My Gardening Story - 2

Time was ripe in 1998 to move out into the large house built between 1910-12 by my great grandfather at Lakshmipuram.  The tenant that lived for 47 years had not utilized the yard space around it to its best.   My exposure to shrubs and trees and the joyful experience of having soiled the hands and feet with earth at Chamarajapuram was to keep me in good stead for more work to do and with more freedom now.  Like this:

Sweeping huge leaves of Almond Tree that sheds them twice a year.

Computers were soon to change the way  almost everything functioned.  The digital era was blossoming.  It was July 2001.  Internet connectivity to my work place had just arrived and even within my reach. E-mails were already familiar and film cameras were giving way to digital cameras.

It so happened that around the same time I had an urge to list down plants and trees that grew in the yard, just to count the number.  I knew not whatsoever their real names were.  My exposure to Botany in 12th class was way inadequate.

My zeal to know the botanical names of plants around left me wondering where to search and how to go about?  Aid came in the form of the Head of the Gardening Section in my workplace, Mr.Yadava Rao. He recommended "Complete Gardening in India", a book considered as a Bible to gardeners and authored by the renown K.S.Gopalswami Iyengar.  Since he  referred this huge book often, he had 'permanently borrowed' from our office library.  Mr.Rao was kind enough to lend it whenever I required. That was the starting point in the identification process because I could actually find 'my plants' in it.  

I could now put names to my plants. My listing.

That was not enough.   I also turned to the web and 'googled' to find clues in databases of various sites.  I learnt so much more in this process.  

In my e-searches, a particular website was showing up often.  It was DAVE'S GARDEN - DG in short.

Familiar header I see everyday!  See the slogan.

Plant database was not the only thing.  I discovered that discussions about them also went on. And much more.  I was drawn to the discussion fora, like a bee to a flower.  I signed up instantly. It did not take long to realize that I was amongst a most helpful, knowledgeable and magnificent group of people.... that also gardened!  Dave Whitinger was the man behind this and I was #2747th member to sign up.   Instinctively I chose my screen name, the same what people call me.

Dave had not dreamt, that eleven years on, that the number of members would be an astronomical figure.  DG is now a world-wide phenomenon among gardeners.  He had only intended as his own garden journal and plants database.  This DG was a wonderful thing, in toto.

  

With no computer at home, I was 'cyberslacking'.  DG  had soon become addictive to the extent of having even dreamt of Dave once!. I called it 'Dave-dreaming'. Dave responded when I informed about it saying he was honoured!

I had now started to improvise on my own 'plant diary' with little diagrams.

DG's popularity had shot up vertically and there came a stage when Dave had to ask for subscriptions.  I am profoundly grateful to the "Garden Angels" which has since kept me on gift subscriptions with such generosity that can be called 'human'. I am stuck to DG like chewing gum!  I have learnt many aspects and even types of gardening, leave alone the names of plants and trees, but of insects, weather, temperature zones and a host of other things as well, almost from nought, just by involving and interacting in some discussion fora.

Seed trading was another beautiful activity on DG.  Gardeners love to spread the seeds far and wide and love to see a green world.  My first seed trade was with the young Evert Nylund of Finland. He was a very talented boy, just 14 and knew about plants like a veteran!  It is a great thrill to see seeds from other parts of the world growing here.  Some thrived and many failed to germinate which disappointed me. But I learnt my lessons in asking for seeds. I realized I was over enthusiastic.  I put brakes to my 'want list'.

Because of DG, my shelf got filled with containers having seeds from my own garden and trade packets! I started collecting them for giving away.  My Clitoria double blue was a great hit.

I used to meet an old Anglo Indian lady by name Mrs. Brown. She was fond of plants. No sooner than her old BiL died, she suddenly left the house to live with his son. This happened in 1988 and I did not get to know about her again. I've a blogpost on "Browns" [click to go there].  I cherish a couple of plants she gave me in 1985. A Geranium also lived for many years.  I show two of them from her garden, still in my garden.

Football lily

Viola odorata - a small plant.

DG helped me discover that gardening is one of the holiest and sacredest of hobbies. Every minute you spend, digging, sowing, transplanting, cleaning, nurturing, pruning, watering, composting or just sitting amidst the plants, observing the colour and greenery can be a divine experience.  You will have colourful and curious insects to observe, pests to bother and lovely birds and butterflies to entertain too. I'll tell more about the bird bath in a separate post and what a joy it is to see the birds play in water!

