Nowadays, climate change has become part of our everyday vocabulary. We’re all encouraged to do something, anything. Not surprising, as the discourse has increasingly veered towards ‘saving the planet’, big businesses have jumped on to the bandwagon of the green movement.

One doesn’t have to look far to find corporations (often big polluters themselves) selling us products that are dubbed ‘environmentally-friendly’, ‘organic’, ‘up-cycled’, ‘recycled’, or ‘natural’ but which in reality may not be so.

Unfortunately, many well-meaning gardeners fall into this ‘trap’. Sadly, there is no official watchdog or certification system in Pakistan and most customers who do genuinely want to go green might face an uphill battle. But take heart, many organic products can be made at home — organic fertiliser for instance is very easy to make once you get the hang of it (see previous columns on this topic for more details).

We need to encourage our friends and families to make lifestyle changes and use eco-friendly products

While forests — along with the planting of indigenous trees in both smaller rural and urban areas — are urgently required to help purify the air we breathe, the focus should be on how we go about doing so.

Climate change is past the tipping point. We cannot stop extreme weather events that increasingly affect global population but we can — and must — change mindsets so that, in conjunction with living the ‘simpler’ life that so many of our mountain and village people still do, we begin to learn how to survive, peacefully, in the vastly altered world to come.

We need to make sure that we, as well as our families, make lifestyle changes and use eco-friendly products whenever possible. And we can all, as plant-lovers start by gardening as organically as possible.

To start off December and the upcoming year with a small carbon footprint and as ‘green’ as possible, here is a list of vegetables, herbs and flowers that you can grow.

December dos

The December vegetable patch

There’s an endless list of vegetables to pick from: cabbage, cauliflower, giant red mustard, mustard mizuna, Chinese salad greens, Chinese cabbage, bok choi, Swiss hard/leaf beet, spinach, chopsuey greens, winter lettuce, calabresse, radish, green onions, beans, peas, snap peas/sugar peas, potatoes, swedes, turnips, celery, chicory, endive. In the country’s southern regions, you can also sow tomatoes if you can give them protection on cold nights.

In the herb garden

The herb lover is spoilt for choice in the December growing season. You can sow lots of glorious nasturtiums, masses of useful calendulas, various members of the mint family, fast growing lavender, both flat leaved and curly parsley, coriander, sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, coriander, chives and garlic chives, borage, lemon balm, lovage, aniseed, dill, watercress, land-cress, chamomile, chervil and rosemary.

Bearing fruit

Fruit trees to plant from now until the end of February (select locally suitable varieties only) include: Apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, olives, apricots, cherries, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, mango, loquat, kumquat, custard apple, chico, guava, coconut, date, guava, star fruit, banana and jamun. Dwarf fruit trees can be grown in very large clay pots/containers.

Fruiting vines and fruit shrubs/plants: grapes, passion fruit, kiwi fruit, falsa and those ever popular strawberries.

A winter flower garden

This December, there’s plenty to choose from including clouds of cosmos, Queen Anne’s lace, nemophila, bellis, ageratum, sweet peas, larkspur, sweet sultan, phacelia, cornflowers, lots and lots of annual poppies, linaria, pansies/violas, linum, petunia, arcotis and brachycome.

Flower of the month: Scabosia

Scabosia are sun-lovers and come in a wide range of colours. They are excellent and long-lasting flowers which are loved by butterflies and bees. In December the annual varieties are the one to sow, not the perennial ones (which are sown late summer/early autumn).

Often called ‘pin-cushion’ plants due to their interesting flower structure, they are simple to grow. Sow the Scabosia seeds just under the surface of a reasonable, well-draining soil. Depending on the variety, they can bloom in just six weeks. The plant’s height ranges from six inches to 36 inches.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 4th, 2016