Regions: West India

Companion-planting workhorse: keeps nematodes down and feeds bees all season.

Flowers nearly all year in a warm city, and sunbirds find it within a week.

A pot by an open window does more for a summer evening than any air freshener.

The Spanish jasmine of the perfume trade, grown widely in the north and west.

Green by day and overpowering by night; plant it away from a bedroom window.

Jowar — drought-hardy grain and fodder in one, on almost no inputs.

An old and quick millet, sown as a catch crop when the rains come late.

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

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

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