The laburnum in Hoskote

The laburnum ( Cassia Fistula) in Hoskote
 

The Laburnum near the gate of Bella Vista.

As kids I absolutely loved Grandpa Micks Laburnum in the Baroda garden. What a tree that was right at the front gate of his garden and adjacent to the front balcony that we hung out in. I remember Mum telling me to read My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. What a book and that's where the toxic seeds of this glorious laburnum makes for interesting reading. Mum loved Du Maurier and Georgette Heyer romances and I was named after a heroine in one of Georgette Heyer's books -- "The Quiet Gentleman." Mum would always say the difference in your name is it is not  spelled the usual British way --Marion, or Marian, but the French way -- Marianne.

The tree that's growing just within the gate and behind the beautiful chapdi walls. It seems to be growing all over the land and outside, self seeding itself. No matter how many times I try to dig out a young plant to take to fellow gardeners longing for the tree, it just dies on me. The tree is blooming all over the village and I see kids picking the flowers and not knowing the danger of its poison.

Toxicity: All parts of the Laburnum tree, especially the seeds, are poisonous.

Symptoms of Poisoning: Ingestion can lead to severe symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, sweating, and in extreme cases, respiratory distress.

Precaution: It is advisable to wear gloves when handling the seeds or pods and to ensure they are stored out of reach of children and animals.

  

I do not  want to touch or collect the seeds, but it seems thats the only way forward.

Avocados in Hoskote

 

Trees are loaded and need heavy watering now

Ten years ago I wanted to plant some avocado saplings which I had germinated in the apartment balcony. I was rudely told by an ignorant sibling that NO, you cannot plant it as we can buy them from the market. Unable to beat down such ignorance I took the  four saplings to Hoskote and planted them there. The years passed and I thought these guys need to fruit now. Its already 10 years since I grew and nurtured them. Maybe they heard my grumbling cause the next thing I knew was the four trees got loaded with flowers! 

 Heavy flowering of the trees!

I had just had the joy of seeing the lichie fruit and eat them till I got sick of lichies and now the avocado decided to stir itself and flower! So I loaded the pictures on my Goa gardening group which has many, many professional gardeners and farmers on it. I was worried that the flowers may not get pollinated. Fogging has killed all the bee pollinators so trees flower but without pollination, fruit cant appear. I need not have worried! Because there were four trees, fairly close to each other they cross pollinated with the bees, as Hoskote is far from dirty foggers and hundreds of baby avocados appeared, to my great excitement.

Trees not very huge.

I was concerned because I remembered grandpas trees in the compound and Dads purple avocado along the side of the house. They were HUGE and tall and we had to get labour to climb them to remove the fruit. Anyway there are three trees which are fairly huge and tall but this one guy is just above my height. The cuteness of the baby avocados filled me with joy and I told the caretaker to load them with compost.

The twins which made a cute picture!

We go every week to look after them and tell the caretaker what to do the rest of the week on the phone. For us we hope and pray there is no huge storm to drop them in the high winds that beat us a few weeks ago. Yes we lost some fruit, more mangoes than avocados. But with the crazy price of avocados going at Rs 60 a fruit, I plan to be very careful of our crop and hope that we get at least a few growing to maturity. 

Gifts from friends in the farm!

 

White scented Ixora in Hoskote

Over the years, so many friends have gifted me plants and all are growing and flourishing in Hoskote. The white Ixora is one among dozens of other plants which were gifted by a Mr Shetty whose resort in Chickmangalur, I had to write about and visited. It blooms happily in the farm among other flowering plants  and every plant reminds me of the giver.

Michelle Correas Chinese Violets!

A lady who lived in our building and I became great friends. Infact when we go to Goa we go straight to their home in Siolim for a high tea in their huge, brand new villa. Michelle Correa was never a great gardener but after moving to Goa has transformed her barren garden space into a lush tropical paradise. Like any other avid gardener, I carry from my garden for her and she swaps hers with me. Amazing how well her garden is doing and how to my last word she has made a compost pit which feeds her beautiful garden. Ofcourse Michelle made a grander and huger pit than our small, insignificant one and I am amazed at the variety and beauty of the plants in her garden.

Woodapples growing in Hoskote

I love woodapples from childhood and mentioned it to my friend Valsam. The next thing I knew she brought me grafts from a nursery in Calcutta and I put them down. This year it flowered heavily and last Sunday I saw tiny baby fruit to my utter joy. Valsam lives vicariously through my photos and is so happy that I take good care of the trees.

