It’s going to be that time of the year again soon.  As the lakes and ponds around you start filling up, they’ll take on the myriad hues ofIndia’s most cherished bloomers: the majestic Lotus and the serene Water-lily.  Yet strangely, the one in your little urn remains as glum as ever.  You fuss over it, talk to it, curse at it – and still, not one bloom!  Ready to give up?  Ah, don’t.  Try these tips out, and I’m sure it’ll finally give you some long-awaited joy this season!

Lotuses and Water-lilies are happiest on the mucky beds of natural water bodies, and need a lot of coaxing to bloom outside their natural surroundings.  Water-lilies, however, are a bit more cooperative than Lotuses.  You can grow them in disused bathtubs, wide urulis, large cement pots or even terra-cotta urns.  Just make sure your container is watertight, at least a foot deep and at least 2 feet wide at the surface.

Have you chosen a shaded, cozy little nook to place your container in?  Charming, but sorry, wrong choice!  Water-lilies, like many native Indian flowering plants, need 4-6 hours of direct sunshine every day!  The ideal place for a Water-lily pond is out in the open, or in the middle of your terrace, where it can soak up as much sun as it needs. If you live in a hotter climate, you could try blocking out the harsher afternoon sun, but don’t go overboard with that.  These are hardy native plants that survive the heat a lot better than the cold.

You can plant your water lily in pond or potter’s clay, directly into your water container, or in a smaller immersible pot. Make sure there are at least 6 inches of water above the rim of the pot though.  If you notice that your mother-plant is producing offspring from its roots, you might want to use one of the baby plants instead, as it’s likely to bloom better.  Retain the mother plant in another water tank though.  You’ll get plenty of babies that you can propagate!

Fertilizing a water plant can be tricky.  Wrap a fistful of bone meal (or washed and crushed eggshells) wrapped in a plastic bag.  Puncture holes into the bag and weight it down with a stone at the bottom of the tank, to keep it from floating up to the surface.

Lastly, you need to keep your tank pest-free.  Introduce native fish species like Gambusia into your container, to keep the water clean and mosquito larvae-free.

Don’t stress if your water lily sheds all its leaves and plays dead the moment you plant it.  Just leave it submerged for a week or two, and you’ll see new leaves gradually emerging.  In climates with distinct cold seasons, water lilies often go into hibernation and don’t show any signs of life until the weather begins to warm up.  Relax, they’re just following their seasonal cycle.  Keep your plant submerged, make sure it gets plenty of light, and it’ll be back in action in the summer, providing you another season of brilliant blooms to enjoy!

Isn’t it amazing how a single tomato from your own garden tastes a hundred times better than one from the market? Well, the reason for that is not entirely psychological. Your produce is fresh, it’s local, and it’s probably organic as well. And by growing and harvesting that one tomato locally, you’ve in fact reduced your own carbon footprint and helped save the environment!

Growing and consuming local produce is one of the most sustainable, ecologically sound agricultural practices today. You don’t need a lot of space, or even a lot of help to get a small veggie patch of yours going. All you really need is a little know how, some innovation and a lot of patience!

Any area that receives sunlight for about 5 hours a day is good to start with. If this area is a 2ft x 4ft patch on your terrace, well, let’s work with that then!

Start simple. Spinach, tomatoes, beans, gourds and herbs are among the easier veggies to grow, and it’s a great idea to start off with them. Try to source open-pollinated heirloom varieties of seeds that haven’t been genetically modified.

Once you’ve identified the types of veggies you want to grow, your next step is to prepare the medium for them to grow in. If you don’t have ground space, get yourself some containers that will fit into the space that you have. Pots, recycled crates or even empty paint cans make good containers for vegetables. Make sure the container is at least 8-10 inches high, and drill holes in the bottom to allow for drainage.

The right sort of planting medium is a much debated topic, though it is generally agreed that a rich potting mix of 3 parts red earth to one part each of sand and compost usually works well with most plants. Cocopeat is a lightweight potting medium, made of desiccated coconut fibre. It is light-weight, porous and water-retentive though poor in nutritive value. Cocopeat can sometimes be substituted for red earth, but a higher proportion of compost needs to be used in the planting mix.

