, greedily torn open for the precious kernel. This doesn't stop their squabbling though because they rise up en masse and descend on the next tree to continue their feasting and gossiping!
Thieves and bandits they may be but they're definitely some of the greatest entertainers in the avian world.

So, who else calls Mumbai their home?
Definitely the common House Crow. As resourceful and shrewd as any person in Mumbai, if not more. He may not win any beauty pageants (totally unlike some stunningly beautiful girls from Mumbai) but what he lacks in looks, he makes up for in the grey cells category. He's omnipresent... look out of any window and you'll find at least 2 or 3 of their tribe on the lookout for a quick meal that they can snatch.

His relative, the Jungle Crow, is a total boor. Bigger, noisier, more aggressive and ill-mannered and not too bothered about who doesn't like him. Every year a flock of Jungle Crows come sweeping into my garden, possibly trying to outrun the cold Himalayan winter chill breezes. They pull out my plants from their pots, snap orchid canes, break off flower-buds and generally make a thorough nuisance of themselves. I'm really glad to see them go. The House Crow looks almost genteel in comparison !

Hidden here in this photo, you'll find one of my favourite birds.
What? You can't see him? Look closer ... there! do you see him perched on those buds near the top of the photo? Maybe it'll help if you'll look for a patch of yellow topped by a metallic gleam of black-green and purple.
Allow me to present one of our tiniest and prettiest birds ... the Purple-rumped Sunbird!

I just love watching their hyperactive lifestyle (sooner them than me!). They flit in and out near the flowering plants, perch daintily on a flower-stalk to sip their fill with their curving beaks and then zip off to the next one. The Thunbergia grandiflora seems to be a favourite with them. So is the Cardinal ipomoea.

I didn't crop this photo so I could give you an idea of just how tiny they are. Did you spot the female Purplerumped Sunbird? There she is, right on top of the Cordia sebestiana (Geiger tree), taking a sip out of the orange flower right on top. Like all the avian females, she's decided the male of the species are nothing to dress up for, and looks rather drab.

Here she is again behind the Geiger flowers! She has just spotted me aiming my camera at her and is immediately alert. Doesn't she look cute, going up on her toes to get a better look?

Here's a closer look at her. This is taken from the window of my apartment on a busy street in Mumbai. Luckily the vertical growth of the city seems to be helping me in watching birds at a closer range than I would otherwise be able to.

And that's a closer look at her boyfriend. Isn't he magnificent!
I wish I had a better photo which would show him in all his metallic gleaming splendour. Since I don't have a good one which I took myself, I'm adding a link to one I found on the Net.

I found this Sunbird nest the other day, Slightly dilapidated but still identifiable with all kinds of fluff and junk incorporated into the making of it. What I find really cute is the little projection above the entrance hole. A little over-hang to keep the rain and sun out while Mrs. Sunbird is busy keeping the eggs warm but still poking her head out for fresh air and just to keep her eye on things!

The Weaver bird's nest seems to follow the same suspended style but is much more elaborate. This is an incomplete one which I found lying on the ground and hung it up hoping to lure more of them into my garden.

I love the cheery yellow on the Weaver bird. He looks like a sparrow who went technicolour!This one was a regular visitor to my garden in summer but I think he was staying in the tadgola (palmyrah) palm trees nearby. I've seen huge colonies of weaver birds there busy making their incredible nests.

Another gorgeous yellow bird is the Golden Oriole which is unfortunately a winter visitor as far as I know. I've never seen them around in the other seasons. I found them incredibly shy and difficult to photograph . All that I usually see of them is a quick flash of gold as they flit between trees.

Another of my favourites is the Paradise Flycatcher. The adult male is spectacular with a gleaming black crest on his head and white body with 2 extra-long tail feathers that flutter and trail behind him like streamers as he flies.

The only problem with him is that he's very shy. The slightest sound or motion and he's off again to another corner.

Another crested favourite is the Redwhiskered Bulbul. I love his birdcall ... its such a liquid sound! He is a very common bird in Indian gardens but a very welcome one, if only for his cheerful call and perky looks.

His cousin, the Redvented Bulbul doesn't look so cute but his birdcall is just as cheery. I see them very often on my Michaellia champaca tree, feeding on the berries. They're apparently just as fond of snacking on termites. Hey, no wonder I like them!

