Greetings🙏 to all hive gardeners and hivers. Today My story about our Indian garden. for 2 years we are missing that. It is very pleasant and blessed by the universe. Full with good positive energy and positive atmosphere in Maharastra south India on the west coast. The whole plot is sandy only beach sand more than 6 meters deep. And all our plants in the garden grow in the sand and sun with sufficient water from the well. we only made a gravel road to the entrance because vehicles were often stuck in the sand. The garden is fully organic we don't use any fertilizer and we are not there the whole year. round so there is not much of a vegetable garden. But many ayurvedic plants, fruit trees and flowering shrubs which don't require so much care.
Our Indian garden
The bougainvillea welcomes everybody in the front of the house.
The entrance faces east so when we open the door in the morning the light at sunrise come through coniferous trees.
In the front there are a few coconut palms, mango trees, cashew trees, spices and different kinds of flowering plants are along the stone compound. sometimes the evening light makes it even more beautiful.
The rear view of the house. we made a sitting place under the coconut trees.
All around the border, we had lots of coniferous trees we call suru. we built a stone compound but still the trees are there and the soil gets covered with pine needles. Many birds like those trees. So we get visits from many bird species. In the winter we can observe more than 50 species of birds in our garden.
The well for drinking water is 6 meters deep in pure sand but the ground water comes through a layer of seashells. the water is very pure and sweet with a little bit of calcium in it. People are surprised when they drink this water because the sea is only 200 meters away.
When it is windy those tall pine trees look very scary.
from top left: Lemongrass and star jasmin. cardamom. curry leaves Murraya koenigii or Bergera koenigii). Shatavari (asparagus racemosus),
When getting visits from family and friends from the city they like to sit on the sandy ground. Enjoy lunch together having fun. It is very important to keep contact with mother earth.
Sometimes we get visits from european friends.
The sunset in the evening from the backdoor. the sea is just 200 meters from our plot. It takes 2 minutes from the backyard which is mostly coconuts palms and cashew trees.
The market is 2 km from our place. walking on the road is a good way to keep social connections meeting and talking with people along the way but come spring the sun is very strong.
We get several different types of mangoes. but usually they don't get ripe until we leave in april. We make good use of the green mangoes but the birds, monkeys and neighbors enjoy more of the ripe ones than we do
A few years ago we had papaya plants of very good quality. But nowadays there is a fungal blight so the fruit must be picked green. and since we are not there year round the monkeys eat all the leaves of the young plants so we haven't harvested any papayas in recent years.
A type of Indian gooseberry or amla. they are mostly used to make pickles but can also be eaten raw.
Ripe cashew fruits with the nut hanging under.
this special variety of lime tree bears fruit year round. when we are there we have lime most of the time so we don't need to buy much from the market.
The Chikoo fruit or sapodilla is very sweet and tasty. luckily we have plenty so we share with the birds, monkeys and other wild animals and still have left over to sell or give away.
Many trees of Sapodilla or Chikoo all birds feed. because of these trees, we get many different birds and animal visitors.
some come for fruits, some for insects and some for flowers and nectar. we love them, they are very welcome and safe in our garden.
We had many banana trees but these days monkeys like to eat the tender leaves so we rarely get to harvest any bananas.
many coconut trees no lack of coconuts the whole year. We use a lot of fresh coconuts. coconut oil, coconut milk coconut water for cooking as well as other uses.
Heavy work to peel coconuts.
My husband enjoys working in the garden.
Pineapples do grow here in the sand. but they are mostly treats for monkeys. we rarely get to pick the ripe fruit.
The cinnamon tree grows slowly but still has become very tall. we have not harvest the bark but use the leaves and nagkeshar
The native wild milkweed was growing all over the place but we cleaned out most of them and saved a few close to the front door, we can watch different sunbirds flying from flower to flower hunting nectar.
This is the night blossom called Ratrani. These tiny flowers open after sunset and the sweet fragrance fills the whole area. it grows outside our bedroom window and is very pleasant for a good night's sleep.
There is a lot more to share but enough for today. Coming soon with new post no.2