Which Plant to grow first?

As I have mentioned in the starting post, almost all plants from my first round of gardening, died.

After that, I visited a local nursery to buy new plants and also inquire for any professional help for my garden. The nursery owner gave a piece of simple advise;  to grow only one plant and practically learn the rules of gardening before taking to regular planting. Accordingly I focused more  on a few plants rather than bulk planting.

As a corollary, the next question arises, which plant should I sow or grow?

There are about 391,000 species of vascular plants currently known to science, of which about 369,000 species (or 94 percent) are flowering plants, according to a report by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom.

Though I know that one cannot scan the list of all the plants, I have mentioned this information just to understand the formidability of a choice.

The actual choice can be dictated by what is readily available at a local nursery and what is easy to grow and rugged etc. Even if the list of such plants is reduces to a small number, there cannot be unanimity regarding the answer.

After considering the ticklish question, I have decided on one plant which, I believe, most Indians esp. Hindus will be pleased to accept as a best choice.

The plant which merits a first rank is humble, no awe inspiring but virtuous one and that is our Tulsi. Tulsi is called Holy basil in English. Its botanical name is ocimum sanctum or Ocimum tenuiflorum. In Malayalam it is called Trittavu. In Marathi as Tulshi or Tulas, in Tamil Tulasi, in Telugu Thulsi. There are two varieties. The plant with light colour leaves is known as  Ram Tusli or Laxmi Tulsi  and a plant having dark leaves is called Shyam or Krishna Tulsi.

Ram Tulsi

Shyam Tulsi 

I think no one will ask any justification but I like to enlist the several points in support of my choice.

1..Tulsi is planted in every house right from a palace  down to a hut. Also there is custom of doing morning and evening worship near  Tulsi plant is  grown in a specially constructed (now a days readily available decorative) pot in which there is a cutout for placing a oil wick lamp).

A leaf of Tulsi is placed in the food (Naivedya) offered to God.

2. Some people perform once a year a special ritual known as Tulsi vivah ( Wedding of goddess  Tulsi  to lord Vishnu. Tulsi plant is auspicious for that.

3. It is very familiar plant, so no chance of mistaken identity.

4. Tulsi leaves are offered to lord Vishnu. I understand that such a way of associating a plant with a deity is a ploy with a purpose. Tulsi has many health benefits  and to narrate them a separate post is intended. Due to its holy status, people  are fully aware of its look and aroma. One does not have  to be separately educated for this plant.

5. Tulsi is supposed t be an annual but it is observed that it lasts longer and also it is self seeding. Also it does not require much watering and fertilizer etc. Tulsi is insect repellent and therefore less difficult to care. I have observed that because its seeds are so small and light that they are carried by wind to other spots and Tulsi grow on its own even in the crevices on the walls and stones and concrete flooring.

6. It is highly aromatic. It cleanses the air.  I read somewhere that during British rule, the whites used to plant Tulsi to keep snakes at bay. I am not sure whether a snake smells or not. Then It may be due to Tulsi repeals Insects and due to that frogs and as a result  snakes, a sort of chain effect.  

 I believe that post like this should be kept small because it allows to sink some important points well.

I should present ‘How to grow Tulsi’  in the next post for continuity.

Curtain Raiser

Vividgardens  is a blog on Gardening. That too, more about small gardens popularly known as  Home garden, Cottage garden, Terrace garden or even balcony garden.

Before ushering in the subject of real gardening i.e plants, soil, fertilizers, and pest controls etc, I like to share my story of the hit and miss of the beginning of gardening.

I had purchased a plot of about 50x50 ft in region proudly called Harit Vasai ( green Vasai ) for making a villa house with attached garden about 20 years back.. There were 6-7 trees on the periphery and basil (tulsi) was growing on the land. The plot was a farm land and not a developed plot.  Soon the house along with a well was constructed, leaving margin on all sides. The open space for gardening etc had area of about 1000 sqft. There were no compound walls in most houses of the local and I also did not want to spend on that. However , the original owner of land advised to make a compound to avoid boundary disputes. As the house was touching the internal roads, the height on two sides was kept about 6 ft and other sides about 4 ft. The house was unoccupied for most of the time until we moved in about 3 years ago.

Sorry for this yapping about house detail, but there is a point in it, which you will appreciate in what follows.

Though I started the actual gardening only after moving in here, I was keenly reading books on plants and gardening since I made the house. So you can say that I have about 20 years exposure which includes 3 years of practical experience in gardening.

We moved in here in  the beginning of monsoon and local people believe that whatever is planted in monsoon grows easily. In the beginning, I was exuberant about gardening and hence we visited some nurseries and brought plants like lemon, guava etc and planted in soil. Our neighbor, who  are native of this place, planted some flat beans in our yard. Some other person planted a few brinjol (egg plant) plants and a curry leaves plant. Almost all plant survived for some time but none of them fruited. After some time,

in spite of all care like feeding fertilizer and watering etc, all plants except curry leaves died.

I was totally flummoxed. I had no clue of what went wrong. So I discussed the problem with locals. Someone said the land in this area is now deteriorated and another person told me that the ground water has become salty due to the inrush from the nearby sea  (about 5 Km). I consulted the uncle who lives in a distant place and who grows hundreds of guava plants in his farm. He told that he had to discard a large number of plants spoilt due to the bad environment. In short, all factors- soil, water and whether were suspected for the failure of plants.

 Monetarily, there was a small loss but from this failure, I got an experience and data for improving my next round.

Then followed, many episodes of struggle and success for growing several plants. Those stories would be posted in this blog.

Also there will be posts on soil conditioning, composting, liquid fertilizers, composting and organic pest control. Most of the material will be based on our tried out methods.

As the plan is not to churn out the pile of posts by copy –paste way, there will be fewer but case study type of posts.

I  think there will be 1-2 posts in a month and exact date of posting cannot be foreseen now. In such situation, to subscribe is an obvious way out.    

 You may like to read some of them. Bye for now!