I created this board from an old wooden plank.  I would not have done if I had not seen the fora at DG.  New ideas propped up.  What was possible was thrown light upon.  DG gave rise to another DG, half way round the earth. See:

 I have also blogged about it in my 'junk blog'. [click]

This quote by Sir George Bernard Shaw impressed me. I painted it for display in 'my garden'.  I have found out that digging [for/in] the garden is divine!

Two of my favourite tools that help me 'seek God' in my garden!

 It was a more or less bare front yard when we moved.  It was like this in the following picture of 1999.  See the wide foot path outside and a Mysore Tonga happily passing by. Sparse traffic, road not yet widened. 

I started in my own layout plan to grow plants. Note the median in the road now.  Most of the foot path was also eaten by the road 4 years later.

My 'greening' efforts was soon successful.  A pond came in there later.  There will be a separate post on ponding.

DG was to become the launchpad for my interest in Photography also.

Continued in Part 3 of 3 .....[Click].

My Gardening Story - 1

I lived in our old house for my first 40 years in Chamarajapuram, an old locality.  I will begin with this place and then take you to "My Eden", at the now century old ancestral house in neighbouring Lakshmipuram where I later shifted.  The story will be a 3-part serial. 

.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.

Our house had open spaces on all four sides having trees of mango, rose apple, jackfruit, coconut [six old and tall ones], pomegranate, bitter lime, guava, hibiscuses, Champaka, Parijata, yellow rose, flowering shrubs like Barleria, Taberneamontana, Oleander, rain lilies, some varieties of Jasmine, etc. 

Let me show a few pictures I captured before we vacated the house in 2008.

 Jackfruit tree which I climbed only once or twice.

 Rose Apple Tree which I used to climb.

Mango Tree I did not venture to climb since a branch was reachable from the asbestos roof.

As a very young kid, I used to watch my grandmother water the plants. The old rubber hose pipe had to be connected to the nearest tap which was in the latrine on the opposite side of the large house, through the window.  The pipe could reach only up to the first few plants.  The gradual slope in the yard took the water to the bases of all the plants further down along the groovy path made in the soil. I used to enjoy the water stream along, often clearing blockages caused by little twigs and dry leaves. Later, I floated my paper boats in this narrow stream and had great fun.

Water gushed out of taps with high pressure necessitating securing the hose to the tap tightly with a thread.  Even that got pushed away at times and we had to run in to fix it again!  Those were great days in the 1960s when stoppage of municipal water during daytime was unimaginable news.  It was as good as 24x7.  Storage tanks or big containers were neither needed nor even existed.  There used to be a loud 'whooosh' when it was released at about 4 every morning, which also alerted us that someone had failed to close back the tap at night when it used to be stopped for a few hours.

Water was definitely sweeter.  So my grandfather always said 'sihineeru', meaning 'sweet water'. Water was directly potable from the tap itself. There were no water filters either.

Fifty years on, this tool, the little hand-rake remains a favourite, despite a missing 'finger'.

Neither pests nor weeds bothered much in the garden.  The hairy caterpillars were a nuisance only during the rainy season. Ants also did not pose a big problem.  We had seemingly perpetual monkey menace in our locality.  If you just thought 'today the monkeys were not here..', presto, they would appear!  They left a small share of jackfruit, rose apple, pomegranate and guava for us.  But they made us tense when they went up the tall coconut trees for having their drink.  They sometimes would leave the empty nut on a frond and climb down.  We were afraid if the wind made the nut fall on the neighbour's tiled roof on which two trees overhung!   Watching their antics through the kitchen window was great fun.  My favourites were the youngsters. They broke branches and sometimes entered the house also in search of food. They also damaged young plants by running over, much to our chagrin.

A distant relative of our visitors, taken near Pashchimavahini, Srirangapatna

The southern yard was somewhat wild.  Sometimes, the castor plant would grow as a volunteer.  Growing castor by will was taboo.  Volunteer plants were accepted!  In summer, I used to watch from the room window the seed pods explode every now and then.  I used to sit for study beside it for its clear view of the neighbour's yard which was our little playground!  There is an Aegle marmelos tree in their otherwise bald yard where I enjoyed watching the squirrels chasing each other or mynahs making their many calls or hoopoes looking for insects.

[Pic from Wiki]

Hoopoe, with its long beak and peculiar head feather was amusing to watch!  They have become rare now.  I was also fond of watching the sparrows which happily nested in crevices inside our house.  They would often noisily chirp around looking for food which they got abundantly in the form of seeds and grains. Cawing of crows early in the morning indicated dawn hour.

