Tulsi (Holy Basil) – The breath of Indian Households

Tulsi, a plant so commonly seen and worshiped in almost every household in India is quite an easy plant to grow.
With proper care, which is effortless, these semi-hardy perennials can thrive for years.

But, why is it that most home owners struggle growing them?
If you are buying or bartering new seedlings every 6-8 months, seeing it to turn hardy and leafless within a short span of time, you need to learn how to take care of the plant.

The first and most important reason your plants aren’t growing well could be over watering. Overwatering causes these plants to wilt, the leaves turn pale and ultimately turns yellow before falling, since they are religiously watered every day and during every season in India, it is important to allow good drainage for the plant.

Another common problem could be soil caking. Hard soil doesn’t let the roots penetrate, could retain too much water which in turn makes the plant suffer.

Compost/Manure is an important requirement for the plant which is often neglected. Red Soil, while it does contain certain nutrients, isn’t organically rich and IS NOT everlasting. Tulsi plants do seek support from the growing medium but dumping in just Red soil won’t be of any help at all. Make sure to mix roughly equal proportions of Sand, Soil and Compost while planting Tulsi seedlings.

While Holy Basil can thrive in partial shade, it grows well in full sun areas. Make sure that it gets al least 4-5 hours of good sunlight.

All we’d ask of the Tulsi plant, is for it to grow bushier with lots of healthy leaves. Nobody likes the plant to be tall and woody with just a pair f leaves at the tips of each branch. In order for your Tulsi plants to perform as per your requirements, it is essential for you to be aware of the plant growth and behavior.
The plant matures once they grow flowers and seeds, this means it gets ready to promote new plant growth, drops it’s seeds and starts retiring. Consider this as the plants making space for the new saplings (it’s offspring).

Make sure that you trim these flower buds as early as they are forming to promote good leafy growth. If you are intending to grow a wider, bushier plant instead of a woody tall one, pinch the new growth of leaves when they are forming 6-8 pairs of leaves.
Regularly remove old and dried leaves, this helps the plant concentrate it’s nutrition on new leaves and branches.

Our grand parents often practiced pinching of fresh leaves and dropping them in the holy water of the copper vessel on the altar, drinking the herb infused water after worship as prasadam. This practice not only benefited us as the has antioxidants, helps relieve stress and immune stimulating properties but also took care of the pruning needs of the plant. You can consider bringing these practices back in your daily routine to get benefited.

Other means of harvesting these plants are to simply trim the branches and leaves of the plant using a pair of garden scissors once the plant reaches a height of 12- 15 inches, dry them in the sun until the leaves are crisp. These leaves can then crumbled and stored for long term usage.

Holy Basil is generally immune to pests, provided that it is growing in a healthy environment.
Growing in poor conditions might infect the plant with Aphids, Mealy Bugs and other Soft scaled insects. Spraying an insecticide made of a combination of a spoon of cooking oil and a spoon of dish washing liquid in one litre water is a good solution to drive the pests away.

Front Yard at Electronic City

With our extended stay at electronic city, we learnt about the close knitted circles of people here and it wasn’t surprising when we were referred by one of our previous clients to Mr and Mrs. Likitha for their Front yard Garden renovation.

We had in fact seen the house multiple times in passing, given that it is located at the entrance of a major street crossing.
The meeting with Mrs. Likitha prompted us to diagnosing their set of problems with their garden.

The Problems

The garden was primarily taken care of by their House servant, though the plants were in good health and were tended to with good care, the garden lacked structure. Multiple varieties of plants were planted all over the place and it was certainly an unwelcoming sight being the Front yard of the house.

The garden needed lot of sorting and everyone in the household loved the feel of lawn, were terribly missing it in their garden space.

We also figured that they liked being seated outdoors for relaxation, meetings usually took place in the Front space of the house which were rather frequent since they were one of the well known families in the neighborhood.

The vegetable garden patch along the retaining back wall needed minor construction to define layouts and maximize yields. The soil throughout the garden had only one variety of manure for years and needed enrichment.

A storage room at the back end of the entrance was a view they despised and needed some attention.

The Planning

We worked out a plan to first redistribute the existing plants into other parts of the garden, many of them to be moved mainly to the backyard.

A seating space added with a backrest planter box was planned, the planter box took care of the planting needs of the garden as well as being a backrest, served it’s purpose as a relaxed bench.

It also was planned to be at least 4 ft high as to hide the ugly wall of the storage house.

