Welcoming the winter season.

SEASONS.... they have an impact on all of us I believe.We all look forward to our favourite time of the year given the geographical conditions , of course . For us, who live in the plains of North India, Summer is an ordeal. The hot and humid months leave you reeling with distress, they drain you out completely and leave no desire in you to do anything worthwhile. Though we are quite accustomed to the endless summer months, I have to say I really want to put the curtains on them as early as I can . We don't really have autumn or the fall here so the end of September marks the beginning of Winters for us. When there is a nip in the morning air, the evenings are pleasant and the first rays of the sun are what we start looking forward to, we are quite positive it's winter season that's knocking on the door and we want to welcome it with open arms.
      It's the time when you want to have your first morning cuppa out in the sun,  when the kids will be scrambling for the sunny spots in the house and the pet dog will push everyone out of the way because it's her corner now and she refuses to share it with anyone . The smell of Naphthalene fills the air as you open those old trunks to sort out the woollens to be sunned on the terrace later, also the time when you realize how much the kids have grown since last year since almost every piece of clothing you pick up looks really small for them to wear this year again. Sigh ! Another round of shopping .
 What I really love about the winters here are the lovely, foggy mornings and the affinity you feel with the smell that emanates from it. The winters, for me are all about lovely flowers and a riot of colours that the garden gradually turns into in this season. I look forward to preparing my garden every year around this time and planning everything right from purchasing the pots in different shapes and sizes, getting the soil and manure ready and then finally picking and choosing the plants I want in the required areas. The love for gardening is something that I have inherited from my mother. As a kid, I have fond memories of my mother tending to her garden . She took her garden very seriously ( still does) and I as a little child while playing in the garden could'nt help but overhear the instructions she used to dole out to the gardener while sitting on her chair as she got the garden ready just at the beginning of Winters. She was very particular about where she wanted her pansies, daisies and her sweet alyssums . Being the dwarf variety, they always occupied a place of pride in the front rows and the higher plants like lakspurs, margarets and holly-hocks, used to be pushed in the background in the last row. They could be seen even from a distance. Then came the salvias and cinerarias that were non fussy and could be put even in the shade and then came the roses and the dahlias that required the strong rays of the sun. She even had a hand made sketch of those flowers and the flower beds that she intended to plant them in, so that things don't go wrong at the last moment. These names and the natural conditions of the flowering plants were imbibed by me even as I played away in a carefree manner and they latched on to my mind subconsciously and were as mundane as the instructions doled out by my mom everyday like " wash your hands before your meals" or " say thank you" or " don't talk when your mouth is full" or even something that she loved saying " money does'nt grow on trees" Now when I try to use the same mom-ism on my daughter to fetch the same result, she retorts " I know money does'nt grow on trees but now we have the ATM machines which mean any time money, so much better  than those trees" . Sigh ! I can never get the kids to listen to me . Sorry for digressing ... going back to my own mommy, yes the imprints of those guidelines on gardening are still fresh in my mind and refuse to fade even with the passage of time.
  Coming back to my own handkerchief sized garden, the space is less, no doubt but the enthusiasm is no less. There is always a fight for space since the husband has developed a sudden love for planting vegetables and fruit trees. He is the same man who could not even differentiate  between a rose and a lotus plant ( yeah, he was that bad) some years ago but my green fingers rubbed off on him very soon and now he tells the guys at the plant nursery that he wants Ficus plants, proudly pointing to the right ones. Yes the same man who used to hate accompanying me to the nursery and would cool his heels outside while I hopped from one batch of flowers to another in a frenzy, buying every possible variety of plant available and would sulk for several hours just because he was forced to tag along with me, all his protests notwithstanding . Now he loves his weekly jaunts to the same nursery and even goes without me if I happen to be busy that day just  because it would get too late for the moolis ( radish) and the gaajars ( carrots) if they were not planted immediately. Sigh ! Why do I get to handle extremists all the time !
       So that's my garden story for you at the moment. I have lots of ideas up my sleeve. This year I plan to go vertically with the plants since I have to set aside some space for the husband's veggies too and I also plan to add more colour to the patio with hanging baskets ( petunias and geraniums make good basket flowers) so stay tuned for all the exciting stuff. Posting some pictures of last year's garden , they spur me forward and motivate me further, as if I need that .Will see you all soon with some pictures of my garden this year as soon as it is ready :)