Nursery Times

Now's the season to prune, protect and plant. A guide for the gardening enthusiast
By Gauri

With rains around the corner, every gardening enthusiast relaxes a little. At last, your plants won't need anxious watering, protection from hot winds and blazing sunlight. And what with rain water full of essential nutrients, your plants are in for a long treat.

While the gardener in you can afford to take a little time off during the rains, there are a few tasks yet to be done. The bougainvillea that's blazed and blossomed through spring and summer, now sheds its flowers. It's time to give it a thorough and close crop. Creepers like those of the ipomea family, or the fragrant chameli, should also be cut back - so that they get beautiful new foliage and are all set for a great Diwali-time show of flowers. You can cut back bamboo too at this time. Ferns love this time of the year, and you can put in a whole bank of the many varieties available with most nurseries.

If you're planning to plant a flowering shrub or tree, this is the time, before the rains settle in fully. The ground is soft and moist and easy to turn, and the new plant gets a chance to settle in, without having to face the heat of summer or the onslaught of too much rain and too much water-logging in the soil. Plant in a well-drained area, give it a small prop - a stick or a stake - and watch it just take off in the coming months.

While your much-loved plants grow lush during this time, weeds too come out in full strength. A round of weeding at least once a week is a must. This is a good time to feed manure and other nutrients to your plants too, nurserymen advise. However, if you do it when it is raining continuously and heavily, they will be simply washed away.

Also, take a good look at your garden and see to it that it has good drainage, so that there is no collection of water in any patch of soil - this almost always leads to root-rot.

For those with terrace and balcony gardens, ensure that the soil in your pots is well turned so that it doesn't cake and cling to the roots after it has been well-watered with the showers. Remember to use gloves and sturdy footwear in your garden during the monsoons, so that you're not surprised by an earthworm, frog, or other insects; this is also the time when fungus thrives and can affect your nails, toes and fingers. Keep a sharp lookout for snails; they can chomp their way through the foliage.

Protect your cacti and succulents from direct and heavy rain, and water them just a little, once a week, since all the moisture in the air is enough for them to thrive. If you live in a windy area, protect all your plants from the onslaught of rain and high winds, or else you'll have torn and scrappy foliage to deal with.

If you're planning a modest kitchen garden, now's the time to plant a whole lot - all of the gourd family, brinjals, tomatoes and chillies, garlic for its fragrant green leeks... Start them off in seed baskets, and once you have a sturdy small plant, transplant into beds. Protect the beds from direct onslaught of rain, with nursery netting. "It's such a thrill to pluck even a single doodhi from your very own garden," says Ujwala Rao, who began to dabble in kitchen gardening only last year, after she retired.

While rain harvesting on a large scale is indeed the way to go, you can do it on a modest scale too. Rain water is full of nutrients, so try putting out a bucket and a large funnel on your terrace, or even installing a small rain-water tank. "When you use this water to feed indoor plants, you'll see the dramatic difference," says amateur gardener Shobha Taneja.

As software engineer Somen Sawant concludes, pointing to his little window-box in the kitchen window of his fourth floor apartment: "My garden may not get any prizes, but as I watch the rain and sip chai flavoured with home-grown lemon grass and mint, I'm thrilled with my achievement."

Dos and Don'ts

• Put in stakes, supports and ties for some of your more delicate shrubs and creepers. Monsoon winds can destroy them if they are unsupported.


• Never wander around in your garden without footwear or in just rubber slippers, and avoid poking around with bare hands. Use gloves and sturdy footwear so that you're not surprised by an earthworm, frog, or other insects; also this is the time when fungus thrives in the soil and can affect your nails, toes and fingers.


• Avoid turning the soil too heavily, as earthworms (your best gardeners) abound, and can get destroyed.


• There's no point using pesticides or feeds during the monsoon, as they will get washed off.


• Keep soil well-drained; root-rot in water-logged pockets will work surprisingly fast to destroy your plants.

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