Balcony Bliss

 

I am currently rediscovering the joys of a balcony. After living on the ground floor for the last half a dozen years, I am happy to be strung at treetop level again. 

Maroon chrysanthemums brightening my balcony 

Though I miss the expansive garden from our last home, including our backyard and veggie patch, the simplicity of container gardening has its own charm.

Parakeets are frequent visitors

Most days the first neighbours I see and hear are the feathered varieties. With open skies and a multitude of trees facing one balcony, birding comes as an in-house advantage.

A glimpse of the greens through the frosted window 

While the second balcony faces the road and a row of apartments, my greens give me ample opportunities to enjoy the space.

Republic Day flypast 

And on Republic Day, we viewed some amazing flypast by our armed forces since those beauties zoomed past right in front of our balcony.

Shiuli Season

 

When we moved into the ground floor apartment in Gurgaon, one of the first trees we planted was the Shiuli, more commonly known as the Harshingar or Parijat. Though my mother always had a shiuli plant in her well-maintained container garden, it had been a cherished wish of mine to have a shiuli tree of our own. Those lusciously fragrant dainty white flowers with their characteristic orange stems that fell as a carpet at the first touch of the sun tugged at my heartstrings. The sheer number of flowers laden on a tree planted directly in soil took the experience to another level. Those flowers and their heady fragrance held a lot of pleasant memories - of pujo, of the change of seasons and the onset of autumn, of my very identity as a Bengali. 

Shiuli flowers from our tree

The shiuli is a fairly large and tall tree, and an evergreen. It grows rapidly in the monsoon and requires a good pruning, so the flowers can come by autumn. But the flowering happens for only about a month in the entire year. And that month coincides with the peak festival season in most parts of India. Another reason why a glimpse of those flowers has happy associations.

Now the shiuli we planted in our front lawn started flowering right from the second year, giving us handfuls of white and orange every morning during season. As soon as the first rays of the sun touched the flowers, they would start dropping off, creating a fragrant carpet on the grass underneath. So we had a tradition of picking these flowers early morning, as soon as one was through with the morning ablution. Or sometimes between sips of hot tea. It was a revered tradition since the Bengali associate the shiuli flowering with the rise of the Divine Feminine.

Family tradition of Shiuli picking

But each morning as I plucked the shiuli, a few flowers invariably landed on the aloe vera shrub next to it. And aloe has thorns. Every attempt to reach the fragile shiuli flowers and brush them off the aloe reminded me of simple life lessons.

That much like life, the good and bad, the soft and the prickly, always show up together. And we have to navigate through the thorns to get to the beautiful flowers. Just like in life we have to wade through the unpleasant doggedly to get to enjoy a span of charming times. Then again, life is mostly mundane; the high points come only once in a while, like the festive season. And like the flowers of the shiuli. 

The last of the Shiuli flowers this year

So enjoy the good while it lasts, like the month-long shiuli season.

Going Organic - Part 8

 

Writing an organic farming post after a long gap but today I will focus on summer vegetables that are easy to grow. And both of these can very easily be grown in containers, so are a blessing for balcony gardeners. 

The best part is that you do not require any special seeds or starters; just sourcing from your kitchen at the beginning of the season (around March-April) will ensure you have a steady produce in autumn (September-October).

Colocasia

This root vegetable (also called arbi/kochu) has giant leaves resembling elephant ears, and can be a showpiece for the garden all year round. The fresh leaves that come aplenty during the rains can also be steamed and made into a scrumptious side dish (patod/paturi/pathrodu). You can find an easy recipe here.

Colocasia or Elephant ears 

After the first season make sure to remove the produce, cut down the leaves, and replant the colocasia. They multiply easily and quickly; remember the more plants you have, the more produce you get. I had about four-five plants and got half a kilo arbi at one go.

Half the total produce

Bitter Gourd

On spotting well-formed seeds in some karela I bought from the market at the beginning of summer, I planted them on a whim just to see if they take root. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

'Karela' blooms 

Occasional rains ensured that the plants grew quickly, and by the second week of August we started getting flowers and the first batch of bitter gourd.