Only those that are inclined to Gardening and Nature develop such an interest to enjoy. I was to know later that gardening was in me!

Green thumb:

It was my mother who had recognized that I had a 'green thumb'.  When something needed to be planted or transplanted, she would often refer me for such jobs.  She would say in simple terms: 'give it to him, let him plant, it grows nicely.'  I could only correlate  this when I heard the phrase 'green thumb' long later when I joined a gardening website of which you will know in the next part.

My earliest sowing:

The first flower seed I sowed was Cosmos which someone in the neighbourhood gave.  I think it was my friend Rajendra who lived in the opposite house.  It was in the small space behind the white structure [Tulasi katte - Holy Basil for worship] seen in the following picture.  This is the front right yard.  Also in the backyard, I remember sowing seeds of bean, observing their growth and also eating the bean. It was exiting to match what I studied in class.

[Seen here are brother and his friend, 1969 picture, just to show the area]

This is a picture of the same place.  Notice the same Tulasi Katte.on the left.  A room came up in 1975.  The small area where you see plants is where I actually started to grow plants and felt like a 'gardener'.  This was in the early 80s.  Since I had left the place earlier in to my new abode, this piece of garden is seen unattended. 

A little introduction to gardening was already in our text book of 4th class, but I had completely forgotten. When an old classmate visited me more than 40 years later, I was so happy to be fingering through those chapters again!  Look here!

There was a line of plants of Peacock flower along the compound of our school.  We primary school children believed if a bud spike of this was kept in our books for some days it would produce kitten! 

For my 12th class Botany, I had made a nice collection of plant specimens mounted in a book.  This was in great demand among my classmates. Someone borrowed it during our exam time but never returned.

I knew that gardening was in me.  It blossomed when I was old enough to start digging the earth.  It took colours much later when the internet arrived!

I could not have thought or done what I did esp. in the garden because of the good fortune of having some greenery around the house, which was the result of my forefathers' hard earned savings.

The great satisfaction of making the garden in our Chamarajapuram house green was with me.  I moved over to my now 100-years old ancestral house in 1998 that had become vacant from tenancy.  It was another large area to maintain!  So, let's go over to a more eventful Part 2 and see what I did to the yard space at Lakshmipuram.

Go over to Part -2. [Click]

Rare Visit of a Gardener from USA

On "Dave's Garden" [DG] website, I used to share pictures from my garden, my city of Mysore and many other things on a few forums. One day, to my utter delight and surprise, I found an internal mail [D-Mail as they call] there from a member whose screen name was 'ineedacupoftea' [from Colorado].  I had noticed this name in a few discussion forums mostly about plant information.  I saw on the homepage that the person also had contributed a lot to the plant database on DG and obviously a 'plantaholic'.  I have copy/pasted the D-Mail which was sent from Goa:

Dinu;

Namaskar!

We've not communicated much ourselves (just once about an orchid: Spathoglottis) but I have long seen your posts in DG and enjoyed your joyful sharing of plant talk.

I'm in India for a month. I flew into Mumbai, and am presently in Anjuna, Goa. My flight leaves Bengaluru Jan 15th or so. Would there be any chance we could meet for tea? I'd like to meet the famous Dinu.

I have not looked at plants and gardens as much as I'd like- I've mostly been growig accustomed to India in general or sight-seeing. Would you be able to also point me to places of horticultural interest? I am a plant collector, and all the fun things I see outside of train windows makes me crazy that I cannot go inspect them! Like this big red morning glory in Kohlapur...

I have no solid plans but am thinking about Mangalore, Coorg, Mysore, and of course, Bengalore.

Anyhow, do mail back if you have a chance. If you use regular E-mail more often (which I am doing here), mine is 'ineedacupoftea@...'  

Sincerely,

ineedacupoftea

Kenton J. Seth of Colorado US.

So it was Mister Kenton. I could not let go of a chance to meet a fellow-gardener from the other side of the Earth. We exchanged E-Mails now.  He kept me posted about his whereabouts and when the trip to Mysore closed in, I gave my phone number to enable him to call me from where he stayed. He did.  It was on Sankranti Day [Pongal, 2010] and a holiday for work.  So I went to pick him up from the hotel on Dhanvantri Road at the agreed time.  We had not seen each other even in photos.  He had told me his Room No. when he called.  At the hotel's reception lounge, before I asked the man at the counter, I saw a lean chap curiously looking at visitors.  His very look was enough to show that he was Kenton!  Looking at him I inquired "Kenton?".  "Dinu?", he responded. A formal handshake, and we were off on my scooter.  He had been waiting for me, ready.