And this is how he got his name ... see that flash of red ?

Maybe this is the cause? I'm not suggesting anything, but I've seen the Bulbuls gorging on these extra-spicy bird's eye chillies as if they were going on a diet the next day!

And of course, how could I forget the pigeons? They're so much a part of the Mumbai city-scape.

While I may grouch at them for messing up my window-sills and stuffing my ac-unit with twigs for nesting, there are many people in Mumbai who enjoy feeding these lucky birds. Kabutarkhaanas all over Mumbai are where they go to throw grain to the pigeons, and far from being bird-brains, the pigeons have quickly learnt where to hang around if they want a free meal.

I would have named these the Pariah Kites seen all over Mumbai. But they seem to lack the forked tail which is so distinctive of the Pariah Kites. So are these Tawny Eagles instead?
A pair of them had nested on a palmyra palm tree near my apartment. I can't say much about their housekeeping skills because their nest seemed to be a jumble of sticks and the dried flowers of the palm . But their parenting skills are fantastic with both parents chipping in to take great care of their heir (or heiress).

The Indian Mynah is one of the most commonly seen birds in the gardens in Mumbai. He's a bossy little guy who struts around making sure all bugs are kept in their place ... in his own tummy! The Mynah is one of the best assets a garden can have.
Both male and female are almost always seen together and seem to be one of those Made for Each Other couples that you always keep hearing about. But what really tickles my funny bone is that very bright mask and boots they seem to be wearing!

The Pied Mynah on the other hand is a seasonal visitor I think. Or is more shy (can such a word be applied to any Mynah?) than his cousin because I've only seen them in summer when they visit my birdbath.

This little guy is another of my best help in the garden. I'm not too sure what he's called but I think he must be an Ashy Wren-Warbler . He's got the same look and the perky tail which he keeps snapping up and down all the time.

Tinier than sparrows, I find them hopping around among the plants looking for bugs. Natural pest control!

There's no mistaking the Tailor Bird though. With his pointy needle-like beak, he's quite a jaunty little character. And yes, he's another very welcome friend in the garden. He'll even hop onto a tree-trunk hunting for his food. Do you see him clinging on to the cashew tree?
And what does he eat? Insects, their eggs and grubs.... need I say more?
Remember Rudyard Kipling's 'Rikki-Tikki Tavi'? Mr. and Mrs. Tailor Bird played quite a big role in that book . And considering that Kipling spent quite a few years living in Mumbai (back when it was still called Bombay) , it isn't surprising that so many of our commonly seen animals and birds show up in his books.

The Coppersmith Barbet is more often heard than seen in Mumbai. His repetitive and resonating tuk-tuk-tuk calls seem to come from every direction at once. When I first saw him (not easy, he's so well-camouflaged in leaf-green feathers. The red cap can give him away, though), I was surprised that such a loud sound was coming from such a small bird.
That's a lot of lung power in such a little guy!

The Cattle Egret is a common sight in marshy areas and the mangroves of Mumbai see a lot of them. They got their name from the fact that they're often seen near grazing cattle, looking out for insects and frogs which show themselves when disturbed by the cattle.
This guy came visiting me one day, tempted by the frogs near my lawn, I think. He wouldn't stay though, and took off as soon as he saw me. I wish he had stayed ... he could've feasted on the grasshoppers too.

Sparrows are common all over the world I think. But the Spice Finch or Nutmeg Mannikin seen here with the sparrow, seems to be on the bird fanciers' list. Lucky for me, they seem to like my garden and don't need to be caged to stay around and be seen.

The Babblers are not the cutest of birds. In fact, they look a little mean and suspicious . Maybe that's why they're always found in a group of their own, foraging through the dry leaves and undergrowth.

The Black Drongo is another of our common birds and also one of our most vigilant. You'll often find them perched on a branch or wire, looking out for insects. I love their quick swooping flights when they find a juicy tempting morsel ... which seems to be very often in my garden.

How did I almost forget the Magpie-Robin? Burdened with a double-barrelled name, he's still one of the cheeriest birds in Mumbai. He looks a bit frowzled here because he's sitting on a bare branch on a windy day.