Five in one go!

Bitter gourd leaves have such a beautiful shape that I love incorporating them in my artwork. Of course, there are other creatures that seem to love this vegetable too! 

My garden of Eden!

So keep an eye out for infestation and spray pesticides if required. Adding NPK mix to the soil in the beginning ensures a good crop.

Happy gardening!

Frangipani Fiesta

When we moved house four-and-a-half years back, I had to leave behind a few pots due to paucity of space. The yellow frangipani was one of them. 

The old yellow frangipanis

A cutting of the same I planted on ground in our new abode did not take well to the new soil and developed fungi, spoiling soon after.

The large fungi at the base of the yellow frangipani 

To make up for the loss, the hubby planted a stem of white frangipani taken from the neighbour's garden. 

The white frangipani 

A year later I got another cutting of a red frangipani from a cousin. This year they both flowered well, thanks to the abundant rains.

The red frangipani 

In case you are wondering why I'm inclined to call the good old Champa as the frangipani, well I admit I find this name rather exotic. This plant that adds a touch of regality to the garden comes in many colours, is native to south-east Asia, and is also called the plumeria. But the best part - it is hardy and easy to transplant. 

The Many Moods Of March

 

Unseasonal rains in March brought down the unusually high temperatures of February and gave us a prolonged spring, with pleasant weather and blossoms everywhere. Here is a visual record:

Meanwhile, the story of the purple sunbirds also took an unexpected turn. 

While the female was comfortably ensconced for some days and nights, and then seemed to be feeding her newborn chicks, something seemed to have happened that scared off the sunbird couple. 

One fine morning onwards they discarded the nest, though they hovered around in the vicinity and kept an eye on it. Whenever other similar-sized birds tried to get near, the sunbirds chased them off. Yet they wouldn't return to the nest, leaving us pretty much heartbroken.

Towards the end of the month, a large peepul tree in the lane was chopped down, just a day after I photographed it. The tree canopy was full of shiny new leaves, and it was time for the rosy starlings to arrive when this happened. 

It was saddening to see how completely disastrous the timing of this exercise was. No shade in summer in an uncaring world.... unfortunately that is where we seem to be headed now.

Monsoon Diary

 

This year the monsoon has been kind to us. Keeping it cool and pleasant without drowning us out. So here's a visual diary of the season which is otherwise so welcome for the relief and renewal that it brings.

As the plants heaved a sigh of relief after battling the unbearable summer heat, one could see the garden looking visibly happy, and producing both flowers and vegetables. 

However a squall brought down the Gulmohar tree beside our house, damaging a car in the neighbourhood. And I promptly put up a piece of the lopped off trunk in the front garden. Had been meaning to add a tree trunk for a long time.... finally managed.

As the skies turned gray, the bright rain liles and portulacas provided perfect contrast by making the garden vibrant with their colours. Little pops of happiness!

Even though we diligently water our plants through summer, it is always amazing how a few drops of rain makes everything flower in such abundance. Our portulacas have been a source of joy, much like the beautiful skies above.

And flying the tricolour at our home to mark 75 years of India's independence added to our monsoon fun.

Hope the rains will remain enjoyable henceforth, and leave us with some good memories of this season.

Summer Blossoms

It is indeed nothing less than magical that despite the searing heat of our summer, some special blossoms managed to bring colour to the garden and joy to our hearts, even when everything was wilting to yellow and brown.

Our summers always begin with the bright red amaryllis. This time the last of the larkspur gave them the perfect pairing.

The globe or football lilies bloomed after three years of planting. They would keep growing new bulbs but refused to blossom. Out of sheer frustration I started using the pot for seasonals and promptly forgot about these bulbs buried under. Till a pair of these beauties showed up!

The sea daffodils share a similar story. Initially planted in a shady part of the backyard, they sprung to action about an year after being moved to a sunny area. Their exquisite shape is breathtakingly beautiful.

