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Natural Coolant for the Eye

Nature is always there to rescue us. During these pandemic times, most of us are glued to computer screens, Television, mobile phones and various electronic devices. Gazing at these continuously leads to Dry Eye phenomenon resulting in itching of the eye, rashes, redness in the eye, and various other eye-related problems. A natural remedy for keeping the eye cool and preventing dryness is using CASTOR-OIL. It is freely available. Just apply a few drops and it ensures that the eyes stay moistened and cool. 

Home-made easy remedy to Keep Ants away

 However much we may love Ants and their beautiful, synchronous style of ambling across the garden floor, they seem to play havoc with the plants. My beautiful greens like Long Beans are being dwarfed and overwhelmed by Ant-attack.Here's a fairly simple solution to keep the ants away. Ants are repelled by the smell of citrus and soap. So mix some detergent (preferably containing lemon) in water and spray it on the leaves. Leave for a few hours or overnight, and the ants would go away. The next day, make sure to sprinkle water to get rid of detergent.

World looks to Indian Herbs & Ayurveda during COVID

COVID has created quite a disruption in the world, which is now looking to some cure/ preventive measure to help things get back to normal. Several herbal concoctions are now being studied as possible cures for COVID.Our own

• Tulsi (Basil), 
• Neem, 
• Ginger, 
• Turmeric, 
• Betel leaves , 
• Cinnamon, 
• Cardamom
  and a variety of herbs and leaves that form a part of a typical Indian diet are believed to boost immunity and prevent infection. 

Ayurveda being a holistic system suggests a rigorous and disciplined routine coupled with home-made simple food to prevent the spread of the VIRUS.

Of course, clinical research is being carried out to validate all the above. But no harm befalls one who follows the above as a possible preventive measure.

Medical Power of the Banana leaf - Eat the South Indian Way

It is a time-honoured practice in Tamilnadu and other South Indian states to eat off a Banana leaf - (not a plate that is so typical now). The advantages of eating from a Banana leaf is manifold:
1. Hygiene - It is use and throw - there is no reuse - so you are ensured of hygiene and cleanliness. The leaf can be used only when it is fresh, so no question of "Old stocks". It is quite easy to grow a banana tree in the home - one can harvest a leaf just before a meal to have a very fresh leaf for the meal.
2. Medicinal properties - When hot food is served on the banana leaf, the food mildly absorbs the antioxidants and other friendly chemicals from the leaf and transmits it to the body in very small doses. These anti-oxidants are similar to what is found in Green Tea. So they enter the body effortlessly and work to prevent any stomach disorders, and prevent various other ailments.
3. Since its a use and throw, there is no need for post-meal washing - so no usage of soaps or water - how better could conservation become.
4. What happens to the used leaf? You can dump it in a nearby open space. If cows are sheep are in the vicinity, they will have a quick snack, if such bovine animals do not frequent the place, the leaves will decay and mingle with the soil in just a few days' time.

Once you plant a banana tree, it also gives rise to shoots of new baby banana trees, hence, they live on for ever, provided you give them space, and some water.
Hail our culture for influencing our lives in subtle but powerful ways.

Getting Birds to your Garden

Birds are a beautiful and integral part of a garden.Bird Feeders are a good way to attract birds to visit one's garden.Give garden birds some tasty treats with this simple, but attractive bird feeder. Hang them up outdoors and watch all the birds fly in for a snack. Range of grain eating birds like sparrows, silver bills, munias to parakeets. Birds like pigeons will not be able to feed from this..

Make your Own Bird Sanctuary

When you install bird feeder you are creating a birds sanctuary around your home.

Tea - A beverage that helps you live longer

Tea is an aromatic drink that is popular the world over. It has many excellent properties that are beneficial for our health, so much so that they help us live longer. It contains anti-oxidants that help reduce the harmful effects on the body, and help us look and feel younger. It is also known to help in weight-loss which has a very positive cascading effect on the entire body system. 

Compared to coffee, tea contains less caffeine, and thereby does not stress the nervous systems. Medical research proves that consuming tea regularly reduces the risk of stroke and other heart diseases. 

Going beyond the vintage, classic teas, the market today is flooded with Ayurvedic Teas that blend various useful ingredients (right from the very useful Ginger) to normal tea to make it even more beneficial to the consumer. 