He's usually very sleek and dapper as you see in this photo. The female is dark gray, not black . I see them hopping around my lawn looking out for insects. Bon Appetit!

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the birds in Mumbai. I've left out too many because I'm running out of space (I am writing a blog, not a book) and also because I don't have their photos.
But I just can't go without showing you one of the most brilliantly coloured birds that visit my garden in Mumbai ... the Whitebreasted Kingfisher.
What is a Kingfisher doing in a garden? This one like most city-dwellers, is not fussy. In fact he's downright adventurous in his food habits. I've seen him hunting butterflies and I even read a post which described him eating baby snakes.
How much more cosmopolitan can you get?

(the quality of some of these photos leaves a lot to be desired ... sorry! Clicking tiny birds which are more than 30 - 40 feet away and more, needs a more powerful camera than my point-and-shoot)

The Jungle a.k.a. my vegetable patch

2009-09-07T20:13:00.004+05:30

I sometimes wonder whether I grow beans for their flowers . Or, maybe because it has to be one of the easiest vegetables to grow.

This is vegetable season in Mumbai ! With 3 months of rain, the land is transformed into a picture of fertility and abundance. Irrigation is taken care of by the monsoon showers so what work does the vegetable-grower really have? A bit of weeding once in a while thrown in with a bit of fertilising. That's it! These are glory days. Sit back and wait for the veggies to show up.

Once the monsoons show signs of approaching in May, people start getting busy. Land is cleared, weeds are burnt, soil is dug up and mixed with ash and well-composted cowdung ... and then they wait for the first shower to sow the precious seeds.
For some, the seeds are almost like a treasured legacy. Hoarded from last year's crop, which was sown with the seeds from the crop from the previous year, and so on. They've been saved from the first flush of vegetables, well-dried and rolled in ash to preserve them from pests.
But others, like me, haven't mastered the knack of saving seeds that'll last a whole year without getting all moldy or riddled with bugs. For us, the seed stores are like a lifeline.

The seeds available in Mumbai (and in many parts of India) are a bit of an adventure ... most of the packets have got no more information other than the bare basics : name of the vegetable (just "beans" or "tomato"), the name of the company selling the seeds and if we are lucky, a use-before date.
So you can imagine that each year's crop has me waiting in suspense to see exactly what I'm going to get. But I go through this routine every year. I love the idea of eating vegetables that grew on my land and which I know aren't loaded with chemicals!

This year I took advantage of my trip to Kerala to go to the store attached to a well-known agricultural college there. I was sure that here at least things would be more organised and I would get the name of the cultivar, etc.
No such luck! The man at the counter pushed some tiny packets of seeds at me with "beans", "okra", "bottle gourd", etc. stamped on them!

Oh well! It has to be good stuff, I told myself as I went through the ritual of preparing the land and waited .... and waited ... and waited for the monsoon. And then the monsoons breezed in, stomped around, smashed a lot of seedlings into oblivion and then, just disappeared!
I could've cried! My beans were drying on their poles, the okra (which we call 'ladies' fingers') leaves were shrivelling, my snake gourd plants withered away .... not good!
But with the help of a couple of sprinklers we pulled through. Normally the vegetables grown in the monsoon season are wholly rain-fed so it didn't even occur to me at first to set up the sprinkler. Trust my ever-practical husband to think of that!

Incidentally, the caladiums in the photo above, just appeared when the sprinkler got into action.
Oh ... this photo also shows why one should always supervise work being done for you! I had instructed the man who comes to help me in the garden, to put up some structures for the beans and gourds to climb up on. He made such short ones that I have to crouch every time I want to check on my plants and invariably bump my head on some pointy part of the branches he's used to make the mandap with.

Then the rains came back and helped things along. Not the usual sky-fuls of rain but a little every night. But, hey! I'd rather get that than nothing at all !
And now ... ta-dah!

The okra have got going too. Tender okra are very photogenic but somehow I don't like their smell. And their stickiness. My husband loves eating okra, though, so its always present in our veggie patch.

Have you ever eaten bitter-gourd? As the name suggests, it is very bitter but its supposed to be great for health. Diabetics, especially, benefit from eating it, according to Ayurveda and the tenets of natural healing. I don't know why I grow it... nobody eats it in my house but still it's there every year.

