Do Good, Be Good
Gardening Time
Some plants fold up when touched, some follow the Sun and some grow faster than you'd believe! Get your hands a little muddy and discover the secret lives of plants.
Did you know?
The touch-me-not plant (chhui-mui in Hindi) folds its leaves when touched and opens them again a few minutes later, as if it is shy! Touch only the leaves, gently: its stems have tiny prickles.
Some kinds of bamboo can grow about 91 cm in a single day! Bamboo is actually a giant grass, and it is among the fastest-growing plants in the world.
Young sunflower buds turn to follow the Sun across the sky during the day. When the flowers open, they stay facing east, towards the sunrise.
Try this: Bean in a jar
Line a clear jar with wet tissue paper. Push two rajma or moong seeds between the tissue and the glass so you can see them. Keep the tissue damp and the jar near a window. Watch the root grow down and the shoot grow up. When the shoot is a few centimetres tall, turn the jar around. What does the shoot do next? (It bends towards the light!)
Go further: Worms: a gardener's best friends
Earthworms eat dead leaves and soil and leave behind rich droppings called castings, which help plants grow. The famous scientist Charles Darwin studied earthworms for about forty years and wrote a whole book about them in 1881! Many gardeners keep worms in a bin to turn vegetable peels into compost. This is called vermicomposting. 'Vermi' comes from the Latin word for worm.