Making neighbourhood 'green' with envy

PATNA: Terrace or rooftop gardening has become many a city couple's latest style statement, thanks to growing apartment culture.
Visit state's former chief information commissioner Justice (retd) Shashank Shekhar Singh and his wife Asha Singh, and you are greeted by a well-tended lawn and brightly-coloured flowery bed. It spreads natural freshness all around their residence on the fifth floor of an apartment on SP Verma Road.
"For apartment residents who love gardening, terrace greening is quite a satisfying and productive preoccupation," Asha Singh told TOI.
This prized possession of the Singhs did not come up overnight. The couple has been tending the flora on the terrace of their private residence since 1996. "We then lived in our official bungalow but we would visit the apartment every weekend to nurture the flowers," Justice Singh said and added now that he has retired, the rooftop gardening has become his full-time engagement.
There's a rare plant in the Singhs' garden. Called 'Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow', the flower's pink shade changes every day. Their green collections include red guava, stevia (whose leaves can be used as a sugar substitute), vermillion, Chinese orange, devil's thorn, fireball, poinsettia, Hawaiian lily, lavender, 'basmati', 'harsingar', calendula, 'amla', 'aprajita', pomegranate and lemon. Many of these the Singhs brought from places like Andaman, Ooty, Chennai and Bangalore.
Rooftop gardens need extra care as the plants are more exposed to direct sunlight, strong winds and severe cold. An overhead shade is a must to protect the plants from perishing. "During the rains, we bring all the plants inside the house," Asha Singh said.
No less devoted have Manoranjan and Chandrakanta Sinha been to the garden on the terrace of their apartment on East Boring Canal Road. It's an assortment of 1,000-odd plants, including Bird of Paradise, aloe-vera, strawberry, 'nilkamal', 'gandhraj', 'chameli', Chinese and golden bamboos, 'methi', 'ajwain', pepper, bay leaf, eight to nine varieties of money plants and bonsais of different varieties.
The Sinhas get the soil of every pot changed in February and July. While the rose plants are pruned in February and October, extra labour is hired in May for preparing organic fertilizer for the garden.
"We never thought of monetizing our plants. I once turned down an offer of Rs 5,000 for every cycus," said Chandrakanta who started her green venture singlehandedly in 1996 when her husband, a state government chief engineer, was posted in Dehri-on-Sone.
Manohar and Champa Singh spend at least three to four hours daily on their green pursuit atop their rooftop in an apartment on Boring Road. "It helps us keep fit," said Champa.
Gardening beckoned Manohar Singh even during his school days. "After retirement, I got back to my old passion," the ex-Bharat Coking Coal Limited official said and added his wife grows cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, potato and even onion in her kitchen garden on the rooftop.
According to these garden lovers, rooftop gardening is not an expensive hobby. "It costs you a couple of thousand bucks or so, to start with," said one.