Wooden planks with drooping and colorful plants were planned on the wall to further accentuate the wall. We chose Bamboo to add feature to the whole area with an objective of keeping a natural feel. The roofing extension of the storage space was planned to be hidden with Bamboo screening.

The entrance to this garden space had to be defined and we planned for planter boxes to be constructed with wide bricks which can also act as additional seating space if required.

The area between the seating space and the entrance to the garden was marked as lawn area as decided previously during our initial discussions, we also planned on using stepping stones between the lawn to have access to all the areas of the garden space.

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  Construction

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  Lawn Laying

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  Planting

The Execution –

This project was executed with client’s laborers as opposed to our usual way of working where in, every aspect of the process is taken care of, by us. They had laborers regularly working for them with their own buildings and we agreed to only provide consultation, designing and supervision during the execution – co ordinating with their laborers.

With a week’s job of repotting of existing plants, prepping up of the soil, masonry at the vegetable garden patch as well as Front yard, visiting multiple nurseries for the selection and purchases of plants, we were finally ready to bring the garden alive.

The coming week was dedicated to planting – We worked together with the laborers and our clients too joined hands in planting, this was a great experience to their son just at the age Five (5).

Several other additions were made during the process, like addition of Clay pots for their Balconies, a bamboo lattice for creeper varieties in the vegetable patch, addition of a century old unused stone wet grinder (a hand implement) as a centre piece in the garden.

This family has lived in this locality for generations and we heard
lots of stories of how urban development took over the place from a silent village to bustling “Electronic city” within a few years. Their home was filled with centuries old wood and other antique pieces preserved neatly.

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Tropical Hideout at RBD Stillwaters (Backyard)

Prashant and Shalini’s Backyard Garden.

The idea of this modern tropical garden weaved itself after we received a call on a December morning in 2017.

As we set out to meet with the client, we were excited about designing a garden space that’d be cherished for a long time.

After the initial discussion with Mrs Shalini, a pathologist and her husband Mr. Prashant, an Engineer by profession,  we figured that there were different areas around the home dedicated for garden. A rough hand sketched layout was planned and presented to start with.

We later tweaked the design slightly to suit the garden space available, considering various constraints of the space during our next meeting and the design was finally concluded.

The materials were arranged, transported and jobs were assigned to the limited set of laborers available.
(Side note – In India, 70% are in unorganized sector of employment, the labour system is almost a chaos)

As part of the layout were elements such as stepping stones. Mr Singh had specifically requested against hardscaping i.e., usage of concrete or hard tiling etc in the garden areas except already existing concrete areas.

Hence the stepping stones used in the backyard was part of the soft scape work and lawn was to be added in between to compose the layout, creating a modern appearance. This lawn would later help holding the stones in place as well.

The other aspect of the garden plan was the Lawn. As it is true with other clients too, Mr & Mrs Singh were skeptical about using Shade Grass.

We reasoned against the usage of Mexican/Bermuda Lawn because of the poor light conditions due to a high raised building casting shadow on all areas of the garden.

Finally, they agreed trying Shade Grass and are in love with it now.

Also in the end, as the clients enjoy the garden mostly in the evening, we added few lighting to enjoy the garden post sunset as well:).

From Our Instagram Profile –
Convincing clients for shade grass had been one of the most difficult aspects for us so far. 
This one client Mr. Prashant reluctantly agreed to try it out almost promising himself to replace it with Mexican lawn later…
Read the full story on our Instagram here –
 we revisited his Garden almost 7 months later and his reaction to the shade grass in his Garden was priceless.

Role of the Humus and Soil in Plant development.

Humus, Nutrition and Soil

 

Importance of soil and its components for plant life

All living organisms on earth needs nutrition (in different forms) for their growth, survival and reproduction. Plants also need all the minerals, vitamins and proteins etc for their own requirements and also to generate/ produce food which all other organisms consume in the food chain.

While we talk about the food chain, the water and nutrition drawn from soil/ humus and Carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere by the plants and produce flowers, fruits, seeds and other edible forms with the process of photosynthesis.

Now with the food chain it travels to the top of the food chain and returns back to the earth in form of waste, dead organisms and various other forms which the worms, bacteria and many other tiny living forms consume and again break them to simple forms of nutrition which is called the humus or the nutrition part of the soil.

In this cycle, few plants have adapted to draw their nutrition directly through water, air and from other living trees (parasitic). Also some of the plants don’t even conduct photosynthesis and just consume nutrition to grow and reproduce.