Since it was a festival holiday that morning, traffic was sparse. I wanted to show him a few places in the city as we went along to our house.  I took him to my workplace since it was in a palatial building.

Then on the way, I took him to Kukkarahalli Lake, one of the few remaining water bodies of Mysore where he took my picture after I took his.

I thought he would like the lake since he lived in a dry place in Colorado. Instead, he went after some wild grass that grew on the slopes of the lake bund, with great curiosity.  He collected some seeds of it saying that he wants to spread the garden elsewhere!  He said he had not seen such a grass variety, but identified the other variety and told its family name.  So knowledgeable he was about plants.  We sat there for a while and continued the ride. I showed him the old Maharaja's College, the Crowford Hall, etc. as we headed home. When we were near the District Offices, some climbing plant caught his eye.  He wanted me to stop.  Only real gardeners do such a thing!  He got down and went close to it to inspect the leaf arrangement!  

When we reached our house, he took this picture:

This is my garden yard as Kenton saw that day.

 He looked very curiously at the Holmskioldia shrub that was in bloom at that time.

Only true gardeners look at flowers like this. He got fascinated by the colours of this Hibiscus.....

.... and could not help taking a picture of it with his little Olympus camera which he loved for its simple features!

After real flowers it was time to show my "digital flowers". Notice the red diary on his lap.  He made notes of what he observed, lest he forgot.  Plant names and what not.  He must have been disappointed with the 'wildish' garden he saw.

Kenton was curious to know if I had any favourite garden implements, like many gardeners do.  I am no exception. He has clicked the button at the wrong time while showing the two implements!  Don't get distracted with the shining whitish teeth there!  

He had brought me a live plant from his visit to Ooty from where he had come to Mysore.  The plant did not survive long, as expected, because it came from a hilly region.  He also gifted me this book......

... on which I wanted him to write something for me.

Our garden and plant discussions were not focused.  It used to get diverted. In the excitement of meeting this special guest, I missed capturing photos of his other passion about tea-drinking.  He wanted to drink tea and wanted to see how we prepared.  So Kenton was taken into the kitchen for demonstration.  He enjoyed watching it and later slowly sipping little amounts as our chat by then had deviated to Sankranti Festival.  He was also served with the "Yellu-bella" [Sesame-jaggery].

It was lunch time.  We have the old habit of squatting on the floor and have the meal, since we have no dining table, at least till date.  Without practice others cannot do this.  So the next best option for Kenton was to hold the plate with the left hand and eat with the right hand, sitting on a chair.  When we gave the option of the spoon, he chose to have it with fingers, like we do. It was a funny sight to see poor Kenton trying to mix the vegetable sambar and cooked rice and then picking the morsel and inserting into his mouth with the fingers, without spillages!  He wanted to try how it feels. He struggled.  We had made him to wash his hands before food.  He was one among us. He took a long time to finish his food.  I really wonder now, how uneasy he might have felt, despite the freedom we offered. Once again, I did not record this event on camera.  I was also having the meal.  After a while, I left him back at his hotel.

I met him that evening also. Since it was a holiday, the Mysore Palace was illuminated.  Kenton  was lucky to witness that also.  I took him there.

The next night, I went to meet him at his hotel and say good bye.  We had a long chat, walking the nearby streets, on various things other than gardening this time. I found he is an intelligent young man who is a keen observer and loves to travel the world to know a lot of things outside the plant-world also.  

On his return to Colorado, he wrote on DG about his visit.  Copy/pasted again:

*******

 I wanted to share with you the beautiful power of gardens, like 'Dave's Garden,' and moreover the internal common value of nurturing green things, to faciliate connexions. I recently returned from a trip through Southern India. An extraordinarily diverse place, it was a month of just about everything and anything that could happen. It may be easier to find worlds NOT to describe Soutern India, like "boring."

The gem of the trip was meeting a fellow Dave's Garden Member, Dinu. He and I had had a very brief correspondence regarding an orchid ID a year or so ago by e-mail. Upon realising I would be in Mysore, I was elated to have the chance to meet a fellow DGer, which I have done many times, but not on the exact other side of the Northen Hemisphere.

He was able to share with me all sorts of fine details to enrich my understanding of the place tenfold. It was also incredibly nice to chat plants (you know, that plant nut thing we gardeners do) with a like soul.

I was extremely fortunate that the day was a holiday, so Dinu had the day off and we could scoot around town. He showed me some fine places.

*********

Having 'ineedacupoftea' here was really a 'Kentonizing' experience!