LT COL NOEL ELLIS
07/III/2025
A garden can spring surprises at any time. The seeds which never germinated after you planted them can crop up unexpectedly. Thinking that the seeds/bulbs must have died, one tends to use that soil for other pots. Delayed sprouting happens at times.
Weeds are very common. Regular hoeing keeps them under check. Uprooting them from time to time helps. Where did they come from? Methods of their propagation are umpteen. It is for you to decide what to do with them.
A few months back I found a very unique simultaneous phenomenon in all hibiscus pots. New life was emerging from the soil. Leaves were light green and shiny, a little different from common weeds. It was intriguing because one had never seen such a thing before. Could they be some flower seeds? It was time to investigate.
The mystery got resolved when I plucked one out of the hundreds that had sprouted and tasted it. When the taste hit my tongue, it seemed familiar and had a pungent aroma. To confirm, I plucked another one, rubbed it in between my fingers and smelt it. They were Mustard plant sprouts.
A week back, I had ‘fed’ the hibiscus pots with mustard seed cake powder. It helps the leaves grow big and shiny and strengthens the plant. Flowers develop well and buds do not fall off. I do not make the liquid fertilizer as it gets a little messy. Just a deep hole near the stem, and a table spoon full of mustard cake powder is shoved in.
Nature’s forces automatically start acting on the cake and turn it into a natural slow release fertilizer. There are no side effects, even if you add a large quantity. Plants love it.
Then there was another mystery to solve. Just after the rainy season, there were grass like sprouts in pots, in one corner of our garden. Grass is like a pest. It eats away manure for the plants. They were removed, but what were they?
We did not need Mr Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery. The resultant was the spill over from the bird feeder hanging in that corner. Those seeds landed up in pots courtesy the birds.
Some birds enter the feeder and enjoy eating bajra, jowar and maize seeds kept for them. One bird has to panic and all of them take off together. In the process of flapping their wings to take off fast, seeds get dislodged and spill over the brim of the feeder, which is a shallow pot.
When it is time to germinate, they grow on their own. Fresh sprouts were visible in the pots under the feeder only. Sometimes, birds carry grains and sit on a branch and try to crack the seed. Some slip off, fall in the pot and grow. Matter solved.
This morning, my wife and I saw new sprouts of a different kind. They were not like grass but had broader leaves. A little scratch on the grey matter gave it all away. They were ‘maize sprouts’. How did they land up in pots? Compared to the other seeds, these are much heavier and are eaten last by the birds. That too when they do not find any other grains left to eat. Like in a Majboori kinds.
As I sat on the veranda to watch, sparrows didn’t touch them. It was the doves who were the culprits. They do not like maize seeds in the feeder. They pick them up, come and sit at the ledge of the pot with the kernel in their beaks and with a jerk of their head toss it away. Seeds land in the pots and germinate. Eureka!
There was another mystery weed which commonly grows in gardens. There are two kinds found in our garden. One with large leaves and the other one with tiny leaves in sets of four. These weeds are difficult to control as their roots dig deep in the soil. The smaller ones throw up yellow flowers. These leaves are edible and sour in taste. I will vouch for that. Some say they bring good luck. Some say they are medicinal.
The bigger variety has lavender coloured flowers. I tasted the leaves and they too were sour and tasty. Both of them are growing in our Banyan bonsai pot. I just let them be.
Reasons for leaving them were. Firstly, they add to the greenery and I liked the cluster of flowers. They also act as mulch, by screening harmful sun rays. The weed thus helps to retain water and keeps the pot aerated.
Gardening is fun. Imagine, new sprouts can mysteriously appear out of the blue. Have you guys come across such plants which you didn’t plant? I wonder!!!!!
JAI HIND
©® NOEL ELLIS
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