A butterfly in the plant

Yesterday we discovered a little butterfly on our Kalanchoe! It was coming out of its cocoon. Two of its friends had already come out of their cocoons and left. Very interesting discovery...

Down the play plant lane!

Creating homes for the creatures...which will be attached to the plant.

A new watering dude

meet the water dude...

baby pictures...before the horn grew.

posing with cactus dude

him now...

being tough

the box garden structure!

I spent all day figuring out how to fix the wheel onto the box. whether to use an axel, or just screw it on? What to do for the water proofing? what kind of screws to use? How to put them on?..How to ensure a free movement of wheels?...etc etc.

Finally managed to come up with this!

(we still need to attach a small handle to which one tie a string to drag the garden around)

A new Mangarvalli and seed bags in action

I found this beautifull exemplar of the mangarvalli. With flowers! We will try to plant it this weekend. And this is what the seed bags look like when they are full of seeds. not bad...

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

(thanks shilo! :) )

today.

Today was a packed day. We went to Lalbagh to get seeds and to identify some plants were waiting for identification forever. we managed to find the names for all of them! which was very good.

We bought seeds too, but its a bit tricky as we would like to the plant to be small but not too small when we give them to kids. But its hard to know how fast they will grow. we plant them tomorrow and hope the best!

We also went to S.P road to get wheels for our box garden and today we began making the box. Making the box has been a bit of a pain. Most of the machines in the workshop in college weren't working or couldn't do what we wanted , and it was too expensive to get it made outside. So we have been running all over trying to figure things out and do them ourselves. Now my uncle is helping us put it together.

Today we also worked on making jute homes for the tetra pack planters. very simple ones with little loops for it to hang.

a little break:)

Couldnt take a picture of the K.R Market that day, but made a sketch from the flyover! This place is a treasury ...must go!

Watering creature

We have made this watering device which is supposed to make it a little more fun to water your plant. Its a watering creature. its made out of rubber tube and a plastic bottle. I make holes in the lid tomorrow. We got such good feed back on the rubber tube creature so we thought it would be nice to use the material again. Also it makes sense to use something that is waterproof... This is the first one of its kind. Will see what people say

x

plant of the week!

Cissus quadrangularis (mangarvalli)

Cissus is a little shrub that is generally found growing over other bushes. known to be an ancient medical plant that can cure nearly everything from stomach aches to healing bone fractures to ulcers. but it is most famous as a body building medicine, it makes you and your bones big and strong.

The Sanskrit word asthisamharaka literally means that which saves the bones from their destruction.

For that purpose, externally, the crushed stems are used as a poultice over bone fractures, along with the juice of its roasted stems, and is eaten with ghee.

The herb is also fed to cattle to induce flow of milk. The whole plant is used in fractures, sprains, irregular growth of teeth,various wounds and cracked tail.

But the fresh juice of the plant can sometimes also irritate the skin and cause itching.

Description:

The stem is made from long thick, fleshy, quadrangular (four sided) sections joined together. The plant can reach a height of 1.5 m and the sectioned branches are sometimes 8 to 10 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. The stems are often leafless, when old.

The leaves are thick and have three lobes.

The flowers are small, greenish white, in a bunch on a stem.

The berries are egg shaped.

How to grow:

light: in a place where there is a lot of light but it doesn't get direct sun.

water: water once in two days just enough to keep the soil a little wet. in the winter reduce water.

Multiply!

just by snapping off a piece and burying a node in soil. in a couple of weeks it will form roots and begin to grow.

(15 march-21 march)

Drimiopsis is a bulbous , cute spotty plant from South Africa.

leaves: are fleshy,light green, oval leaves that have darker translucent spots.

flowers: The flower stalk rises 6 to 12 inches above the leaves and has a cluster of small bright white flower buds that open and turn to a pale green.

how to care: Plant in light shade,and water just enough to keep the soil moist. watering it once in two days is enough. water only twice a week in winters.

it blooms late spring to summer and is quite hardy.

multiply:it will multiply in the garden to form clumps with a bulb each. these can be planted separately into other pots, with a mix of sand and manure, just below the surface of the soil.

watch out!this plant is a favorite food for snails!, make sure to protect it from snails.

Very special guests in SFS

Yesterday Nikita came to sfs x to work. we edited posters and made stickers, and just looked through the print material making sure its are ready to go. We finished as many seed bags as possible till we ran out of material.

Very special guest...

Bhindi, mustard, mung and mustard again

disaster at the potters

On Saturday, i went to the potters town to get back the pots we had given to get made. 4 pots had cracked and so we have to make them again ! Also the potter had promised to do some finishing at the base of the pots, but didnt do it, so they looked a little messy. On monday we will go back and get them made, and hopefully do the finishing ourselves.

some more seed bags....

for moong, mustard, sunflower and bhindi.. yet to be finished though.

Seed bags

Yesterday was a very productive day. All the seed bags were made and they turned out nicely. This is one of the more experimental seed bags. The sunflower...

Today we have been making pots and they will be ready in about 10 days. We also got bambou from Jackson, so hopefully in the next few days we can start planting the plants in their final pots...

planters!

I went to kalasipalyam chor bazaar today... sorry i couldnt get pictures...i was warned that the market is full of thieves!

other than being stalked i managed to get some nice stuff, for very cheap!!! The market is really cool!