Indian Gardening

In October 2018, I arrived in India with a firm plan, unlike many other years when I had made it up as I went.

Steve and Emma, who I had lived with the previous year had rented a beautiful house on South Cliff and the garden was in serious need of reclamation!!

The owners had moved abroad and after a wonderful few months of rain the greenery had spread as had the many falling leaves.

The clothes I had left packed in Steve's and Emma's Bornio Muuk flat were washed and I moved into the new house to design the garden while Steve flew back to the UK leaving Catriona, a mutual friend with me as company.

My first job was to explore and evaluate.

I discovered a burning pit full of things in various stages of decomposition.

I circumnavigated the house discovering the weed covered back way to the washing machine!

I found the well, a shaky shed as well as a collection of broken tiles, metal bars and blocks.

At the front of the house an open area was strewn with leaves that someone had occasionally gathered into piles and burnt. 

Banana plants hung with limp leaves, this was going to be a challenge to enjoy.

I began by buying a few vital tools like a digging spade and a garden rake and having found an old tyre bucket held together with wire in the broken down shed I began clearing the front of the house.

Along the wall leading to the steps of the house an empty wall with a single papaya tree begged for a flowerbed. 

Colour to welcome guests to the house.

I also needed somewhere to put my gathered up leaves, green weeds and burnt matter so I marked off an area with a bamboo pole found in the car porch and began to fill it with alternating layers of each.

Each night, a few hours after we had watched the sun set from the roof top, fabulous thunder storms lashed the garden with rain turning the flowerbed mixture into rich compost daily.

Each day brought a fresh covering of leaves to the garden but now that most of the scattered burning areas were cleared, I just had to rake the front of the house to gather them up for compost, 

..... although I still had the banana plants to tackle,

Over the next week I raked every leaf, shifted every burnt pile until along with the blisters I had a clear area.

Peter arrived for a two month stay but as this was MY project he and Catriona monitored my water intake as each day I continued my weeding and sweeping, working my way slowly down the side of the house.

Each day I cleared a little more while maintaining the areas already done. 

Each day I began to start earlier and finish later until Peter and Catriona set me a time limit. 

At this continued pace they worried for my sanity and health!!

so I found quiet things to do!!

Peter and I are avid backgammon players and over the years we have acquired many boards but here in India we had failed to find a simple board we liked ....

.....so we made one.

Knowing I would be in India for an entire 6 months I had packed not only the sewing machine but oil paints and with Peter's help, we built our own special board …

.... then we built a second one having learnt some valuable lessons from our mistakes on the first!

Marker pen decorations were added and then both boards were varnished, sanded and varnished again giving us the perfect board for our evening games.

Each day now I would be in the garden by 6am, raking and clearing.

By 12 noon I would stop as the heat of the day made it impossible to continue.

With the backgammon boards complete I turned my attention to other calm pass times collecting pretty empty bottles from the street. 

These were washed and kept while I researched an idea I had for them.

There are a few wonderful beaches in Varkala but one small one called Black beach had a layer of black volcanic sand.

Each evening when Peter and I headed for an evening swim on the new second hand bike he had managed to buy, I collected a bag full of sand.

Occasionally we would go to the other beach with golden sand and so my sand collection grew.

Once I had enough and my research was as complete as it was going to get, I gently poured layers of the different coloured sand into the bottles until they were full and then sealed them with wax.

Some had a small hole in which incense sticks could stand, others had candles placed on top while a few just remained decorative!

I had deck scrubbed, on my hands and knees I might add, the upstairs patio and steps leading down to the garden when I had arrived at the house......

..... after nearly slipping down their green moss covered slime.

Three weeks later after constant nightly rain they no longer looked pristine clean and needed doing again 

but Peter was horrified to find me rubbing my knuckles to the bone and had different ideas.

Never a man to be with out the right tool for the right job he bought us a power washer!!

Happy to help he proceeded over the next few days to power wash everything in sight, 

the patio,

the steps,

the walls!!

I, in the mean time, moved onto the far side of the house.

The burning pit full of rotting wet grunge was emptied, 

sorted 

and refilled with burnable stuff.

Billions of termites had moved into the woven palm fronds in the car porch so they too were moved.

I gave them 24 hours to relocate throughout the garden, then I had a burning day to end all burning days!!

For hours the flames died down then rose up as I added pile after pile of rubbish gathered from my garden clearing.

There is no bin collection in India.

If you have it ....

..... it is up to you to get rid of it and even though burning is not environmentally friendly, in this garden we had no choice.

By now I was beginning see headway in the garden.

I cleared the area around the shed by the well.

I relocated big stones to build vegetable beds down the back of the house.

I stacked and wove the cut trees and branches between us and our neighbour to create a fence of sorts.

and I discovered, once I'd cleared it, a huge space around the burning pit and the well.

It was now time to start creating things!

Cutting taken from walks around the area were lined up on the kitchen window.

Seeds were sewn in soft compost in old washed curd bags ready for flower and vegetable beds.

I had discovered a huge pile of roofing slates under the cut down trees so once I cleared it with the owners Grandparent overseers that they were not needed I began to build things.

I came up with an idea to build raised beds in front of the house.

I drew plans, laying out the few remaining woven palms and then I began to dig.

It took two days to dig and build each of the four beds and by the time the last one was done I was exhausted but happy.

I went back to my drawings,

designing a frame made from the long metal building bars I had unearthed in the garden.

With Peters help, bars were first straightened then bent to cover the new beds.

Rope from the local shop was used to tension them together,

..... we later reverted to wire once the local dogs discovered the joy of chewing through the ropes near the floor each night!!

I planted the newly sprouted seeds … a garden was beginning to grow!!

The last of the roof tiles were unearthed, moved, the area was cleared before I returned them to build yet another raised bed.

Pumpkin seeds from a shop bought pumpkin were sewn in situ, we would see if they grew in a few weeks!

With the main garden clear I turned my attention to the area just outside, 

clearing again and discovering an unwanted pile of breeze blocks.

Again I checked with the family before moving every one to build more beds and sitting area,

filling the beds with either cleaned, discarded gravel left over from the original house build, or leaves and green weeds as I went.

It is all well and good clearing a garden but you still need somewhere to put the stuff!

Six weeks had now passed since I began the garden renovation and things were beginning to grow.

The pumpkins were spreading rapidly!

Water melon seeds sprouted

Luffa gourds and long beans broke the surface.

Flower cutting and sprouted seeds began to fill the well rotted compost flower bed.

Over the next week with our nightly down pours the garden sprang into life.

Established plants began to fruit .....

... and the new ones grew daily along the framework.

Our first luffa gourds grew much to my delight

and Peter finished cleaning the last piece of flooring on the roof.

Steve arrived back in India the day that Peter was due to fly home to the UK.

I wasn't at the house when he arrived but Peter told me he cried when he saw the transformation!

I have always loved a project but creating a garden for a great friend has to be one of my greatest achievements yet!!