Mandaara makaranda maadhuryamuna dElu...

My mom simply adores Hibiscus.. Her garden is filled with lines of bright showy flowers and still she is always in search of new varieties. Obviously I have inherited the love of for these plants from her..

I have over a dozen different hibiscus plants in my tiny front yard,..
I had uploaded the pictures of most of the flowers for the slide show.
(I was waiting for a fresh half-white double layered hibiscus and the blood red button hibiscus to bloom..) so that the collection can be complete.

But then I realize.. it can never be complete!
There are over 600 varieties of hibiscus, and I need acres of land to cultivate all of them..

As and when I get the good pictures of fresh flowers, .. I would add/update the slide show..

-beekay

Toor daal plant and sugarcane in my garden..

Pratibha, kids' nanny got the seeds for Toordaal/Bengalgram?/kandipappu from Kolar, on Jan 4th. The first working day of the year...

Time was 8.45am.. Kids were still eating their breakfast, before they took the 9am school bus. And I still had to pack their lunches.. But I took 2 minutes and rushed to the backyard.. quickly planted sugarcane and the toordal seed and ran back to the routine..

What a nice way to start the year!!! I have today 3 4 inch long tiny plants, which Dhatri, my daughter protected by three bricks so that,.. no one stepped over it.
I will post the pictures this weekend..

More pictures.. from garden..

No new post in 2009...

The first half of 2009 was probably the busiest year in my life.. Handling two projects at work, Children's studies, extra curricular activities, a hindustani musical program with kids for our Guruji, US,UK trip in summer, three vacations in Hyderabad. Second half with new academic year bringing in more challeges for younger daughter, health issues, YSR's tragic death, floods in AP, Karnataka,.. Telangana issue.. summarized 2009.

Garden went through changes too.. After giving 170 delicious fruits, Papaya took farewell from us.. How I miss watching the Papaya tree with at least half a dozen ripe fruit, and another dozen getting ready ..every single morning.. thinking of who I can give the fruit this time to...

My uncle saw that Pomergranate tree requires a push to start fruiting.. He pulled the branch tips from the barbed wires of the 10 ft compound wall, and set the tree free.. And within a month, it had new leaves all over, with pomergranates popping from some bright orange flowers..

Mango tree growing taller, flowering in summer, lush green bean creepers, delivering short wild beans.. and Indian spinach (Bacchali) giving dark thick green leaves in thousands every week, for daal.. serving several friends, family, relatives,..

This year also saw new additions on kids birthdays.. the hybrid chikoo plant, the amla/gooseberry and lime plant to the backyard. Thanks to our neighbours Lata, I tried turmeric, and it gave good crop, recently we have had raw turmeric salad with lemon,and green chillies..

15 Guavas.. from our *delicate* guava plant,..delicate because, once it was be-headed due to a tight knot I had mistakenly left behind and another time, blown down by a strong wind and heavy rain.. still it withstood the damages... supported by ropes made of coconut fibre..

Elder one planted chikoo plant on her birthday and the younger one chose to plant red rose creeper..in the front yard. Another greenish thing we had done was to give away rose saplings as return gifts to the guests on my second one's birthday.. Array of red,yellow,white,orange and pink button roses...