Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk on gardening, especially urban gardening and smart ways to grow a kitchen garden.
I thought it would be a good idea to document the green around my own house and give you a peek into what we’ve been growing and how we benefit from it.
Most plants that we have don’t have a specific beginning — it feels like they’ve been there forever. And some are indeed very old- since long before I was born.
Lemongrass
We got this from our local market over more than a decade ago. It grows quite fast and densely. Besides giving a great flavour to the tea, it also can be added to curries — Thai cuisine has a lot of places for lemongrass and gives the food a unique, lemony flavour that isn’t sour or tangy. It has a heap of medicinal properties as well— it is a natural antidepressant and also helps heal a range of ailments right from digestive problems, fever, kidney trouble, respiratory infections and more.
We use it in chai very often — an excellent cure for the common cold, especially when added with ginger or soonth (dry ginger).
Money Plant
I am not sure where it got its name from but it’s said that the plant brings in a lot of wealth and fortune in the house that it’s planted in so maybe that’s why it’s called a “money” plant — we have had this plant since as long as I can remember and while I can’t vouch for its wealth accumulating properties, it certainly grows long (it’s a creeper) and adds ornamental value to the garden.
Ajwain
Ajwain is very well known as being great for the digestive system — a quick cure for stomach aches. It apparently also helps remove kidney stones. These leaves can be consumed raw but a better and fun way of doing so would be to make ajwain pakoras / bhajiyas using besan / gram flour. Best consumed on a rainy evening! People also use it in chutneys and in “kaadhas” for the cold. This plant was gifted to my mom by one of her friends.
Brahmi
This is the brain plant — great for memory and mental strength. It is a natural relaxant and one can consume these leaves raw too. My grandpa used to suggest having one brahmi leaf everyday to keep the mind quiet, alert and active. We got this plant from a nursery near Dadar, Mumbai.
Durva
I am not sure what it’s called in English or whether it even has a name in English but we use this grass to adorn the Ganesha idols in our house. Blades of grass are offered in odd numbers — 3, 5, 7 etc. And one can make odd bunches out of the odd blades of grass. For instance, a garland of 21 bunches, each bunch containing 5 grass leaves, with each leaf containing 3 blades may be offered. I don’t know much about the significance of this odd number. We don’t always follow it that religiously —so, very often, we make one bunch out of, say, 5 grass leaves with each leaf containing any number of blades and offer that bunch to the Ganesha statue. This is done mostly on Tuesdays as it’s considered to be his day. Often, a hibiscus flower is accompanied with this bunch.
Bonsai Bamboo
This initially occupied a quiet place in the indoors, in a small bowl of water — just the way it came when it was gifted to mom as a goodbye present by one of the teachers in her school, when she was retiring. But soon, this plant grew and had to be shifted out to be kept with the rest of the plants. This plant, like the money plant, is also known to bring good luck, health and fortune in the house but we might have to replant it elsewhere again soon as it grows into a huge tree and a pot won’t be able to sustain it.
Tulsi
Almost every Hindu household has this plant for it’s considered to be holy and auspicious but besides being that, Tulsi is also medicinal and used to treat a lot of respiratory disorders, fever, kidney ailments and even insect bites.
Twin Flower / Gulbakshi
We call this “Akash Mogra” in our mother tongue — it bears beautiful flowers of different colours — pink, white, sometimes yellow but I’ve mostly seen pink and white.
Rose Plant
The rose plant was basically just a stem that we planted, from one of the bouquets we got. It took some time but now the plant has grown and how! It hasn’t yet borne a flower but we are quite hopeful.
So that’s all there is so far. We’ve had many other plants in the past that either didn’t live long or were vegetable plants that needed to be planted again, once consumed. Plan to grow more of these in the coming months.
