BENGALURU: Eighty-one-year-old Vedavalli Partha Sarathy has over 100 different species in her garden that is located in the heart of Malleshwaram – one of the older hamlets of Bengaluru.
Vedavalli is good friends with all her trees, plants and creepers. She even gives them a pep talk when they are not doing too well. “I talk to my trees and plants every morning and evening when I walk in my garden. When I see a tree or plant not doing very well I talk to them and pat them gently,” she says.
Her Malleshwaram property is spread over 30,000 sq ft, where the garden and trees occupy almost 70% of the plot.
Other than being friends with her trees, she is also well acquainted with the birds in her garden.
“We have a great number of birds thanks to all these trees. Some of the birds are parrots, owls, kites, shikra, sunbirds, cuckoos, bulbuls , orioles, barbets, bats, tailor birds, white eyes, mynas, and paradise fly-catcher,” she says.
Hubby Loved Wildlife, Nature
Her inspiration behind this fascination for plants, trees and everything green? Her gardener Thaandavaraayan, whom she adored as a child. “He managed our large garden and estate all by himself,” she says.
While growing up in Chennai, Vedavalli noticed that almost all houses had rambling large compounds with lots of trees and plants. “Both my grandfather and father were great lovers of nature and we had a very big compound which had beautiful trees and lots of flowering plants,” Vedavalli recalls.
When she moved to Bengaluru after marriage, she found a similar environment in her in laws’ house. “My husband was a great lover of wildlife and nature.
Big gardens, beautiful trees and plants are something I have always been surrounded by all my life and so the passion for gardening was always a part of me. And in all my homes, our garden was something which I prided in,” she says.
The house is much cooler in this part of Malleshwaram, compared to the rest of the city, thanks to her favourite plants and trees, claims Vedavalli.
The front portion of her house has a garden with trees ,flowering plants and creepers, while the backyard hosts large ancient trees such as black bamboo, mango, peepul, gulmohar, ficus, nagalingam or canon ball tree and coconut.
Butterflies Join in
Her favourite tree is bilva. “It has a lovely fruit and during the flowering season I see many butterflies come to drink the nectar from the flowers, which have a beautiful fragrance,” she says. Her favourite plants are jasmine and paneer rose.
Her husband Late M A Partha Sarathy and S G Neginhal wrote a book Your Bangalore: The Trees, which was released by Bangalore Urban Arts Commission in 1994.
The book documents in detail the trees of the city. Her daughter Mimi Partha Sarathy, MD, Sinhasi Consultants, Bengaluru recently re-printed and released the book.
When it comes to gardening, there are only two people that Vedavalli has banked on for guidance. Her father Late M A Krishnamachari, a barrister, and her father-in-law Late M A Sreeenivasan who was a minister in the Princely State of Mysore and was also Dewan of Gwalior.
“They were both great garden lovers. They taught and guided me very well. I still follow their advice,” she says.