The joy of seeing home grown vegetables!

It is always a joy to see flowers, vegetables and fruits grow in your garden, if you are lucky to have one in your home. Two days ago I was delighted to see the banana tree at the back of my independent home, with a bunch of raw bananas, Elakhi variety, waiting to be plucked.

It brought back memories of my wife Prabha and her abiding interest in gardening. Her passion for gardening as a hobby was legendary both in our family & friends circles. I always used to tease her that her first love was gardening – everything else was secondary.

For over  30 years until her death in January,2013, she had managed to grow hundreds of flowering plants and other green plants. We used to have over six varieties of jasmine (Malli) :-Nithya Malli, Pavala Malli, Mullai, Jadi malli, adukku malli, & gundu malli, and over forty varieties of crotons and scores of colorful Hibiscus, Exora and Arali plants; flowering plants with no fragrance.

 

We even had fruit bearing trees – Sapota (chikku), Guava, Lemon sized Japanese oranges (called Kungfat) besides a coconut tree, banana tree, mango tree and even a drumstick tree!.(Of these only sapota, Coconut, mango and drumstick plants are surviving).

 

A week before Prabha passed away, on her request, I took her around her favorite plants in the compound.  She was in a wheel chair. Suddenly, she looked up and  asked, `If I die who will look after all my children?` I was confused. Why is she asking me this question when our children were all married and we had four grand children. She clarified, `I am talking about all these plants which I have looked after for the last thirty years like my own children`. I was moved to tears. I assured her that I would look after them as long as I am alive.

 

Since her passing away my sister in law Mythili Seshadri, who lives in the same independent housing complex, has taken over the supervision of the garden. It was she who planted the Pomegranate & Papaya  seeds besides  a few other flowering plants. I only take care of the expenses.

 

Thank you Mythili for helping me to keep up my promise to Prabha!