Garden Diaries: July (Arrival of Rains)

 In the harsh season of the hot sun

Men and animals alike languish

While the pine burns

The cuckoo unlocks his voice and in quick accord

Both dove and goldfinch sing along

----Sonnet of the Summer Concerto Antonio Vivaldi

As if following an ancient calendar, clouds arrived in my city on the first day of Hindu month of Ashadh. Centuries back, Sanskrit poet Kalidas had begun his famous poem Meghdutam (Cloud messenger) by narrating arrival of clouds on this day. It rained well for two days, pleasing all of us around. The plants half burnt in heat, were suddenly alive, the lawn turned green and the rain lilies bloomed. Even the peacock danced more often than earlier.

The happiness was short-lived. After 2-3 showers, while the weather remained humid and sultry, there were no more rains. But the weather decidedly moved towards better and the rain soaked breeze stayed on till now. The temperature is down by several points and there is humidity in air. It might be very distressing for humans but humidity is great for the garden. Within days, Rajnigandha plants flowered and even the seedlings of Gulmehndi(Balsom) came out like magic.

After the rains 

The next two months belong to green-ness and the white scents. We have Juhi, Rajnigandha  and bela blooming and the entire garden is enveloped in green . Sadly this also means weeds in the lawn and there is no escape from that. A considerable time goes in weeding and weeding again. Scents of course make the air fragrant, especially in the evenings.

Rajnigandha- the fragrance of the rains 

The birds to seems too have found their voices back. In fact early mornings are full of their chirping. So usually around 6 am, I have koel singing on mango tree, Peacock screaming from far away and parrots talking all around. To add to this melody, I have put a metal chime on the frangipani tree in the centre of my lawn. The concerto is superb …that is if you have an ear for these unique garden melodies.

For flowers , I have nothing much to boast right now. Zinnias and Cosmos continue to delight and there are plenty of colorful Portulacas to add charm and colour in the flower beds. Now, here is the funny thing about flowers , it is very interesting how they spread geographically. Historically, tuberose or Rajnigandha is native of Mexico (Aztecs used it first to decorate their house ) and is now an integral part of every floral perfume of Europe( including supposedly Queen Marie Antoinette's perfume called Sillage de La Reine ) . It is also used extensively in weddings or funeral decorations in India  and so on. Even my petite Portulaca are native of  South America( Argentina and Brazil )and are now used all over the world . I have already discussed in previous post about the incredible journey of sunflowers across the globe . Talking of sunflowers,  I was worried that arrival of rains will be end of my glorious crop of sunflowers. But no- I still have plenty of them despite rains and more importantly, despite the families of parakeets. 

Portulaca beds

 Parakeets somehow, seem to be more interested in now almost-ripe mangoes and are always attacking them. At times they also drop the half eaten fruit for the benefit of other creatures of the garden you are not daring enough to go to the upper branches of the tree . 

A plum face parakeet going to attack a mango 

 Interestingly the first day of showers also brought a pair of Black-rumped Flame back and a bunch of little green bee-eaters to my garden.  The flameback or the woodpecker in layman words are beautiful birds and have found a place in Amla tree. There are many younger birds around, including a little baby peacock, who roams under her mother near the hedges and pond. There are several nests with eggs or little birds in them. I even had a cuckoo nest with blue eggs but duly warned by a bird-enthusiast, I never dared to go too near.

Black-rumped Flame back 

This month among the surprised pleasures in the garden – I had two plants of Blood lily (football lily) which suddenly flowered. And just after that, an adenium of dark maroon colour flowered like never before.

Adenium 

I am praying for more rains in the days to come so that I have lilies and more fragrant flowers. I am also determined to grow some vegetables this time. Let’s see what August has in store.