 

When tomato prices are dear

Tomatoes are the world's most popular fruit (yes, not vegetable). When tomatoes are in demand, the rates shoot up quite rapidly. A home garden with tomato plants is the ideal solution. But if you are not able to grow them, the next easier alternative is to buy tomato puree. Tomato puree is made by extracting tomato pulp, and usually contains preservatives to keep it fresh. It's available anytime, anywhere, so it's a good idea to stock some puree for use. 

Keep your plants cool - Shade nets for gardens

Shade nets helps in controlling temperature, light, water and moisture as per your requirement and thus resulting in best output and quality of crop. They protect the crop against the heavy rain and air. Shade nets enables the farmer to best utilize the waste land and increase the cultivation area for increasing the output. With green net even small piece of land can yield in high output. The level of carbon dioxide remains high in green house which increases the photosynthesis process and results in higher yield of the crop cultivated. With green house the environment of the crop can be controlled resulting in healthy crop with better quality and better yield.

Click here for details

Want to grow your garden vertically? Walll-planters are the solution

Want to grow your gardenVertically? Use Wall-planters. These Vertical Garden panels are easy to add on sides top and bottom on most surfaces. Wall-planters can be hanged, wall mounted, can also be fixed on gates, compound walls, balconies. 

A big advantage is that the Wall-planters are very Light-weight, durable and easy to clean. Space-saving, its a useful accessory for urban gardeners who have space constraints. 

It's the perfect gift for gardeners of all levels. 

Click here to see details (including costs)

Best camera for garden photography

Want to take a great picture of your garden and share it with friends? Want your roses featured on twitter and facebook? Don't buy a digital camera. An easier alternative is to buy an Iphone. In recent times, some of the older versions of the phone that are equally good and capable are available at throwaway prices. Recently, flipkart is selling the iphone at the lowest price (17,999) and with an instant 10% discount on credit cards, it becomes close to Rs. 15,000. Here's a quick link to buy the iphone - Apple iPhone SE (Gold, 32 GB)

It's not only about the device - it is also about the wonderful apps for photo taking, special effects, editing, post-processing, and more. The iphone is the best way to organize and share your photos and videos via email, e-cards, and social media . 

Bye bye digital cameras. Welcome iphone.

A humble but useful accessory for gardening

It is always useful to have a gun in your hand while gardening - only its the humble water spray-gun - nothing lethal about it. A hose of atleast 10 metres will be useful to ensure that you need not carry pails of water across the garden. 

Water your entire garden conveniently. It also doubles up to spray-clean your car and other vehicles. You can buy a multi-functional water spray gun here.

Vermicompost for the garden

If there is one thing that you need to do to ensure a healthy garden, you need to keep the quality of your soil high, enriched in nutriets. Vermicompost is the right and natural way to ensure that your soil quality is maintained.

Vermicompost (or vermi-compost) is the product of the composting process using various species of worms, usually red wigglers, white worms, and other earthworms, to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. This process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting.

Worms at work turning organic waste into useful vermicompost.

Click here to buy some vermicompost for your garden

Lemongrass - Many Uses and an Easy to Grow Plant

Lemongrass, also called fever grass, is a perennial plant with thin, long leaves. While the grass smells like lemon, it tastes milder and sweeter. 

USES:

It is used as a herb in various cuisines as a flavoring agent due to its potent flavor.

It is also useful in alternative or complementary remedies for many ailments. It has many beneficial medicinal properties including analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antipyretic, antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, astringent, carminative, diuretic, febrifuge, galactogogue, insecticidal, sedative, and anti-cancer properties. The leaves, stems and bulb of lemongrass are used in various treatments.

NUTRITION FACTS:

Lemongrass contains vitamins A and C, folate, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and manganese. It also has minute traces of B vitamins.

The 100th Post - Litchi the wonder fruit

This blog has seen it all - a lot of quick burst posts, some lull and no activity - and now its a great moment to see that its seeing its 100th Blog post. 
I choose this post to write about the "Litchi " fruit. It is called a wonder fruit, and not without reason. 
The fruit is supposed to aid in protection against heart disease and cancer.  
Litchis contains soluble fiber which controls bowel problems and keep the stomach free from toxic compounds and help to clean the colon. Lychee is an amazing source of Vitamin C and other nutrients that are beneficial for your skin.
It helps in bone maintenance, and also leads to weight loss. It helps in strengthening the hair. 



With so many benefits, it certainly deserves to be put in the Wonder Fruit Category.
Happy Litchiying!!!

Soaps contain Animal Fats?

Did you know that most commonly used soaps contain Animal Fats?

