“Rain, Rain, go away, Come again another day…” There are times when we have wished the rain would go and come again later. But the fact is that every living being is dependent on the rain.
It is for this reason that Vanamahotsav festival is celebrated in July, during the monsoon season, when the grass is really green dotted with a few tiny flowering plants and the canopies look healthy and verdant.
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Mr. Ramachandra, the Managing Director of Green Morning Horticulture Services, feels a visit to parks and gardens in this season can make a wonderful picnic where students are introduced to various trees and plants. The leaves and inflorescence collected can be dried and used for the herbariums as well. As a footnote one can add the significance of the tree. It can be a fruit tree, a plant with medicinal value and so on.
In the city Programme for Environmental Awareness in Schools (PEAS) has encouraged school authorities to set up herbal gardens where children learn more about the various herbs and their medicinal and curative properties.
“At home, saplings can be planted in various unusual things like bottles or bowls of different sizes and shapes. Moreover, of late, Hydroponics is being encouraged in schools and homes, where various plants including leafy vegetables and tomatoes are being grown in water with no soil and with only sticks supporting the shoots. A couple of drops of a nutrient solution is put into the water to provide the necessary nutrients that the plant needs to grow. This has become very popular among children,” says Mr. Ramchandra.
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Nature’s gifts
Dr. Pushpa, the Southern Region Coordinator of PEAS, says, “The best birthday gift can be a sapling with the child eventually taking care of it. As the saplings grow new leaves appear and soon flowers and fruits arrive. Such an exercise offers first hand knowledge of the plant cycle.”
With the rainy season around there is so much to do. Sprinkle a few coriander seeds under a tree or in a pot and see the plants bloom. Plant onions and carrot stem and wait for shoots to grow.
Grow your own sapling with the fruit seeds. Get seeds from the nursery to grow tomatoes, green chillies and bean pods.