Sweet tamarind from Bangkok

I would travel regularly for work shops on pollution in Bangkok and I had fallen in love with the sweet Thai tamarind which they sold in 1kg bags. My colleagues from the Erasmus Mundus who worked with the Bangkok Post, introduced me to the tamarind, and I germinated the seeds and when they were around 2 feet tall, I planted them in Hoskote. Imagine my utter and complete joy when the first crop which the trees bore were EXACTLY like their parent tamarind which I had eaten! This year I got a huge, huge crop as the previous caretaker was selling it to the apartments around. Now I share with Steve, save for the big boys in the fridge, share with friends especially priest friends in Goa.

Lichies have fruited after a decade or more!

My friend and fellow gardener, Clement Silva, fell in love with the Hayes road garden when Dad and Mum were alive. He ordered lichie saplings from Calcutta one of which was planted in Hayes and one in Hoskote. With fruit that I had bought from the market I germinated a few more and have around six in the farm. Clements tree has fruited this year. It has lifted our heart as I was so desperate I bought a Longon tree from Amazon and planted it in the farm hoping these cousins of Lichies would fruit. So now yet another tree gifted by a friend grows and fruits in the farm.

Avocados fruiting in the farm after a decade too!

And Dads avocado saplings that he grew in buckets are fruiting this year. They just grew and grew to tree height like we had in Hayes road. This year with the cold snap over the winter, many trees and plants are flowering and fruiting and I feel so happy to look at the trees and remember all the generous givers. Once the farm passes, sadly that memory will also pass because I'm sure paying me that huge amount the buyer plans to build villas and make a killing.

End of the chickoo crop!

Its the end of the chickoo season!

Picked and put among the leaves!

We have two types of chickoos planted. One which are round and are called Cricket Ball and one which is oval and are called -- well -- Oval!! This year the crop was bigger and better and I am still selling them off my group to happy buyers. So, why do I insist the chickoos are put on the ground?? Because they release a sap when picked and that is sticky. So we pick and leave them on the ground to let the sap soak into the soil, then only do I rub it on the dry leaves and put into the bag.

Apples are ripening on the trees.

Just two years ago a Colonel friend on my gardening group sent me a package of 12 bare root apple trees from J and K! .They have taken to Hoskote and a year and flowering and fruiting happily  to our great joy. Ofcourse we are watering them well and Rajanna has fed them chicken waste which stinks but is great for the trees. There are different varieties of apples including a strange shaped one like the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs story.

Bunches of them everywhere!

I picked one and took a bite! Its delicious and just the kind that I like. Not too sweet and a bit tart. Both of us crunched our way through a couple, absolutely thrilled that they taste so good. My worry is that no one must rob them during the week.

Avocados after more than a decade.

We planted a few of the avacados that Dad had germinated of the  Hayes road trees. They have grown well and probably one fruited only once.  Then I was told by my Goa gardening group that there are not enough bees and so cross pollination is not happening. They even explained what I must do manually to pollinate the flowers. Over spraying of pesticide has caused mass deaths of bees, but lucky for us the farmers had decided to inter-crop the beans with roses and so the bees were back and to our immense joy baby fruit began to appear.

Watch and hope they grow!

I must buy some tankers of chicken waste water to help them grow. The water has blood and bits of skin which the plants love and thrive on. Very sad that Dad and Mum are not here to see the farm. They saw it when it was barren. Now its a paradise which they would have loved.

Time to hang the fruit fly lures!

Mango time!

 Fixing and sealing the fruit fly lures for the mango trees!

We are organic farmers and to our luck the buyers of my farm are are still getting the paper work organised, so we have the joy of the farm still in our hands. Since we are organic farmers, a friend sent us fruit fly lures from Goa which are more than 10 times cheaper than Amazon. So on Sunday we set up 20 lures  in the farm and hung them up across the 25 Mallika and Raspuri trees.

 This is last years lure!

It is truly amazing how many hundred male flies get caught and are thrown out by the lures. These lures prevent the flies from laying their eggs in our pea sized mangoes which are already growing on the trees. Since we do not spray the trees with chemicals, this is the organic method to prevent our crop from becoming infested by the maggots of the flies.

