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Grihvatika Journal

Regions: east

Crepe Jasmine

Neat glossy shrub with pinwheel white flowers; the easiest good hedge there is.

Kamini

Orange jessamine — flushes of scented white flowers after every rain.

Tuberose

Bulbs planted in March give heavily scented white spikes through the monsoon.

Balsam

A monsoon annual of verandah pots, with seed pods children cannot leave alone.

Colocasia

Big-leaved and happy in a wet corner; corms below, edible leaves above.

Elephant Foot Yam

One corm fills a large pot and returns a much bigger one in a year.

Sweet Potato

Ground cover, greens and tubers from a few cuttings pushed into soil.

Tapioca

The southern staple root — a stem cutting in June is a meal by March.

Yam

A winged-stemmed climber storing a heavy tuber under a monsoon trellis.

Drumstick

The fastest useful tree there is — 3 m in a year, edible leaves and pods.