Notes From The Backyard - I

Mango Out, Laburnum In

It is incredible how the passage of time brings about changes - in people and in places. Sometimes the change is quick and therefore more evident, and at other times it evolves at its own pace, slowly but surely, before one suddenly realises that things have changed. The same can be seen in our backyard.

As I wrote in some of my previous posts (that you can read here and here), the lush mango tree was the centrepiece of our backyard. Once that came down, the place looked a little barren, almost lacking character. But it also made the house feel much hotter, with no green canopy providing any shade. So last monsoon we decided to plant an amaltas or yellow laburnum tree in place of the mango.

Yellow Laburnum sapling - June 2023

Though many friends suggested we plant another fruit tree, but given the propensity for termite infestation in the area, we chose a flowering tree instead. Amaltas is also appropriate for the arid climate and clayey soil of Gurugram, and hence a locally viable species.

Yellow Laburnum in April 2024

Its abundant blossoms in summer, hanging merrily in bunches of bright yellow, look so beautiful as they spread a sweet scent in the air. So our vote went to the laburnum.

Purple sunbird nest hanging from a Laburnum branch 

Now barely a year old, the tree is already housing its first nest, all thanks to the sunbird family. Augurs well for the tree and the home, I hope! 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Magical Milestone

Today we completed five years of living in our current abode. Five years that passed rather quickly, I must admit! 

Much water has flown under the bridge since we came in.... and nowhere is the growth more apparent than in the way we have settled into a routine about everything, despite the frequent changes that we seem to face here. And of course, the growth can be seen in the children - from gangly teenagers loathe to changing schools in their higher classes, they gracefully dealt with a pandemic, a few losses, and a plethora of life lessons. And have now transformed into beautiful young adults who make us both happy and proud. But I digress...

Us in 2019

Today, on the auspicious occasion of the harvest festival Baisakhi, we had moved in five years back with dreams in our eyes and excitement in our hearts. Many of those dreams materialised, while some surprises were sprung at us too. But then, such is life - a mix of sweet and sour! 

Us in 2024

As we stepped out on the front porch today to enjoy the rainy afternoon, an amazing experience unfolded. A large bunch of rosy starlings chose to present their magical dance in the sky right before our eyes. 

Watching their mystical murmuration right over our heads seemed like a divine gift to mark our milestone in this abode. And perhaps a portent of things to come... But we all were so absorbed in watching the spectacle unfold that we didn't realise the camera wasn't recording. Such divine experiences are meant to be remembered only by the mind's eye!

Another Kitchen Makeover

If you look back through this blog, I had shared a kitchen-related post way back in November 2020. Much has changed around the kitchen since then as it seems to be the one place in the house that requires constant work.

Kitchen in 2019

To start with, the house next door got sold a little over a year back. The new owners wanted to carry out renovations as per their taste. Since one of the kitchen walls is shared, their over-the-top tile work had immediate repercussions in ours. The dampness caused one wall to peel through the year, barely six months after I had a patchwork paint job done for the peeling in 2022.

Meanwhile the adjoining wall with a wooden cabinet fared worse. It suffered an acute termite infestation and the cabinet had to be discarded, leaving behind a marked wall.

Missing cabinet - 2023

We had to rearrange all the crockery and stocks that were in the discarded cabinet. We also got a made-to-order iron rack in the kitchen that could hold the essentials like flour and rice.

Kitchen in 2024

Earlier this month when a neighbour was getting a house-painting job done, we got our kitchen a fresh coat too. The slab is still crowded but at least everything looks spring-cleaned.

My learning from these repeated episodes of kitchen renovation: the modular style just does not work here for the long term. Local workmen fool residents into believing that the newest materials are superior and will make a difference but the reality is far from that. In a place prone to general dampness, termite attacks, and even flooding, the only viable option is a metal and stone kitchen. The kitchen in my parents' DDA apartment fared much better, lasting well over 35+ years!

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!

Of Happy Endings...

 

This post is surely about happy endings. And perhaps, new beginnings... After all, endings and beginnings do go hand in hand.

But let me start at the very beginning. In mid-February, a pair of purple sunbirds built their nest on a hanging hen chime in our patio. While we watched in anticipation, the obvious never happened. For sometime in March, amidst a spate of untimely thunderstorms, the sunbirds disappeared and wouldn't return to the nest. I'm assuming (from whatever little footage we could see via our CCTV) that a bigger nocturnal bird attacked their nest.

Then again in May the purple sunbirds came back. After diligently repairing the nest, the pair started raising a brood. And this time three little chicks magically appeared one day in June.

Within a couple of weeks, with the parent birds' due care and nurturing, the triplets grew quickly. From pink blobs of flesh with eyes closed, they turned into beautiful little chicks with soft yet strong wings, yellow beaks, and the most shiny black eyes.

The nest suddenly became full of activities - the parent birds' coming and going multiple times as they brought food and groomed their babies, the chicks scrambling over each other in their eagerness to get ahead, and plenty of cheeps as the siblings moved around, perhaps flapping their new-found wings.

And before we realised, on the last morning of June, all three of them flew out, one after another. We could catch only one of them in flight, on camera.

It was the happiest and most heartwarming sight to watch the sunbird chicks take wing. With their pretty plumage all bright, the chicks flew away to new beginnings.

We marvelled at the intricacies of nature, and at how clean these tiny birds had left the nest. As we became empty nesters, albeit with our hearts full! ❤️❤️❤️

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.

Front Garden - Progress In Pictures

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. Here's a glimpse of how the front garden has changed and shaped up over the past 3 years.

2019

2020

2021

I'm not complaining; the bushes and leafy greens have moved to the edge of the fence, leaving the front clear for shorter shrubs and flowers. Just the way we wanted!