Baby avocados have appeared.
 This year there is much joy in the farm as the avocados have flowered after 10 years. The trees were big and tall. Four of them, but sadly they gave fruit just once. Reading up on the issue the reason was simple - the flowers would come and fall off. BUT they were not pollinated as we did not have enough bees. The farmers of the bean and brinjal fields surrounding us were pumping pesticides to keep their crops safe which killed the bees and butterflies as well. This year they are growing flowers so we are in luck. The bees are back and the cold winter snap helped.

Chickoos are harvested and lie on the ground so the sap pours out into the soil.

Hundreds of chickoos too this year which I have sold on whatssapp in a matter of minutes. We have harvested FOUR sets of chickoos of at least 10kg each harvest. We have harvested star berries and aamlas, ramphals and jacks. Now the next round of jacks are growing fast and to our immense joy apples as well.

Compost and clean up your city

Compost and clean up your city

 

Teaching the kids to compost in Hoskote

We got a pit full of wasted, over ripe fruit from the Safal depot near our farm and dumped it in the specially made pits in my farm. Instead of just wasting the property, we joined hands with the St Josephs School senior class kids and they were brought to the farm to be taught to be more sustainable in their way of life. We have strayed away from how to be frugal and sustainable like our parents and forefathers were and instead, tried to be imitators of the West and  lost what was a sustainable way of living.  I always remember a pit in the garden into which all garden waste and kitchen waste were thrown. This waste once composted and broken down into black sweet smelling earth, we fed back to the garden when we re-potted the plants or topped up compost in the beds.

Kids learning to compost.
 The schools that came enjoyed the classes we held, teaching them to understand the basics of sustainable living. They loved their visits and had no problems eating with hands when they were fed simple village meals. We also did a quick talk on menstrual hygiene for both boys and girls so they understood what it was all about and how important it is to realise its just a bodily function and not something unclean that man has made it out to be.

  Menstrual hygiene which both girls and boys were educated.

Many of the girls were first scared to tell us, but after a while they let down their guard and told us how badly they were treated when going through their monthly, normal, cycle. This was where we stepped in and the older kids too to explain how important it is to look after their Mums and sisters and its just a normal part of life and not something unclean. Many boys who came from all boy homes were glad of the education which they would not have got otherwise.

They loved our hands on talks

Im so glad that so many schools çame forward and sent their kids in whole bus loads.  We also taught them hygiene when they ate bananas -- the skins had to be thrown on the compost pile, not desecrated the whole farm. Thank you Maam and Sir said many of the kids who come from poorer and marginalised homes. They could never have enjoyed an open space orchard like ours. And Im glad we were able to do this with the children  of so many schools before we sold the farm altogether.  

The beauty of the Hoya

 

The pink Hoya brought from Perth

Many years ago I was given two pieces of Hoya brought from Perth, West Australia by my sister Christine. The pieces couldn't have been more than 5 inches long and I grew them. They grew rapicly but I think I over fed them in huge pots with wet waste compost, so all they did was grow and grow without a flower in sight. I thought it was no sunlight, I blamed it on too much watering, but nothing would get it to flower. And in no time, five whole years passed.

There are literally hundreds of bunches all over

But to my utter  luck the vine seemed happy on my balcony and its leaves began to shine and it spread across the entire trellis work. On one of my annual holidays in the UK with my son David, he said "Mum why don't you try feeding it some Epsom Salts? "  

He bought me a packet and I carried it home to India to feed my Hoyas. In a few weeks bunches of buds appeared and the plant flowers twice a year now.

Enid shared a [piece of her White Hoya!

Meanwhile I had begun a Whatsapp gardening group and in minutes I had a gardener respond that she had a white Hoya and would I like a piece?! Ofcourse I would and in weeks and months the pieces grew huge and this year -- barely in a year I got my first white Hoya bloom! They are outstandingly beautiful and emit a delicate scent. I will share ONLY with growers and gardeners who can make the effort to grow them and send me pictures of the blooms!

The waxy Hoya!

Then a gardener from Pintovaddo in Goa, said --"Come over and take my brown Hoya cutting. Imagine that?? I got the brown from Lillia Pinto in Goa, a prize winning gardener and my collection has grown to three. Gardeners are good people. They share with no expectations, like I do now. Dozens of gardeners in Goa are growing my pink Hoya and sending me pictures of them flowering. Now I've begun to share among the mothers of seminarians and the priests whom my son Steven is in touch with. 

Speckled leaves!

And the leaves took me a long time to get used to. I thought they had a problem, some sort of virus! But No! They are speckled like that!