Seasons: Monsoon

Thrives on being ignored — the more you neglect it, the harder it flowers.

Regrows from the root end of a shop-bought bunch — the cheapest crop there is.

A Himalayan ginger relative with scented white flowers and aromatic rhizomes.

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.

One of the small millets of tribal central India, quick and undemanding.

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

A hill millet that tolerates waterlogging better than any other grain.

Grown for seed rather than leaf; magenta heads over the whole monsoon.

A Himalayan pseudo-grain that flowers white and feeds every bee for miles.