Its flowers are pretty though and that is a very cheery yellow, don't you think?

Like most gourds, it is a climber and will clamber all over a fence, wall or house if given half a chance.

Cucumbers are not grown on a trellis here in Mumbai. They ramble all over the ground.

See the cucumber jungle? Now do you know why I go armed with a long stick while harvesting? I dont want to stick my hand in there and pull out a cobra instead!

The tomatos are making slow progress, partly because of a lot of freeloaders. And partly because of the heavy rains we had initially which washed off all the soil around the plants and also plants along with it.

Using neem oil as our pest control has one disadvantage. One doesn't see the effect immediately. It takes a few chomped leaves before the azadirachtin (I hope I spelled that right) in the neem starts working on the bugs and kills their appetite and finally any interest in procreation. At the risk of sounding sadistic I have to say ... that's fantastic!

The harvest is in now, finally . Slowly but surely. The first harvest yielded just enough for one day, but now... ! I'm getting beans by the bucket-load! And bottle-gourds which would make great caveman's clubs ...
Don't tell my husband,but ... anyone want some okra?

Aliens in my garden!

2009-08-31T17:06:00.004+05:30

I had my first nigglings of suspicion when I saw these fiery balls appear out of the blue in my garden. There were just too many strange things happening in my Mumbai garden. And everywhere I looked, I could spot Them .
You know who I mean ... those Beings whom I've noticed out of the corner of my eye. Look too fast and all you'll see is a blur of motion as they slide out of view.
But they're there. I know it.
Trying for all the world to pass themselves off as innocent Earth-landers but we know better, don't we? Their very appearance signals their alien-ness, don't you think?
See! I knew you could spot it too!

This was the first one I noticed. And I felt a frisson of alarm running down my spine.
What! Don't you see?
Obviously it tried to mimic a dragonfly but it went a little off-course. No dragonfly ever had those clubbed antennae.
Could it be a mutant?
Are those another pair of eyes to see behind its head?
Or worse, it could be the creature's communications centre to beam messages to its home planet! "Earth is filled with giant , stupid creatures, ripe for subduing... they never notice anything even if its happening right under their ugly noses!" ... and the like.

And have you ever seen a dragonfly whose wings drooped straight down like this?
No! I tell you this has to be an alien with a disguise it couldn't quite pull off.
Ha! You can't fool me, Mr. Alien. And it's no use claiming you're a harmless little Owlfly!

My suspicions, thus aroused, led me to take another look at the 'star-ship'. Just as I thought! No living creature in sight, except for a tattered Yellow Orange-tip butterfly which had obviously wandered too close to their secret and had paid the price!
The star-ship had been camouflaged to look like a Haemanthus multiflorus (that's Football Lily if you can't pronounce the other longer name) but the lasers bristling in every direction gives the game away, doesn't it?
Football Lily indeed!

Then, it started! Every time I looked around, I would see another one. In wildly impossible shapes and colours.
In forms designed to excite comment if one would only look at them closely.
But do you think anyone does? Except me, of course!

Red does seem to be a favourite colour among them. Maybe it's out of loyalty to their star-ship, or something? Or maybe on their planet, red is what they wear to blend in !
This guy does look dangerous, doesn't he? And pompous! Just look at those heavy-lidded eyes ...

Then he heaved himself up and started to stalk away stiltedly. If I'm not mistaken, this could be another Trojan Horse kind of contraption. This was no smooth, natural walk... it was being done on wires, I'm sure!

This one was a cutie! Did you see the armour and helmet? What you can't see is the brilliant golden sheen on the armour-disc. Tiny little feet peeped out from underneath while it pattered away.
Maybe it was just a baby. but if you've seen any sci-fiction movie worthy of its name, you'd realise that the cuter a creature is, the more deadly it probably is.

You'd think these aliens would have more intelligence than to look like something that's a cross between a tortoise and a beetle!
A Tortoise beetle?
Naaah! Who on earth would believe it?

That's one of the most alien-ish faces I 've ever seen ! And there's way too much intelligence behind those eyes.
Scrutinising, assessing, taking me apart .... hey! would its look-alike be a Praying Mantis?
Noooo! It looks like a Preying Mantis to me.

Uh 0h! It looks like they suspect I know something .

Run!
But where to? They're everywhere !

"Take me to your leader!"

" That would be me ... Eat-all Sabre Fangs. Say your prayers, Lizard Face!"

"Say, Mistress Two-Legs, you got any more snacks for me? That one was barely a toothful ..."
And the day is saved. Earth is ours again.

Meanwhile, back at the star-ship ...
What star-ship? They've stripped it bare. But why? Except for those funny egg-like thingummies. What would those be I wonder and why ....

Help! we've been colonized!

(Thanks for joining me in this exercise in paranoia ;D
What can I say? Such things are bound to happen when the Monsoons which should be here cooling the fevered brain , are off somewhere in parts unknown, playing hide-and-seek instead! )

Flights of fancy

2009-08-25T16:21:00.002+05:30

Mumbai has butterflies?
This has to be the most common question , dressed with an inordinate amount of astonishment, that I get when I talk about the most colourful visitors (or should I say, residents) in my garden. Oh yes, Mumbai has butterflies aplenty. I guess we just have to stand still long enough to spot them. Easier said than done, maybe, given the frantic pace of life in this busy city . But give it a flower for nectar and a plant to lay eggs on and the Mumbai butterfly happily adapts to living life in the fast lane!

The Tawny Coster has to be one of the most eye-catching butterflies that flit around Mumbai. That orange - black combination really dazzles, doesn't it?
I found this proud new mom busy at work...

... there were eggs to lay and she had to find the perfect spot for her babies. Somewhere out of harm's way and where they would have plenty to chomp on once they hatch.
And guess what? The Tawny Costers seem to have a passion for my passion-fruit plants!

Here she is ! Hmmm ... maybe she should've had a "Do not disturb" sign hanging close by but it didnt look like an explosion would've disturbed her. She had a job to do and that's all she cared about!

This Centratherum intermedium (Brazilian Button Flower) has to be one of the most attractive plants for the butterflies. I have a bed full of them and the air above them is never still. There's always a butterfly or two, like this Blue Tiger, flitting by for a quick sip of nectar.

Okay, this is not a butterfly, I know. But I was horrified by this Robber Fly who had kidnapped this bee with no good intentions, I'm afraid.

This dragonfly, on the other hand, knows how welcome he and his friends are in my garden. Any creature which has mosquitoes on its dinner menu will find the red carpet rolled out for them in my garden!

I nearly stomped on this one more than a couple of times. He was so well camouflaged that I would spot him only when he flew up in the air right under my nose! I guess a set of enormous eyes like that would've helped me see him better.

Lantanas will always bring them flocking in. I have a wild lantana bush right bang in the centre of what is officially my vegetable patch. I've been advised over and over again by everyone who sees it to get rid of the jungli (wild) plant so I can have a bigger vegetable patch. But I'm so thrilled about the number of butterflies who visit it for nectar and the birds who love its berries that I would rather eat fewer vegetables (no great sacrifice, say my kids).

The Great Eggfly is one of the lantana lovers. By the way, I wonder who named him? I much prefer his other name ... Blue Moon Butterfly.

Now do you see how he came by both his names? This photo was taken last year in my dying vegetable patch. The plants were almost spent and ready for a re-haul and I was only too happy to see the butterflies make use of them.

A couple of days ago I found a female Great Eggfly flitting among the weeds that crop up every monsoon. She was in an egg-laying mood too.

Come and see her babies-in-waiting! Look, but don't touch. Mama butterfly has been really clever... she chose a stinging nettle to take care of her eggs !

Here she is, hopping over to another nettle to host another clutch of eggs.
Hmmm.... now how do I clear all those weeds, especially when I know all those butterfly eggs are hiding under them? A baby killer I'm not!
By the way, I love that flash of blue that shows up on her wings when the light hits it just so .

Vinca rosea (Madagascar periwinkle) is another butterfly favourite. Luckily for me it also loves our hot summer and comes to my rescue ever year when my garden is too sapped of energy to bloom. Vinca, though, will be in full bloom, adding colour and luring butterflies and giving me something worth looking at in my garden.
No wonder the butterflies love it so. It definitely isn't a fair weather friend !