Now as the rains have started, we are waiting for the colourful portulaca to blossom.

 

Colours of Spring 2022

 

After one of the coldest winters on record, spring just didn't last long enough this year. Though this is a gripe I have almost every year, day temperatures warmed up so quickly this time that it felt as if we moved straight from winters to summers. 

But before we melt in the intense heat of full-blown summers, here are the best shots from the front garden.

I also changed my planting strategy this time and focussed on the hardy varieties that blossom easily without much fuss. 

Plus I created mixed pockets of colour all over the garden instead of keeping each area of a specific colour/variety. 

Decoratives and edibles blossomed side-by-side, like the poppies and brinjals.

Our newly created mosaic garden stake only added to the colours and drama.

Our red roses blossomed well, and were huge. Though we didn't get any cauliflowers, we got a profusion of gobhi-ke-phool!

In the final burst, lots of roses and some phloxes added a burst of colour. 

But they barely lasted a week since summer arrived a whole month early. And even as I write this post, Spring is already over!

Going Organic - Part 7

Pumpkins

Since pumpkin seeds are easy to source (you can use the large, well-formed seeds from market-bought pumpkins), I decided that pumpkins would be a summer staple in our kitchen garden. We had planted pumpkins last year as well but that had only yielded a few flowers back then.

We added some compost and other minerals to the soil, and replanted fresh seeds this summer. To ensure maximum chances of getting healthy plants, I used a mix of seeds from different batches. We soon got three healthy plants that grew well. But the old problem surfaced - only male flowers showed up.

A male flower and a tiny pumpkin

After the rains (that went overboard this year), all the pumpkin plants showed a growth spurt. So fast were they spreading that the hubby uprooted one plant. One died in the strong sun that followed the rains.

Now we had little hope of getting any pumpkins, but were happy with the huge produce of flowers from the single remaining plant. Every day we would diligently pluck them, even distributing some to neighbours and helpers.

Till one day, a couple of female flowers finally showed up! Then there was no looking back.... The bees arrived as if by magic, timely pollinating the female flowers. And our single plant produced four pumpkins within a month.

Pumpkin hanging with support from okra plants

The sturdy okra plants provided perfect support to the pumpkin vine, helping it reach up to the sun. We had to create a hammock for the largest hanging fruit, and keep the pumpkins covered to protect them from fruit flies. 

Pumpkins ripening on a sunny window sill

We harvested the pumpkins around Halloween, and then dried them in a window sill that received direct sunlight. The pumpkins turned out a lovely bright orange from inside, and were delicious in taste.

If you are interested in more content related to organic farming, do check out this YouTube channel for some detailed videos.

The Kitchen Corner

Last year around this time I decided to set up a workspace for myself. For that, I required the garden table to be placed in my bedroom. So I decided to shift all the green goodies on it to a new place to free up the said table. The corner outside the kitchen window was most appropriate since a fabricated structure was already in place.

I found a stone slab of approximately matching dimensions and placed it on the fabricated iron cage. Then I arranged my plants, the log of wood and the old letter box on it.... and voila! there was some more green added to the backyard.

Over a period of time, I moved around some of the things to give the place a fresh look. These small planters also substituted to add the touch of green to my bathroom.

The old letter box cleverly hides some leftover painting materials like sandpaper and brushes. And the flowers bring in the much-needed occasional bursts of colour.

Lily Season

 

April onwards is Lily season and this year, after a long gap, we had quite a bounty. The lilies usually follow a pattern, starting with the red amaryllis around the Easter weekend. But this year the pretty peach lilies daintily outdid the sturdy bright amaryllis.

Starting out first, they blossomed right through April and well on to May. The red amaryllis showed up a couple of days after Easter, and I sorely missed the white ones.

And that brings me to the yellow May lilies that also arrived early and gave a bumper crop, making up for all the missed years in between. Pity they only bloom one at a time.

Hope this lily bounty repeats itself every year. In the meanwhile, I'll have to search for the missing white amaryllis.