Square foot gardening is an ingenious small-space cultivation method that is achieving increasing popularity in India as well as in the west. The available area (usually a rectangular planter box) is divided into areas of one square foot each, and each square is used to cultivate a scientifically determined number of plants of a particular variety. This style of gardening is particularly suited to rooftops and sunlit balconies, and maximizes crop yield in the minimum amount of space. Look it up and go Square Foot today!

A word of advice for novice veggie gardeners though: Don’t be over-ambitious. Start small and build your garden up over time, to a size that you are comfortable maintaining. Most importantly, be patient! Plants do not grow overnight. Lastly, don’t give up! Plants can often be flaky, and you’ll soon intuitively learn how to handle their eccentricities. You don’t need to be gifted in order to possess a green thumb, you can develop one just as easily with a little practice and a lot of patience!

Before the makeover!

After!

We’ve used recycled wood crates, a lightweight, water-retentive coco-compost based soil mix and a completely organic set of pest repellents and fertilizers.

Team MSB wrapped up a large house garden last week and here are the pics!
A lawn with interesting mounds, lots of Anthuriums to go with the large tree-lined lawn area, colorful Impatiens, Marigold and Chrysanthemums! And, we have a lovely and cheerful garden at the end of the makeover!

Well, just to get you started, here’s a list of some of Bangalore’s prettiest avenue trees that flower obligingly almost all through the year.

Clockwise from top left: Rain Tree, Rusty Shield Bearer, Champaka,Honge, Queen's Flower,Bauhinia, Frangipani, Peacock Tree

The Rain tree(Enterolobium saman) :Found everywhere in Bangalore, this enormous tree spreads a huge canopy over the streets and gardens it grows in. I’ve always imagined Enid Blyton’s Magic faraway Tree to be a cross between a giant Rain Tree and a towering Raspuri Mango. All year round, especially in June, it produces a gossamer web of delicate pink feathery flowers that slowly turn to giant seed pods that fall and melt into bumps on the roads. At night, the leaves fold into themselves, as the tree, along with all its resident bats, crows, mynahs, bulbuls and crickets, goes to sleep.

The most enormous Rain Trees in Bangalore certainly have to be the three giants at the Malleshwaram station, not to forget the goliath in front of the State Bank of India on St Marks Road.

The Rusty Shield Bearer (Or the Copper Pod Tree) (Peltophorum): Also ubiquitous to Bangalore’s streets, this big broad sturdy tree carpets roads and gardens with pretty yellow blossoms thrice a year. The flower stalks then produce rusty brown shield like pods that give this beauty its name. Caution: Ants – the big fat nasty ones, LOVE this tree, I couldn’t ever figure out why!

The Peacock Tree (Caesalpinea pulcherrimma): This tough spiny shrub-tree produces bunches of beautiful yellow-orange flowers all through the year. It is especially fond of arid regions in North Karnataka and Andhra, but blooms with obliging regularity in Bangytown too. Right now, the small bunch of Caesalpinea bushe peeping out at the passing traffic on Chinnaswamy stadium road, is in full bloom.

Champaka (or Sampige) (Michelia champaca): Did you know that the Indian Champaka is actually a magnolia? This tall beautiful mast like tree produces headily fragrant blooms through the year but mostly in the monsoon. A gorgeous lungful for all that pass by under it. Sampige road, named after the Champa trees planted along its side, especially in the 17th cross area, is the best place to view them.

Frangipani (Plumeria): Definitely up there among Bangalore’s beauteous bloomers . Blooms in a fragrant riot of colours all year round. This tree isn’t from India, and is often confused with the Indian Champaka above, especially in the north. A huge copse of blood red Frangipani is in full bloom right now at the Nehru planetarium, as you drive past the Raj Bhavan towards Chalukya Hotel.

Honge (Pongamia): This stocky, unprepossessing tree-shrub is notorious for causing major skids on the roads with its carpet of oily lilac flowers. Interestingly, it has been proven to be India’s most cooling tree, and is therefore ideal for hot or dusty places.