These are just a few of the butterflies that are such a vital part of my garden. If you'd like to see more of them, go over to my other posts here , here and here.

Monsoon blooms

2009-08-17T09:55:00.005+05:30

Monsoons are made for Dendrobium orchids. I'm convinced of this. This season, like no other, sees my collection of orchids plump themselves up, fluff their petals, green their leaves and get all dressed for the greatest event in their calendar (and mine) ... the grand 'Bloom-your-heads-off Spectacle'!
Which means that in Mumbai, late-July onwards sees a lot of activity and barely-suppressed excitement in the orchid gardens. The flowers are coming!

They come in all shapes and colours but these twisty petalled ones always remind me of the antlers of a Black Buck antelope. Can you see the resemblance too?

This Gardenia has been giving me some sweet dreams lately. I had cut a few flowers to keep in my room some time back and by the time it was ready to be changed, it had already rooted in the vase! I couldn't find an empty pot for it so I then stuck it in a small plastic bag of soil outside my bedroom window, thinking I would find a permanent spot for it later. Before I knew it, it had grown through the bag and had locked itself in place . It obviously liked that spot so who am I to argue? Now its blooms scent the evening air sweeter than the most expensive perfume.

My Brunfelsia bush is in full bloom now. I love the way the colours change from day to day and its very quaint alias , Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow.

My Anthuriums have woken up from their summer stupor. They love these moist days

Look at them go! They're putting out new roots left, right and centre. This is the perfect time to start multiplying them. I'll be cutting them just below the new roots and replanting them.
So from this one plant I can get about three ... the portion with the crown of leaves and the new roots, plus the part remaining with the roots sunk into the soil, which I can again cut across horizontally into two round chunks.
Chunks about 1" tall and with roots are good enough for a new plant. New shoots soon sprout from the nodes and as long as they have viable roots too, I'll have some more gorgeous anthurium plants.

The rainy days had me indoors with nothing much to do except cleaning out a lot of stuff I had stored away in various cupboards. I found this wall-plaque I had made years ago when I went for a terracotta workshop. Isn't it odd how our surroundings pop up in all our creative attempts? That's my cashew tree and all the crows who seem to have taken larger-than-life proportions!

Meanwhile, under the cashew trees, some of my favourite monsoon plants are popping up ... Curcumas! The whole area is a play in green and purple right now. I didn't plant these; they've been there for centuries I think.
So has that wild ixora you can spot between the Curcumas. It is not in bloom yet . Maybe it fears being totally overshadowed by its absolutely flamboyant neighbours!
Imagine pitting yourself against this!

Plantation dreamin'

2009-08-12T20:09:00.004+05:30

I'm fed up of the long coffee-break that the monsoons seem to be taking in Mumbai! It waltzed in late and zoomed off early. So aggravating! To distract myself, I keep thinking about my trip to Kerala a couple of months ago. Especially my stay in this lovely plantation home in Kothamangalam .

Kerala has to be a gardener's idea of paradise. Forget the ease with which everything seems to grow here, it's also home to some of the best spice plantations in the world.

And Kothamangalam seems to be at the heart of all this activity in spices and forest products. It's a small town situated at the foothills of the Western Ghat mountains so there is a lot of trade in rubber and timber. And the minute we drove into this little town, the scent of medicinal herbs used in Ayurveda, is all-pervading.

I have no idea why it is so overlooked on the tourism map. The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary is hardly 10 - 15 kms away and Munnar, with its scenic tea-estates, is just an hour or so down the road. But apart from that, the looming rubber plantations enclosing whole universes within them, have a charm which is simply unique!

Imagine waking up to a view like this! Walk out onto a balcony surrounded by greenery, no people in sight, no sounds except bird-calls. Bliss!

This is what I saw from that balcony. The kitchen garden with its fair share of bilimbi trees, chilli and banana plants and a whole lot more ... always fringed by tall rubber-trees in the background.

