SUMMER GARDENING CHALLENGES
LT COL NOEL ELLIS
26/VIII/2023
Summer months have been too taxing both for the plants and the Gardner. Plants keep asking for more water and Gardner cannot trop shedding water through sweat. The only saving grace in the desert is, it is cool in the morning and late in the evening. It is late August and the heat is still on.
This year in spring we trimmed the trees around our house in a manner that they gave adequate shade during the hottest hours of the day and left gaps for sunlight to pass intermittently.
Every evening one checked if any plant had wilted. Many leaves got ‘sun burnt’ and turned crisp even while they were green. What a torture! Plants have to live to face it squarely. Green nets are an alternative but we try to keep things as natural as natural can be.
To give the plants relief, I purchased a ‘nozzle’ which also works as a mistifier and can be attached to the hose pipe. An illusion of rain keeps the plants happy. Dust which settles down on the leaves due to winds and vehicles gets washed down, giving them a clean surface to breathe. Plus, the Taylor birds and Sunbirds sip and ruffle their feathers in those droplets which get accumulated on the leaves.
It is a pity to watch the flowers getting ‘toasted’ while in full bloom. Can’t help it. By evening they get discoloured. Plants are going through a second summer and hopefully will adjust.
Rainy season will be time to feed them manure, as what follows in the next flowering season. The roots get scorched if manure is fed early as it releases heat and the plant goes to a ‘point of no return’. It becomes difficult to save it thereafter.
A little after spring is the time to extract ‘rain lilies’ from their pots and store them in a dry place. Their bulbs are like small onions. Over the season, they have absorbed the required nutrients and matured. First pre-monsoon shower and they shall be back in their pots.
The dilemma we face is the colour of lilies. They tend to get mixed up. Either, we let the bulbs be as they were to enjoy a bouquet of colours or we keep them separately, which takes a lot of effort. We follow the former method.
The other way is to catalogue each pot. However, once they start flowering, flowers look so mesmerising that one tends to forget which pot has what colour. No point playing ‘tippy-tippy top’.
Same is the case with the Hibiscus collection. One has tried to put a mark on them but once they go out of season, all plants look alike. With experience, one can make out with the shape and texture of the leaves what colour a particular plant would be but one gets mixed up.
These days suppliers mark plants while dispatching, which eases identification. The fresh hybrid collection are now attaining maturity and have very fancy names. It would be a learning for all to know that ‘Gudhal’ as we know it, has fancy names like Tiffany Stone, Rain Drop, Night fire etc.
I just can’t remember names of plants. The name remains on the tip of the tongue but refuses to be uttered. It becomes embarrassing sometimes, but then one hides behind the veil of being a retired person and laugh it off.
We do not plan to add any new plants in this hot and dry weather as caring for the existing becomes a daunting task. What will be in store for us next flowering season? I wonder!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© ® NOEL ELLIS
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