Seasons: Summer

A floating rosette that shades a tub and starves the algae — but a weed if it escapes.

Grows on water or wet mud and crops every fortnight through the monsoon.

The same lotus, grown in deep mud for the crisp rhizome of the Kashmiri kitchen.

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

A leafless broom-like desert shrub that fixes sand and feeds camels.

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

A floating fern that fixes nitrogen — fertiliser and fodder that grows itself.

Sweet basil — indigenous cultivation across India long before its pizza career.

The mehndi hedge of the dry west — scented flowers and dye leaves.

A few canes in a corner give juice, gur and a green screen by October.