Don’t you think “going green” has suddenly become so easy? I mean, with so many resources available and widespread awareness, it’s a lot more easier now to procure and nurture plants. I discovered Wingreens, an initiative by Anju Srivastava of Women’s Initative Network (WIN) that retails herbs and oxygenerator plants at malls.

You may already own some oxygen generating plants in your balcony garden without realizing that the greens are doing more good in cleaning up the air around you than you ever imagined.

herb

The herbs come in fancy  planters, so no initial work is needed around them, if you are short on time. Just nurture them regularly by watering and ensuring they get ample sunlight. And see your dream of having a herb garden come true.

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Before I sign off for the weekend, I wanted to share with you some inspiring ideas for decorating your garden. This month’s Better Home and Gardens has some lovely ideas for creating a relaxing nook in your garden. Don’t worry if you don’t live in a sprawling bungalow with a huge garden. With a little creativity you can create one in your balcony too.  I saw the fuchsia bench on BHG’s facebook page and fell in love with it. If you have a old cane chair, how about  painting it in this color.

Add a little drama to the setting with a water fountain or urn.

Isn’t this a perfect setting for a summer evening?

Image courtesy:

June 2011 images from Facebook page of Better Homes and Gardens and digital version.

Tending to balcony garden has been long overdue. I lost some plants this summer to pests including my favorite orange hibiscus which has flowered maniacally over the past two years. Sometimes, the white sticky pest you see on these plants come from the neighboring infected ones or there could be something wrong with the soil itself. In this case, it came from the adjacent white hibiscus.

It was a busy gardening day yesterday. Got half a dozen plants from the Jeevaa Bhima Nagar nursery. If you haven’t been in a while, it’s a good time to drop by as the nursery is well stocked with flowering plants, edible herbs and vegetables. I picked a 7-layered scented jasmine, large red hybrid hibiscus, Ixora red,  okra/ladies finger/bhindi, hilli, and tulsi. Repotted them myself so it was quite some task but loved every bit of it. Redecorating the balcony is in store over thenext few weeks. So stay tuned..meanwhile I leave you with images of the new plants..

See you Monday!

Image courtesy:

Chilli - (missyredboots)

Garlic Chives (slideshowmom)

Do we have any readers from Kolkata here? During a trip to a interior village in West Bengal, we stopped over in the city for a night. Flipping through the pages of a daily, I came across an ad for Green Mall that piqued my interest. Going over their website, I’m pleased to have discovered.

Is there someone here who buys plants and other accessories regularly from the place? I wish there was something like that in Bangalore. The place is a nursery-cum-restaurant that houses about 2,500 types of indoor and outdoor plants - a treat to any gardener. Yes, you read it right. 2,500. I’m drooling over the images and wish I had the time to drop in for a lunch and some garden shopping.

For folks like me, who don’t live in the city, I think we can benefit from the site by looking at the categorization of plants and picking ideas for house plants and plants that thrive well in semi-shade.

Image courtesy: Green Mall

With the onset of spring in US/Europe and summer in India, it’s raining posts on gardening as people get ready to get their hands dirty. That’s how I discovered absolutely beautiful things - a beautiful blog by interior designer and decorating shop (Black & Spiro)  owner Anna Spiro who lives in Brisbane, Australia. If you haven’t seen pictures of fresh produce from her herb garden, I suggest you do. You’ll be tempted to start one no matter how limited space you have.

Her greens are refreshing infectious…

Bringing greenery inside the house goes a long way in giving an immediate facelift to a room. And, I think it’s novel to keep them in the bathroom as well by the side of the window if the area is spacious. In many apartments today, plants don’t thrive well because of lack of sunlight and high humidity.

For space challenged areas, stacking pots in shelves work well. Especially for herb garden where smaller pots will do. It may not be a good idea to try this for flowering plants.

For fresh produce from the backyard, I’ll be more than willing to trade a few things.  Wouldn’t you?

What a variety..mix of colors and types. I’m overwhelmed every time I visit a nursery even if it is two times a month. The cravings never end like desserts but there’s only so much space ..

And finally, can’t wait for the Black & Spiro site to be up with fresh collection to drool over such images. Such a sucker for blue and white pottery.

