Tulsi & the monsoon ear

The tulsi came in fast this year. By the second week of April the rows were waist-high and the air around them carried a clove-sharpness you could taste.

“Notes from the lower garden on the week the rains arrived early.”

We cut at dawn, while the oils are still resting in the leaf. Mid-day cuttings lose their perfume by the time they reach the drying shed.

If you grow tulsi at home, pinch the flowering tips back into the plant — it doubles the leaf and keeps the bush from going woody.