Seasons: Monsoon

Fast, thirsty and best trained up a net where air can move around it.

A long curling gourd of southern and eastern kitchen gardens.

Palmarosa — a scented grass of the central hills, distilled for its rose-like oil.

A sedge most people fight as a weed, though its tuber is an old perfume material.

The monsoon green that grows itself — heat-proof, rain-proof, ready in a month.

A thick-leaved climbing spinach that thrives in the worst of the monsoon heat.

One good plant in a 40 cm pot out-yields four crowded ones. Stake it early.

One plant on a sill supplies a household, and crops for two years.

A long-season crop that rewards a big pot and steady feeding.

Summer staple for a sunny terrace; pick every second day or pods turn woody.