Now, what role does the soil play if the humus provides the nutrition?

Soil are just the powdered form of rocks and part of earth’s crust along with all the organic matter. The color of the soil is formed due to the content of minerals in that region.

Soil does play a very vital role,

1. They provide the structural support required by the plant by holding the roots.
2. They hold the humus and water required by the plants roots.
3. They are home to billions of organisms who are involved in the process of decaying of the dead and waste that in turn goes back into the cycle.

In a general scenario, when you are growing vegetables or fruits the potting mixture should contain the local available soil and organic matter like compost / cocopeat and should be mixed in right proportions according to the plant for roots to grow and hold water and nutrients.

Stunning Office Garden Entrance

Amarnath’s Modefinserver Office

It all started with our friend Jagannath, who always has best interests for us and lends a hand to help at all times. He called us and told that his boss is building a new office nearby and has recommended us for a small garden area in front of the office.

We met Mr .Amarnath and Mrs. Deepa Amarnath in their still constructing office. It was in its final stages of completion and they had already set a date for the opening of their new working space. Myself (Rajhesh) and Ramya were amazed by the concepts used for Interiors in the whole office.
For a small office standards, it was grand and a fun intended environment, for the employees.
The building had 3 floors and each floor was designed with it’s own theme to keep the employees engaged with activities.

As we finished our tour of the building along with our conversation, we understood their requirements for  an innovative garden rather than a mundane office garden.
Even though the couple couldn’t describe what kind of garden they were looking forward to, we could see the enthusiasm to get the best results for their employees to enjoy.
So we invited them to our farm, to make them understand about few garden styles they could adapt and every time they mentioned they liked something we noted it down to add it to the plan.

We discussed various ideas and finally agreed that with a small entrance a water garden with the fishes waving at you everyday would be a grand entry way for the office. We suggested the idea to Mrs. Deepa Amarnath and she was quite excited with the idea and asked us to draw a sketch of the same.

We presented the idea to everyone on board and it clicked like a magic without much negotiations. As the building was under construction yet, we suggested the hardscaping be taken care by them and we would act as a consultant.

By then, our friend Jagannath had gotten the opportunity to work Onsite, in  Kenya for six months on an offshore business for the company. Throughout the period he was in conversation and said he really misses the opportunity to see the garden.

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  Construction

There were few changes to our initial plan, but eventually we sorted out the differences and improved the plan as per the building requirements.

Finally, it was time to get the garden done as the next day was the opening ceremony of the office. When we reached there we were up to the shock that still a lot of work related to interiors and minor construction was still happening at a very rapid phase.

The time was ticking and we had no space to work as everybody were busy fixing in the last minute rush.

Our plants and soil arrived and we requested them to allow us some space to do our work. All we could do is get the plants down from the truck, dump the soil at the far end of the road and wait till the evening for others to rest.

We worked till 11 pm in the night making sure the details are right. Arranged transportation for the laborers and we left at 12:30 am with the whole world around us sleeping in peace. The next morning we were supposed to visit the site for the opening ceremony and were anxious about the results, provided the short time.

The Next Morning, when we reached there, we stepped in to see a small crowd at the entrance. It was a show stopper and people around were praising about the water garden in front of the office. Kids were happy looking at the fishes in it. We were happy with the smiles on all those faces, that’s what got us the real satisfaction with our work.

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Mr. Raghavendra Rajkumar’s Residence

It was in last week of August 2015, our dear friend Abhay Surya invited us to the Kannada Movie Superstar Dr. Rajkumar’s house and introduced to the wonderful couple Mr and Mrs. Raghavendra Rajkumar.

To our surprise,in the very first meet they were jovial with us and even cracked few jokes. We were touched by their simplicity and courteous manners.

Mangalamma (Mrs. Raghavendra) sat with us for a general discussion and explained her expectations.
As per our usual procedure within few days we went up with a plan with few sample pictures for selection.

She was very happy with the options provided and handpicked the fiber pots which looks like granite/stone and also the hanging metal pots lined up with coir pots.

It was during the time of marriage of Dr.Shiva Rajkumar’s daugther, that we had the opportunity to decorate the space.

We only had 2 days to go to: plan, to research, to buy materials and to install all of them.

We had just two things to do fix the hanging planter baskets, arrange the fiber pots with plants in a row, sounds easy right?

But like every project, we had our share of challenges.