Its safer to look for soaps that contain a "Does not contain Animal Fat" label / mark and buy them. The store at the link below has a variety of Herbal Bath Soaps without any animal fat content, and in an exotic set of Flavors - Sandal, Jasmine, Vettiver, Lavender, Lemon Fresh, Cool Splash etc.

https://www.payumoney.com/store/buy/itsrainingdeals

Clean Ganga & other projects - Are we following the right approach?

At the outset, I would like to congratulate all those who have come up with the noble initiatives of cleaning Ganga and other rivers, and wish them well. A National Mission for Clean Ganga has also been established. 

Yes, first-up, we need to get rid of the dirt, and garbage and what not that has already gotten into the rivers. 

The question raised by me is "Are we following the right approach?".  All our policies and initiatives related to water management focus on how to clean and manage good water and water sources like the rivers. But looking upstream, the prioritization would be better if we focus on "how to manage the garbage and dirty water". More often than not, the filth and dirt that are produced due to our everyday living (personal, economic etc.) is bound to be produced. If there were proper disposal systems in place, why would anyone let these wastes into the river? Do we have a proper waste-disposal system? 

As a practical expression of this approach issue, we have "Water Tax" for utilizing water supplied by the local bodies like panchayats. But we never talk about "Garbage Tax" which is more critical, and is an area that requires more investment for building and operating waste disposal units. Let's hope all the talk and brainstorming leads to a better future for our rivers, and ultimately ourselves. 

Fruit Names in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi

English	Tamil	Malayalam	Hindi
Apple	Applepazham அரத்திப்பழம் / குமளிப்பழம்	Apple pazham	Sev
Apricot	Sarkkarai Badami சர்க்கரை பாதாமி		Khoobani/ khumani
Avocado (Butterfruit)	Vennai pazham  வெண்ணைப் பழம்		Makhanphal
Banana	Vazhaipazham வாழைப்பழம்	Yethampazham	Kela
Blueberry	Avurinelli அருவிநெல்லி		Falsa
Cantaloupe	Parangi pazham பரங்கி		Kharbuja
Coconut	Thengai தேங்காய்	Thenga	Nariyal/ Kopra
Custard Apple	Seetha pazham சீதா பழம்	Seethappazham	Shitaphal/ Saripa
Dates	Pericham pazham பேரீச்சம்பழம்	Eetha pazham	khajoor
Fig	Atti Pazham அத்தி பழம்	Athi pazham	Anjeer
Gooseberry	Nellikai நெல்லிக்காய்	Nelli	Amla
Grapefruit
Grapes	Dratchai திராட்சை	Dratcha or Munthiri	Angoor
Green Berry / zizyphus			Ber/ Bor
Guava	Koiya கொய்யா	Peraka	Amrud
Jackfruit	Palapazham பழாபழம்	Chakka	Kathal
Jambu fruit / bell fruit	Panchali pazham / பஞ்சலிப்பழம்		Jamun
Lemon	Kolinchi pazham	Naranga	Galgal/ Nimbu
Lime	Elumichai எலுமிச்சை	Cherunaranga	Nimbu
Lychee			Lichi
Mango	Mam pazham மாம்பழம்	Mangnga	Aam
Mulberry	mulberrypazham		Shehtooth
Musk Melon (Cantaloupe)	Mulam pazham		Kharbooja
Olive			Jaitun
Orange	Naaram	Naaranga	Narangi
Papaya	Papalipazham பப்பாளி	Omakka	Papeeta
Pear	Berikkai பேரிக்காய்	Sabarjil	Nashpati
Pineapple	Annasi அன்னாசி	kaithachakka	Ananas
Plum			Aloobukara
Pomegranate	Madhulam மாதுளம்	Maadhala naarnga/ Urumampazham	Anar
Prunes	Kodi Mundiri pazham/ கொடிமுந்திரி		Alubokhara
Raisins	kismis	Unakkamunthiri	Kismis
Sapota/ Sapodilla	Sapota	Chikku	Chikku
Starfruit	Pulichikai	Ilumbi Puli	Kamrakh
Stoneapple	Vilvam or koovilam	Koovalam	Bel/ Siriphal
Strawberry
Sweetlime	Chaatukudi சாத்துக்குடி	Musambi or Madhuranaaranga	Mosambi
Tamarind	Puli புளி
Water Chestnut			Singhara
Watermelon	Tarboosni தர்பூசணி	Thannimathan	Tarbooz / kalingad
White goosefoot			Bathua