Gardening

I developed a passion for this hobby when I was around nine years old living in a small town which had vast stretches of sugarcane and paddy fields all around. A farmer’s son and schoolmate gave me some Okra seeds which I planted in our backyard. The plants grew nearly six feet high and yielded plenty of pods. I also planted some ash-gourd seed which spread out and yielded some gourds. We had a big curry-leaf tree and a grapefruit tree in our back yard. After a break of some years, I was able to indulge in this hobby when we grew papaya, seemebadanekaye( (chaote), bottle gourd (sorekayi), some colorful crotons, and a guava tree which yielded lot of fruit and a couple of coconut trees in our compound at Jayanagar.

Moving to USA, my interest in this fascinating hobby has found enough scope to indulge in. We have a back yard and a front yard to our house which provide a source of perpetual wonder as the weather changes. Plants disappear showing no trace of their existence during winter and suddenly sprout out in spring, grow rapidly and yield flowers in summer. Roses the size of a palm and in breathtakingly beautiful colors, asters, cherry blossoms, and some violet buds which attract swarms of bees and some hummingbirds are a pleasure to watch and admire here. A dwarf orange tree in a large ceramic container has yielded some fruit, a picture of which I have posted on Facebook recently. It is now rich with buds and may yield some fruit in due course. A dwarf lemon tree is showing signs of becoming a source of lemons in due course. Rains have receded and California weather is just now right for sowing and raising seedlings. But we are unable to go to the nurseries and browse, due to the lockdown. We have planted some seeds of bitter gourd, brinjal and fenugreek in our backyard just now. In Charlottesville, VA my eldest son (Bobby) has a few acres of Virginia farmland with tall trees and lush lawns; but he has to contend with families of deer which wander in and eat up the plants. In Pennsylvania, Shashi has a big lawn and the family grows flowers and vegetables though weather tends to be cold with snows and rains. Arizona climate with its hot spells and scanty rains does not give much scope for plant cultivation, yet the back yard of Jayaram yields a good harvest of lemons and grapefruit in Scottsdale. I treat plants as my friends and family and rejoice when they flourish. Gardening is ecologically helpful, aesthetically pleasing and as a mild form of exercise it is super superb.