Day 1 : We had to find 40 hanging baskets which looked all the same, and this was challenging because no vendor carried a stock of similar baskets of that quantity. After many phone calls we came across a store named Minerva Naturals who assured us that they would be able to arrange it the next day.

We rushed on to Minerva Naturals to check the Hanging planters sample, we noticed that the hooks provided in the metal baskets are not suitable for the bars in the pergola. On site, The long stretch bars were made out of a combination of wood and metal and had different width and length. We had to find a common design to make sure everything hangs at the same length.

After an hour of research in the market we found  “U” hooks which were flexible for all the bars to provide us with uniformity, but these hooks don’t come as per our requirements and we had rush back again to a local factory to customize it to suit our needs.

By end of our 1st day all we had was the metal “U” hooks customized for us and a promise from the vendor that the hanging pots would be available the next day.

Day 2 :
We called Pramod, our dearest friend and savior. We explained him about the shortage of time and informed him that we would be collecting the hanging baskets from one end of the city and he needs to arrange for the rest like soil, compost, fiber pots, plants etc.

As we set out to buy the hanging baskets we noticed it was a sunny day, and which was unusual for rainy season, and the sun burnt bright on us first half of the day, and as we collected the baskets and headed back to our nursery the weather pattern changed and heavy rains started lashing on us by noon.

Within a short period of time the streets were logged with water, the high density traffic came to a stand still. We had a difficult period traveling through the slow moving traffic.
By the time we reached back our farm, it was around 5pm.

Luckily, Pramod had arranged for the pots, soil, compost, pebbles and other tiny things. But we had to hand pick the plants quickly as we were running short of day light. Once done, the day light started dimming and we had our staff plant them in the pots.

It took nearly 2 hours for the whole planting to be done and it was 9pm by the end of it.

After the planting, the whole set was loaded in a vehicle ready to be transported the next morning.

We were happy that the day ended with all the things ready to be installed.

The next morning we needed all the helping hands we could so we invited Ramya’s brother and cousin to join the gang and arrived on site by 8am and started fixing the hooks at required points while we wait for the plants to arrive. The plants arrived at 9 am and we had Abhay join us to lend us some hand. We started fixing the hanging planters one at a time and few of us were shifting the fiber pots. It took almost 7 – 8 hours for the entire process till the desired result was achieved.

 

There were also few pots ofHydrangea with a cluster of blue flowers placed at the opposite end. Finally the soil in the pots were decorated with white pebbles to sync it with the pot color.

We had a splendid day, and with all this we shouldn’t forget the courteous clients. Everybody from their home made sure we were sufficiently refreshed with beverages, buttermilk and juices the whole day.

It was celebrations time at home, and there were lot of people who appreciated our work with a bright smile on their faces.

Wonderful time and another journey begins here.

We are happy and proud to have had an opportunity to work at their place. Thank you!

 

 

A Friend’s Garden

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style”. ~ Maya Angelou

As we converted our passion to business and started out officially in Aug 2011, the journey seemed quite long and it seemed this would never go ahead. As days passed by, all our savings was draining out and Rajhesh’s day time job alone was fueling us with funds. Just the hopes and determination kept us going. In fact, we didn’t have a single garden (commercially) to work until May 2012. It was Archana, our dear friend who first offered us to re-pot and add few plants to her garden.  It was our silver lining on the dark cloud and we immediately accepted the offer.

Even though this was not our first garden experience, working on the commercial part was highly challenging as we didn’t know how to gauge the price, calculate the quantity of materials needed and so on. Archana was supportive and wanted to go ahead as planned, setting out for trial and errors.

We visited her home on a bright Sunday with few bags of compost, cocopeat, red sand and few herbs & seeds. Suhas & Rajhesh began working on the 40 to 50 odd pots, pulling out the weeds and soil mix from the pots. Later Archana also lent her hand with moving the pots around helping us to keep the place organized from all the mess. LOL!

Preparing the Potting Mix:

Our first potting mix with a ratio 1:1:1 (Compost, Cocopeat, Redsand) was prepared and later filled into all the possible containers at her place which included earthen pots, plastic pots, paint cans, old vessels, Plastic bags and whatever we could find in there.

It was then that we realised we still had 4 bags of Compost left which was extra. “1st lesson learnt” 🙂

And later we visited her garden for the next 2 months and we could see all the happy veggies and herbs growing in the garden and all the smiles on Archana’s face.

WE THANK ARCHANA FOR OPENING THE DOORS FOR OUR FIRST GARDEN 🙂