My Jasmine flower plant in full bloom

I am so happy to share with you my jasmine flower plant.This is the right season and is a real happy sight to see.

After Cultivation 

Irrigation is most important for jasmines. Constant and adequate water supply (irrigating twice a week) in light soils during the flowering season i.e March to August which essential for good yield of flowers. After the flowering is over water supply can be gradually cut off. 

Pruning 

The pruning of jasmine is an important operation. With the approaching of winter the bushes start to shed the leaves. To promote good flowering water is withheld to the bushes in the 2nd fortnight of November which throws the plant to rest and shed the leaves. The plants are defoliated. The bushes are trimmed back to half the height and dead branches are removed in January. After such treatment towards end of January when temperatures rise farmyard manure is applied and irrigated which results in new growth and flowering towards the end of Februry to March. The climbing types on pandals are pruned in June-July. At pruning the dead branches and old stems are removed. 

Manures and Fertilisers 

The plants are usually manured once in every with organic manures in January before flush season commences at 10-12 kg FYM per plant. In some places tank silt and horse manure are also applied to get high yields. The manures are usually applied after pruning.

EVERYDAY KOLAMS

                              

These are  Navagraha kolams, that are drawn daily in our puja room.
Everyday has a specific kolam.I like to draw it in front of my swami room as they are easy and does contains the preethy of the graha on that day.Apart from these,Tuesdays are also  for Raghu  and Saturday for Kedhu .
For example,

                                         Sunday is for Surya

                                         Monday for Chandren

                                         Tuesday for Ankarakhan

                                        Wednesday for Bhudan  

                                         Thursday for Guru

                                         Friday for Sukuran

                                         and

                                         Saturday for sani

 

SUNDAY KOLAM

MONDAY KOLAM

ANOTHER TUESDAY KOLAM

TUESDAY KOLAM

WEDNESDAY KOLAM

.

SATURDAY KOLAM

ANOTHER SATURDAY KOLAM

FRIDAY KOLAM

THURSDAY KOLAM

 

KUBERA KOLAM

Kolams are thought to bestow prosperity to homes.It is a sign of invitation to welcome Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity.

It has been found to help in

1. Air Circulation and Cleansing
2. Exercise
3. Inviting the Gods
4. Food for living creatures
5. Meditation
6. Team work
7. Warding away Evil

On Fridays / Tuesdays - clean a wooden plate and draw the kubera kolam with rice flour. Place the kolam in front of the Kuberar.

You have to start from the center. That is you have to start from 24 and then 28 then 23, 22, 27, 20, 25, 26 and last 21. Then you have to keep one rupee coin on each number and you can even keep white flower on them. Only white flower.Or otherwise you can keep ‘Akshadai' on them.

The numbers are from 20-28. When we sum the numbers across the rows and columns they always end up in 72, which again boils down to 9 which is considered a divine number.

All the money related worries will be diminishing and there will be uniform flow of cash. Chant the below mantras for 11 times.

Kubera Slokam

Manuja Vakya Vimana Varasthikam
Garuda Rathna Nibam nidhi Thayakam
Siva saka murudathi vibooshidham
varagatham dhanatham baja thunthilam
Om yakshaya kuberaya
Vaiswaranaaya
Dhanadhanyathi pathaye
dhanadhanya samruththimme
Dehi Dabaya swaha

Looking forward to your comments and your interests in kolams.Do share your everyday kolams with me.

My harvests from my garden over the last few months

I have been trying my hand these days and would love to share the pictures of my greens,chillies,tomatoes and other vegetables.
Hope u enjoy seeing it as much as I have.

This is my lovely okra plant.I have removed them now as I have to get ready for the coming adi 18 when it is the right time to sow new plants.This particular bunch of plants has yielded so much for me.

 My backyard of the house had a small banana tree which gave me these bananas.They were not so big but they were extremely sweet to taste.

 

The greens that I share with my friends.I love the excitement on their faces as this is organically grown too.cheers

Our contribution to the future generations

Our contribution to the future generations has lead to me to search answers for a whole lot of things.

1.Where does the dirty soap water from our washing machine go?

I have now switched to a soap powder which is both harmless to our environment and back to basics of our forefathers(Soap nuts).I have started using KRYA,which is a 

a..Natural Detergent Powder made from certified organic soapberries
b. This is a 400 gm pack which will last around 40 standard 5 kg wash loads
c. Works in all types of washing machines
d. Great for hand or bucket wash as well
e. Cruelty free and vegan product (does not use any animal derived ingredient)

I intend to start making it available in my little outlet at home for my neighbours and friends.

2.My visit to a local textile shop made me ask the shopkeeper why he was not switching to Newspaper bags and Why he was using so many plastic bags??

 

Hence,have started my research on sourcing people to make Newspaper bags at the same cost as the  plastic bags.He has promised me to use Newspaper bags if I source it for the same rate Rs.1.75.I have been enquiring everywhere but they all don't seem to budge below 8 Rs.I am trying my hand at talking and getting an experienced lady to do it for Rs 2 atleast when I am ready to supply my newspaper for her.This week this is my goal.

I have slowly converted my friend,Radha to stop using plastic covers for every vegetable bought at the local veg market.Yipee.She may have stopped because of my nagging but for me it is a small beginning.

3.My love to stop using plastics and start using our bottles has made me buy this beautiful bottle where I now store my daily milk in the fridge.

I am sure that you will also appreciate my taste.

This is a bottle is from the brand named TREO.This gives one the feeling of the olden days when milk was sold in bottles.

4.I have also started storing water in this simple earthen pot which keeps it cool normally.

Water stored in this is not only cool but also tastes great.This has a smaller cup which also serves as a lid to this jug.

My vegetable terrace garden

I have started to enjoy seeing my terrace filled with pots and plants and the sheer pleasure of watching them grow keeps my going.I never knew I would get so addicted to them.

Nagging my husband into making some wooden boxes to accommodate more space for my tomatoes and chillies has brought in loads of greenery to my garden.

I started with 10 pots and now have 30 pots.I have also included a small bird feeder to attract birds and a bird bath too.

My vegetable garden now has -OKRAs(Vendaikai),SNAKE GOURD(Podalangai),Green chillies(Pachamolagai),Greens,Radish(Mulangi),KERALA CUCUMBER(vellarikai),Tomatoes and MINT(Pudina).

I am loving it.I am getting so addicted that a visit in the morning and evening to ensure that they are all okay cheers me up.

 This one is my kerala cucumber plant.I wanted to give it some support and added my old shoe rack to it.

These are my wooden boxes/crates that have tomatoes and chillies in them.

 Here,u can see a small kerala cucumber growing.

Here is my snake gourd growing on top with the ladder support that I have given.It grows so fast and the flowers so pretty to see.

 The picture above shows my tomatoes trying to get bigger.

 These are the flowers of the snake gourd.Now,I am sure you can see the beauty in the flower that I was talking about.

Adding a green net cooled down the place as chennai is ever subjected to heat.