Queen’s Flower (Lagerstroemia): A beautiful specimen of this Western Ghat species sycophantically named named after Rani Vickie by it’s discoverer, is quite coincidentally in dramatic bloom in front of her statue at the beginning of MG Road.

Bauhinia (err.. Bauhinia) :This is an odd little tree that looks like a creeper that has coiled up around itself.It produces wispy pink and lilac flowers all year around. But its most beautiful features are its lovely heart shaped leaves. If I were Shakuntala, I’d write out my love note to Dushyanta on a Bauhinia leaf.

Neginhal was one of few horticulturists who actually had a vision for the tree cover of Bangalore. He managed to ensure that at least one species was in bloom at any point of the year. Flowering trees unfortunately aren’t very hardy, which is why you shouldn’t park under them in the monsoon. But for the rest of the year, aren’t you glad they are around?

Here are some spots with breathtaking views of some of my favourite trees in Bangalore:

Clockwise from top left:Pink Ipe, Golden Trumpet tree, Jacaranda, White Ipe, Burmese Cassia, Gul-Mohur, Indian Laburnum, African Tulip tree, Cork Tree

Pink Ipe (Tabebuia impetiginosa) (Dec- Jan) – Pink, pink pink. Uff, what a! For me, they are synonymous with Christmas in Bangalore. The best collection of these beauties is in the Cubbon Park looking towards the Vidhana Sauda from the Central Library.

Golden Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia chrysotricha) (Feb) – Riotously yellow, they are a traffic hazard in February because of their breathtaking beauty. One of the best pure stands of this Argentinian wonder is at the Cauvery Circle in Guttahalli.

Jacaranda (Feb-Mar): Delicately beautiful, this tree carpets roads and yards all over town with fragile purple flowers. One of the most ethereal sights to see every march or so. Cubbon Park as usual has a prize collection, apart from houses all around town.

White Ipe (Tabebuia roseo-alba) (Mar): Lovely pinky-cream flowers, though not as riotously abundant as its other cousins. Edward V’s statue on the Chinnaswamy stadium road has a lovely specimen.

Burmese Cassia (Cassia renigera)(Mar-Apr): delicately pink and loverly loverly, this summer bloomer is best viewed at Edward V’s statue in Cubbon Park. Lucky dude got all the nice trees.

Gul Mohur (Delonix regia)(May-Jun): Synonymous with summer and mommie dearest’s birthday, this is definitely one of my favourites. Happy happy memories of my brother and I atop my grandmother’s huge Gulmohur, making fake nails with the calyxes of the flowers, and having sword fights with the huge flat seed pods. Best viewed at IISc, Bangalore.

The Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula)(Jul-Aug): A madly yellow tree, has coin shaped sprays cascading down from short delicate branches. A sight for sore eyes. Sore eyes after this sight too! Not as frequently found in Bangalore as in Kerala, but there are a couple of beautiful specimens in lalbagh and Cubbon park

African Tulip Tree (Or pride of India) (Spathodea campanulata) (Aug-Sep): Gorgeous fat red blooms nestled in a sea of dark green. A bird paradise, and a wonderful sight at Dasara

The Cork Tree (Oct-Nov) (Millingtonia hortensis) : A tall, tall tree where kites and vultures roost, that casts a fragrant carpet of white tube-shaped flowers on the ground. Best viewed on Sankey road near palace cross.

Car maker Tata Motors announced the world’s first air-powered car last year for India, and now it’s going to be delivering a version to the U.S. starting in 2009 or early 2010. The company’s Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) division says the $17,800 car will deliver jaw-dropping specs, such as a 1000-mile range on each fill-up of compressed air, a top speed of 96mph, and 100mpg on the gas or biofuel it takes to heat up that compressed air.

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From youtube – on how it works:
LowerCO2-
The board respects celestial mechanics (Kepler Rocks!). It’s perpendicular to the equator, with an unobstructed exposure to the west. The “waves” start at about 12:00 when the sun crosses the threshold above the board. The challenge was not the sun’s azimuth, but altitude, which due to the Earth’s tilt requires the scalloped awning’s shape to be distorted so the shadow appears correct. Thanks to CBS Outdoor…