Image courtesy: absolutely beautiful things

I’m happy that the cold is slowly receding giving way to pleasant weather. But that’s not what I want to share with you all today. I have some very exciting news for you : our balcony garden is thriving and the tomatoes are ready for picking. Woohoo! We - my son and I - the gardeners of the house plan to pick the first harvest of the season tomorrow.

If you recollect, I wrote about five vegetables to grow in balconies last summer. We lost tomato saplings twice in succession to some annoying rodents in the balcony. We turned lucky the third time and the plants have survived month-long vacation, weather changes among other things to grow into mature plants.

This is how the plants looked mid-January. In the first week of December, when we left for vacation, the plant was growing real fast, almost a feet and half tall. When we returned on 2nd January, I noticed two teeny-tiny green spheres and a few flowers. Was I excited? You bet. Within days, the spheres grew big into these tomatoes and one other flower transformed into a fruit. But all that magical growth stopped suddenly for three weeks. They didn’t grow bigger nor did they ripe.The leaves weren’t looking healthy any more. They turned yellow and eventually dried.

Some organic compost I did caused a imbalance I guess. So last Sunday, I added two spoons of milk so that the plant gets some calcium. And before we know, the growth was back; the tomatoes started turning red.

This is the transformation I was talking about. Look at the changes between Sunday and today. How are your tomato plants faring? Can we hear about some vegetable garden stories here?

Good Morning! I’m in great spirits now because after months of rodent issue, I can see my hibiscus flowering again. There was a time, last winter to be precise, when there was always a flower or tow in the plant to greet me every morning. And then began the rodent issue when buds would get nipped off before they could flower. I was worried of losing my most successful plant. But it’s turning for the better now.

It can be disheartening to see your plants wither away a week after you’ve got them from the nursery for lack of sunlight, inadequate water, pests or insufficient care. No matter what the reason is, it’s hard to see the plants go. And, when you’ve done it a few times, it can get discouraging.  If you have little time to spare but want to indulge your green thumb, start with these really easy four flowering plants.

All the pictures, except Euphorbia Milli, were taken in my balcony.

Jasmine or Mogra

Jasmine flowers the most during winter. The plant enjoys partial shade and moistness. It can grow into tall shrub, so make sure you plant it in a big pot.

Hibiscus

You can find various shades and hybrids of Hibiscus in your nursery. The plant thrives well when watered regularly and requires some amount of direct sunlight every day. My hibiscus flowers the most during winter through summer and then the flowers become sporadic the rest of the year. Prune your plant when the flowering is lean. It took about 4 - 6 weeks after pruning for it start budding again.

Euphorbia Milli - This thorny shrub with bright red flowers is a common sight on Bangalore’s medians and public parks. The plant thrives well with very minimal watering. You will see good foliage but it flowers only when there is direct sunlight.

Crepe Jasmine or Nandiyarvettai (in Tamil)

This is by far my favorite plant. With shiny dark green leaves, the plant bears five petals white flowers. The plant grew too large to be kept in a pot in my balcony. It flowered all through the year. This summer, I shifted to the ground below my flat. Since then, it has grown multi-fold and flowers are a treat to the eyes.

Arali - This is one plant I had little success with. I’m not too fond of the mini hybrid version with smaller flowers which can again be seen in most public parks.

What flowering plants beautify your balcony now?

Who doesn’t love a green, blooming balcony? There are hundreds of blogs that list tips and tricks to bring the picture-perfect image to your balcony. But, we all know it takes a lot more than pictures to sow and harvest herbs on a windowsill.  I’ve just spent hours sifting through scores of urban gardening blogs to find a few that are helpful to novice gardeners.

My motive was to dig out blogs by urban Indian gardeners, but I was successful in finding only two that fit my criteria - frequency of updates, pictures,  and well-documented steps and conducive conditions for growing plants.

Geek Gardener - is replete with information on container gardening and various varieties of vegetables to grow in a particular month in India.  Despite the low frequency of posts, Geek Gardener is an excellent resource for growing vegetables in a tropical climate. Every post has pictures of plants at very stage from sowing to saplings and flowering to finally, harvesting the produce. The pictures are like a step-by-step guide for a novice gardener.