Oh yes, and mangosteens! The tree was filled with fruit in varying stages of ripening. Have you ever tasted mangosteen? It is the most delicious fruit in my opinion.
Unfortunately, it doesn't keep well and quickly hardens to a rock-like stage where it's almost impossible to crack the fruit open and get at its pure white segments.
It has to be one of the most dramatic-looking fruits too. Just picture it cracked open... purplish skin with an inner red flesh and hidden within it, like the prized jewel, is the pure white, segmented, deliciously sweet fruit. (Give me a minute to wipe the drool off my key-board, okay?)

Pretty little white wax-apples hang like bells on the tree. Contrary to its name, there is nothing waxen about it, except maybe its glossy skin. Did you know that they come in pink and red colours too? A wax-apple tree in full fruit is a beautiful sight!

Not as beautiful as this, though. Like I said, this is a plantation home and just a few feet away from the house, a veritable forest of rubber trees grow sky-high, blocking out the sunlight and turning the sky green instead of blue.
It is an imposing sight and sent thrilling shivers down my spine. There is something so primeval about it.

In the dense undergrowth, caladiums fight for space and add a dash of colour. An eye-catching change from green of all shades .

A sudden downpour blurs the trees and everything takes on a hazy atmosphere. One can almost imagine dinosaurs foraging just beyond one's line of vision. And myriad mythical creatures suddenly seem so plausible ... as if they are surely living just beyond that clump of green yonder.

The downpour also fills up this little coconut shell which is used by the tappers to collect the latex that goes into making the rubber that your car tyres run on.
See that white line? That's the latex. The tapper makes a cut on the tree which induces the latex to flow along the line of the cut ... right into that conveniently placed coconut shell from where it will be collected later.

A stroll in the garden brought me to a large carp pond . More interesting for me was the number of dragonflies zipping around. I can't imagine how they found this pond attractive ... those carp were voracious.
Isn't this dragonfly gorgeous!

This gorgeous Dawn Dropwing dragonfly was too restless for me to get a good photo. Finally I had to make do with this though the red laterite soil is just not the best backdrop it could get.

There's something very vital and alive in the air here.... it's buzzing with activity. I had hardly bent down to click these heliconias when this Chocolate Pansy butterfly dropped in for a quick pose.
Hey, I don't mind!

(This post is specially meant for one of my regular readers in West Lafayette, Indiana. Happy birthday, Antony! )

Forest giants in urban gardens

2009-08-01T20:00:00.006+05:30

This is one flower that I'm sure not many would have seen, let alone grown in their garden.
Mystified? These tiny white flowers grow in great clusters at the top of gigantic teak trees (Tectona grandis). These huge trees are prized for their excellent timber but as for me, I get a thrill out of watching them grow in my garden, tall and strong!
Oh yes, and their rough bark makes it ideal to tie orchids on to. And that's a huge plus point in my books.

I had planted some teak trees in my garden many years ago. No one expected them to grow in Mumbai and sure enough, every other year saw one of them succumb to the strong monsoon wind and rain. All that rock underground doesn't help either. It's so heartbreaking to see big, healthy trees toppling over.
There isn't much I can do about it because a great part of our garden is a big sheet of rock with most of it disguised with a thin veil of soil a couple of inches deep in most places and a few feet in others.

A few trees still survive,however, having grown tall and wide of girth. I'm told that my trees are thicker around the middle than the forest-grown teak trees of the same age. That's possibly because they don't have to compete with so many other trees , I suppose.

A couple of days ago, a heavy downpour made me run indoors and just as I had closed the door, I heard a loud crack and a crash.
It was only a branch that hit the ground this time. Bad enough, but I would've hated to lose that big tree. But what kept me frozen was that I had been standing in that very spot just a few seconds before the rain made me run indoors. Yikes!

My next thought was, serves me right! I should've got those branches pruned off when they were forming so that only the main trunk remained tall and straight. But it's not easy getting someone to climb such tall trees ( I read somewhere that they can reach up to 150 feet high) so my teak trees are a bit unkempt.
It looks like Nature took care of this problem and decided to do a bit of pruning herself.

The big leaves are thick and leathery and really look their best during the monsoon season. Some of them are really big ... as big as dinner plates, and have often been used as such in the olden days. Not surprising, don't you think? Nowadays, machines press these leaves into eco-friendly disposable plates. A perfect cottage industry for those in rural areas.
I wonder ... if I invest in one, maybe I could cut down on dish-washing time. And chipped crockery!
Incidentally, a red dye from these leaves was traditionally used on cotton and silk. I really must try that out some time.
By the way, did you see that cluster of buds? One rarely gets to see them because they're carried right on top of the tree.

