LALBAGH: India’s first national landscape fest opened at Lalbagh here on Wednesday with a participation of over 3,000 landscape experts from different states apart from Karnataka. Several aspects of urban landscaping and roof top gardening were demonstrated to the visitors.
Despite rains the fest attracted many visitors. The horticulture department which is organising the fest is expecting a footfall of more than 3 lakh, during the five days of the fest which will be concluding on November 15.
Dr Jagadeesh M, joint director of horticulture department, said “The fest is an attempt by the horticulture department to do something unique apart from the hosting flower show twice a year. The fest will help the denizens of the city to explore new avenues to get closer to nature, by learning about urban landscaping from the different experts.”
The 7-ft tall and 1,000 feet wide vertical gardens set up in area covering 7000 square feet, around the glass house at Lalbagh is already drawing a lot of crowd. The 30 landscaping models such as Royal, Japanese, Persian, French and the Bali style with a display of unique flowering plants and ornamental varieties are a hit.
Sujatha Krishnan, who has her own terrace garden at her house in Banashankari said, “More than the landscaping models, I am happy to find a lot of option for my terrace kitchen garden. This tomato plants I bought today are hybrid vanities with long shelf life and can be grown in a pot. I am happy that round the year I will have my own organic tomatoes.”
The visitors were keen to learn about the organic roof top gardening which is fast becoming a trend with citizens having large terrace space. Dr Jagdeesh said that during the fest people will get to learn about the organic gardening at their roof tops for which they can produce their own manure from their kitchen waste.
The other crowd puller is the spiritual garden where a variety of Bonsai, of ancient herbal and medicinal plants were showcased. The spiritual garden exhibited different kind of ancient sacred herbal gardens like the Nandanvana, Saptarshivana, Nakshatravana, Raashivana and Navagrahavana.
The exhibition at the spiritual garden is drawing a lot of foreigners from both within the city and neighboring state. Tomas, a French national said, “The concept of terrace garden is not new for us, but I am aghast at the knowledge people posses about spiritual rejuvenation in this country. The visit has been an eye-opener for me about different herbal plants and how they assist to uplift ones mood.”
Tatiyana Topolevec, a Croatian national said, “I came to Bangalore to meet a friend before heading to Gokarna. I am traveling across the country and just came from Rishikesh. However, the concept of spiritual gardening is new to me and I am happy that I visited the city, at times coincidences are fruitful.”
Besides this the fest had some 100 varieties of vertical and horizontal gardens and also new concepts on vertical wall gardening.