Zucchini

The Urban Gardener: Sunita’s obsession with greens is evident from her blog, The Urban Gardener. The site has a good mix of vegetables and flowering plants. I’m slightly biased towards sites with pictures as this is a hobby that is visually motivating. The Urban Gardener ranks high in the “good pictures” area.

Sunset: An unusual entry for a blog list. But what we do without this site and its encouraging how-tos. If you’ve not heard of Sunset magazine before, then I swear, you’ve missed something in life. Just kidding Stop reading and hop over to the site!

Life on the Balcony: I’ve saved the best for the last. Though Fern Richardson lives in southern California, there is a lot to learn from her blog for urban gardeners in India. A blog with a professional look, good categorization, easy navigability, and above all, frequently updated, makes it a must-have in your Reader.

Veggies to grow this season

If you are keen what the rest of the world grows through the year, here are a few of my favorites:

Japanese Gardener for the enticing look of veggies.

Singapore Plants Lover for the colourful flowers and novel containers

Totally Inept Balcony Gardener for the yellow lemons, blooms and creepers

If you have been reading a gardening blog for a while now and find it useful, please leave a link in the comments section for others to benefit.

Image courtesy:

Zucchini - Geek Gardener

Veggies - Life on the Balcony

How have you all been doing? I had a fabulous, if only a busy, weekend driving to the outer parts of the city. Going away from civilization was rejuvenating in many ways. As we re-entered the Ring road, I could feel the CO2-high air dampening my spirit. On the brighter side, we came back with good memories and dozens of pictures.

The drive down the Varthur village road leading to Sarjapur village is a treat to one’s senses: a whiff of fresh air, greenery as far as the eyes can see, a variety of birds from kingfisher to wood pecker cooing around the trees, and vendors selling freshly picked Jackfruit by the roadside to appease your taste buds. And, it’s just a 15 minute drive from Marathahalli on a busy Saturday afternoon. What more can one ask for so close to a concrete jungle that Marathahalli-Brookefields-Whitefield section has become?

One thing that’s hard to miss on this stretch are the numerous nurseries of all sizes and colors dotting the narrow road leading to Sarjapur village. I stopped by a few to click pictures and picked a few more plants for my balcony.  Some of them are so big that it’s overwhelming to choose just one or two plants (isn’t small beautiful?). I know the limitations I have: in a south-east balcony with very limited sunlight, it’s tough to tend to flowering plants. But, flowering plants are my eye-candy. I just can’t get over them.  Ferns, Cacti, Palm, or Crotons don’t appeal as much as a herb, vegetable or Petunia and Glaxonia.

The picture below is of Madeena nursery. I recommend this place if you intend to buy in bulk. You will grow tired looking at the flowering plants, for it’s never ending. The Hibiscuses, in  particular, are big, bright and beautiful.  The guys are knowledgeable about the sun, shade, and semi-shade plants. There is very little room for bargaining. Most of their regular visitors are villa owners from the neighborhood. If you hear radical sentiments echoing on a radio, you’ve found the right place. I just bought a Tulsi(Basil) for Rs.15 from here.

Rows of pots till the eyes can see

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After doing a couple store/studio tours, I’m returning to my first love - gardening. Thanks to Natti, I discovered the nursery at Jeeven Bhima Nagar in Bangalore. Managed by physically challenged people, the nursery is well planned, maintained and customer-friendly. In absolutely no hurry to rush back home last Saturday morning, I indulged myself looking at the plants. Over to you all now

Flowering plants:

The nursery stocks only basic flowering plants as of now. According to the manager, they should be getting more of the Gloxinias, Star clusters, Passion flower and Petunias by this weekend.

Frangipani

Hibiscus

Roses

What I liked about the nursery:

If you are a novice gardener like me, these are questions you will relate to. Do I need to water everyday? Will this plant require too much sunlight? Will it grow well in semi-shade? Sometimes, our questions tend to irritate the nursery folks. This nursery solves that formidable selection problem for us. The nursery is segregated into three sections: full sun, semi-shade and full-shade. Every plant in each section, is further labeled with its name and price making it a lot easier to choose. If you still have any doubts, the folks are pretty helpful and knowledgeable.

Price is another talking point of the nursery. For instance, you can get an aloe vera plant for Rs.15 or a lilly for Rs. 50.

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