EXPERIMENTING PHASE

 

EXPERIMENTING PHASE

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

03/VI/2022

 

Gardening has been a challenge after we reached the ‘Sun City’. We tried to make friends with the sun but this guy seems bent upon burning a hole in our friendship. Not a day passes when leaves of certain plants in the garden turn crisp, though still green. You pluck them and they turn to powder instantly.

 

These plants never saw such severe winters or summers. However, they were used to heavy rains. Here we are trying to cover them up for shade, there we would cover them from rain. Anything in excess harms them. The contrasting weather must have created a turmoil in the plant’s systems.

 

To continue with our hobby of gardening one had tried a few things in the hot and sultry climate of the coast, a little south of Alibaug. Beg, borrow, steal & buy are the basic tenants of a plant lover. Ye bhi chahiye-vo bhi chahiye. We would go crazy when we would visit a good nursery. Pick this and pick that only to add variety to the Ellis’ Garden.

 

Exclusivity was our forte. Something different, something unique, something class that no one else had where we stayed was what we focussed on. Success came by hit and trail including many failures & heartbreaks. Heartaches which still continue never deter us from giving it a try.

 

Nurseries have a controlled environment. They have specialist horticulture manpower to look after. Timely watering, manuring, hoeing, de-weeding, pest control sprays etc is done. Later one learnt that they treat plants with hormones for better plant and flower quality. This we realised, when the size of flowers in the second season would give smaller blooms.

 

One tried repotting, grafting, growing from cuttings, making bonsai of local trees etc. The fruits of success came our way. In this new place, most of nature’s parameters are quite different. It will take time for us and the plants to understand.

 

There, one could make compost in bulk. People here kept asking me ‘ye mitti kahan se laye, bahut bariya hai’. This was the statement of the colony horticulturist. Don’t throw away this mud was their suggestion. The only thing common there and here was use of ‘cow dung’ manure. Here there is no dearth of doodh-dahi & ghee. “If dairies come, could cow dung be far behind”.

 

It had been almost three months since we landed here, one had added manure to the pots. ‘Mother in love’, who is a gardening enthusiast herself, insisted that putting ‘khaad’ at this time could burn the plants. I generally listen to her but this time I didn't pay heed to her warning. I dug as deep into the pots as I could, till roots were exposed and added two to three handfuls of manure and crossed my fingers.

 

With summers catching up, pure desi manure could be a double-edged weapon. My heart said, plants needed food. You can’t just keep them alive on water. Nutrition is as important. The only thing was I controlled my enthusiasm for over stuffing plants with manure. Small amounts at regular intervals yields better results was my hunch and it worked. Today, even when ‘Sir Sun’ tries what it can do best, fresh leaves have sprouted & are far healthier. New buds are giving better results.

 

To begin with, I started with my Bonsai collection. The sturdiest plant being Peepal. Day before, we had parked our car under a massive Peepal tree before we went somewhere. Before moving home, I plucked a branch for my experiment. To avoid the summer heat, we rushed inside and I forgot that our branch was in the car. It was the next day one realised that we had to give a new lease of life to that innocent branch lying in the car.

 

My heart missed a beat. It was nice and green when plucked. It was dry, withered & drooping when I took it out. Without wasting a second, it was planted. Again, I have my fingers crossed. Even if one leaf sprouts, I will make sure it survives. My Bonsai pot is ready, it is this branch that has to fight it out. My Dad had green fingers, I hope he blesses me with the same.

 

It is true that in the desert’s ‘cacti’ are the best survivors. Though there is a saying of yore that ‘growing thorny plants in your house keeps relationships thorny too’. I don’t believe in all that stuff. What could be more appropriate than killing two birds with one stone. So, we ordered a ‘Dragon fruit’ plant online. They sent two, just in case one kicks the bucket.

 

As the rest of our pots have stabilized and started flowering, it is time to get into the next phase of experimenting. Will we be our next experiment? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS