What a Day !

News Feed

News Feed: With light showers and cloudy sky, Karachi awaits monsoon; a season when everything comes to life. Nature seems to be in a pre-monsoon celebration mood too! For the first time I was successful in growing fenugreek (meethi). Our cockatiels are waiting for their eggs to hatch, flowers are blooming and bees have been visiting all day! hundreds of pigeons fly over the head every now and then to add more peacefulness to the scene. I even learned to separate suckers from ferns and palms.With flowers,evergreens,crops,water features,birds and the wildlife , i am gratefully enjoying all elements of nature!

Happy Gardening!

Pot-Perfect Ponds

Ambiance of roaring waterfalls, rushing rivers, reflecting lakes, ruffling oceans and sprinkling rain always captivate ones heart to divulge the poet inside. A creative Water feature is bond to depict the same dreamy milieu in your garden.

Any type of garden can creatively add a water feature. Recent visit to Pasha's farm filled my heart with inspirations for my own pot perfect pond

Tofiq Pasha has several ponds around the house which is surrounded by breathtaking view of the farm. Soothe n serene courtyard inspired me the most. Portraying Japanese water gardens, it has lovely pond with beautiful water lilies and trees all around. Chirping birds and music from wind chimes adds special mellowness to the place.
With promised aquatic plants from Pasha; I have been experimenting with my own ponds-in-a-pot designs.
Plants I had included yellow water lilies (Nymphaea mexicana) Soft rush (Juncus effusu) Common salvina (Salyinia minima), water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata)

It is important to know that aquatic plants belong to 4 categories
1. Submerged aquatics (lives completely underwater)
2. Free floating plant drift about the surface of the pond with their roots dangling in the water.
3. Deep-Water plants have their roots in water that is 45cm or more in depth. Leaves stand out or float on the surface.
4. Marginal Aquatics grow in the shallow water around the edge of the pond.


Yellow Water lily is a deep water plant. Its roots need to be at least 12 in underwater. It Flowers well in sun. yellow lilies are not fragnant but are as divine as the common white lilies.


My plants are still too young, photos of lilies are from pasha's ponds.

Common salvina is a fast growing floating plant. It needs to be controlled or else the dense colonies will cover the surface of the pond blocking all sunlight which will eliminate submerged and deep water plants.

I like them in a traditional clay pot. they are doing quite well in the shade.

Soft rush is also a deep water plant. It is a dark green grass like plant that grows 3-4 feet tall in clusters. Hydrilla is a submerged aquatic with fine leaves.

Water lettuce is another floating plant with hairy roots.It multiplies rapidly by producing several suckers which furthermore produce baby plants and the cycle goes on.

I started off with 4-5 water lettuce plants last month,and now i have whole container full of them.

Planting water plants is quite simple. I began with cementing the hole at the bottom of the container. Placed the pots containing the plants in the large container and then filled it up with water. Soil and gravel can directly be added to large containers to plant Aquatics that needs soil. Floating plants can be placed on the surface.
Ponds require proper maintenance. Moss can create problems in containers placed in sunlight. Introducing moss eating fishes can control the problem and keep your ponds clean. Ponds in pots might need to be refilled after few days.

One can play with designs and can go absolutely eccentric with water plants especially if it’s a pond-in-a-pot. Fishes can be added to create natural environment. Some birds feed on seeds of lotus, and are attracted to flowers of soft rush.

I am enjoying my water gardening experience. Cant wait to see blooming water lily in a moonlit night!what a experience it would be.


Go Eccentric Gardening!

Go Wild Gardening!

A productive organic garden makes you feel pleasingly wild while being a heaven for not only you, but also for the wildlife !

Idea behind being an organic gardener is that you do everything the nature's way. Scientific evolution departed us from nature. We tend to find quick fixes for everything now without realizing their long-term effects on our environment

Pesticides sprays done on crops that we eat, not only devastate our health and environment, but they also kill beneficial insects that are less tolerant to these deadly chemicals.

These friendly bugs are nature's way of pest control. Attracting beneficial insects and wildlife to your garden will control many pests for you such as snails, slugs and greenflies.

Tiny parasitoid wasps prey aphids and caterpillars. Lacewing larvae and ladybug larvae and adults exterminate aphid populations and the ground beetles target on a variety of ground-dwelling pests. But these friendly bugs are very sensitive and less tolerant to pesticide sprays.

These innocent creatures need to feel welcomed in your garden. For this purpose, companion planting is encouraged. Dill attracts aphid eating hoverflies. Strong scented flowers not only attract bees and other beneficial insects but also discourage pest attacks on your crops. Garlic plants keep away aphids. Planting marigolds with tomatoes also ward off aphids.

Even some crops are grown together with strong fragrance to avoid pest growth such as carrots and leeks are advised to be planted together because they drive each other's pests away.

Peppers, tomatoes and eggplants like to be grown together. Crop rotation also helps in avoiding pest buildup. This means growing crops on alternate plot each year.

For me these pests have not really been a trouble. But being close to wildlife is divine. So this year I am planning to introduce new flowers and herbs to my garden that will make my organic garden complete.

photos: Sweet williams: Foxglove : Cornflower

Sweet William or Dianthus barbatus is a perennial plant and its nectar attracts birds, bees and butterflies and it's an edible flower, which doesn’t mean that I am going to try to eat it, but it will defiantly beautify my food!

Digitalis purpurea or fox glove flowers are usually biennial which means that they flower a year after planted. But now mostly fox gloves seeds available, flower within 5 months of sowing the seeds. These unlike the sweet William are poisonous ones. It is used for medical purposes and in study of molecular biology. I love this one and most excited to see this amazing 4 feet tall flower stem grow!

Corn flower or the bachelor's button, is another outstanding cut flower. It's an annual. which means that the die after flowering. This is also edible and attracts birds, bees and butterflies. Many folklores are associated the flower and its also known for its blue pigment, and other herbal uses.

Zinnias : Asters :Lavender

Do also have zinnias, asters and daisies in my list and the most amazing herb lavender that has uncountable uses. Its essential oil is famous and wildly used for herbal and medical and decorative purposes.

Lavender flowers produce nectar that provides good quality honey for the beekeepers. Which means it attract lots bees and also birds and butterflies. Bunches of lavender are grown in gardens to deter insects.

I am still not sure about flowering season of some of them. But some will defiantly be there when my crops are growing.

I can almost foresight my brilliant crops with stunning flowers; fluttering butterflies, buzzing bees and a perfect natural environment not only for me but also for the wild life.

It’s a sight so heavenly that it must be felt in real.One can never get bored watching a tweeting bird, swinging on a branch, and can never stop oneself from adorning and running after a butterfly, refreshing scents of flowers will never turn off anyone's mood, smell of earth will always make one take a deep breath to fill up the aroma of life inside! Because nature is made for man, and being away from it have flooded our lives with imitations, be it around us or within us.

Appreciate nature, and be a part of it!

photosfor this blog were randomly collected from different websites.