This what I see more often... the green fruit of the teak tree . Don't they remind you of a drawstring bag?
The green cover which turns brown when mature, feels very papery to the touch but there is a hard stone inside which contains the seeds.
In many places the seeds of mature fruit are sown but the person who gave me these trees as saplings told me that in commercial teak nurseries, they are grown from root stumps.

If there is one advantage of this forest giant, it has to be that birds feel right at home in it. Every year flocks of parrots take advantage of its height to use it as a lookout point. These three are scouting out the next fruit tree to raid, I'm sure!

The Coppersmith Barbets love it too. The green crown gives plenty of cover for this green bird to hide from human sight. These two were either dining out (plenty of bugs on teak leaves) or looking around for a new home to move into.
They really have the right idea. After all, teak should make the strongest, most secure home of all, don't you think? Even for teeny little Barbets ... if kings built their palaces with teak, so can they !

Monsoon gifts

2009-07-17T22:52:00.004+05:30

It's been raining in Mumbai, and look...! Caladiums! Popping up all over the place and letting the raindrops roll off it in big, fat, silvery blobs. These were growing wild and I got a few of them for my garden. It really livens up the shaded spots under my big cashew trees where nothing else seems ready to grow.

Something else the rains brought up ... mushrooms. The locals seem to love this and the lady who comes to clean my house always takes these home to cook. I was worried whether they would be poisonous but she doesn't seem to be any the worse for it!

I love this ruffled fungus which has sprouted in the most unexpected places. For a change, this is one fungus which doesn't throw me into a panic and reach for the neem oil.

The wind and rains were not too kind on this honeycomb though. I found it lying under one of the coconut trees, soaking wet and totally unappetising - looking. But the texture and pattern is so interesting, dont you think?
I keep wondering about the different variations in pattern though. While some of it has the standard hexagon-shaped thin walls, the rest has round thicker walls. Maybe some bees decided to innovate? Do you think the queen bee threw it out because she didn't like the changes?

This is one of my favourite rainy season plants, the Dendrobium crumenatum. It's the weather fluctuation from summer-hot to monsoon-cool that triggers the blooming. The flowers are very fragrant but short-lived which is very unusual for an orchid ... and a dendrobium at that ! They normally last and last for weeks on end.

This is a closer look at the Dendrobium crumenatum, also called 'Pigeon Orchid'. What an odd name, right?

Now do you see why?
Those buds look exactly like pigeons, don't they? Upside ones, maybe, but still isn't it such an apt name?

I was surprised to see these Karondas (Carissa carundas) still in fruit. Have you seen these before? They start off as pink and white but ripen to a dark reddish purple. They taste almost acidic but kids love it. When ripe, the juice is a thick, blood-red liquid and the source of many pranks with children smearing it everywhere and pretending to be bleeding (and giving their moms mini-heart attacks!)
Birds love it too and I saw a Bulbul fighting with another to get first pick of these fruits.

Something else that I didn't expect to see ... this wild creeper is invasive but I don't mind it so much because the Common Pierrot butterfly loves it . These flowers are tiny and almost hidden under the leaves but the Common Pierrot manages to find them.

These maidenhair ferns are another monsoon favourite. They show up at the slightest hint of rains and take over all the walls, rocks and cracks. I love their delicate laciness and wish they would stay around the whole year. I've tried potting them up but it looks like pots are the only place where they refuse to grow ... at least for me !

No, this isn't some mountain landscape but the bark on one of my cashew trees with moss slowly taking over. I think it is beautiful! My cashew trees are old but the moss makes them look like the grandfather of all cashew trees!

These little wildflowers crop up every year with the onset of the monsoon. They are a bit rain-worn now after the heavy rains we've been getting but it looks like this little bee still likes them just the way they are!
By the way, does anybody have any idea what they're called? Please let me know if you do.

Finally... this has to be the ultimate sign that summer is long over. Gul mohur petals lie scattered all over my lawn and road, under the trees and over the rocks ... like a red carpet for the Monsoon and all the gifts it showers us with.