CHENNAI: A plant or a tree experiences emotions and a sense of belonging. Sunitha Rani Brahmadi, director of Kangaroo Kids and Foster Billabong High International School, swears by it.To her, they are no less than kids and pets. She converses with them.
Gardening relaxes her and she says she can sense their love. “Every morning I wake up and pay a visit to all the plants and trees in my house. They are just like pets, a part of our family. They are like my kids,” she says.
“I watered all the plants in and around my house. I enjoyed watching a flower bloom, pluck them with great care and gift them to my teachers. Even as a twelve-year-old, I used to bring home Chrysanthemum and December Flower plants from the local nursery, nurture them and make garlands from their flowers for the school bus,” she adds.
Sunitha has used every vacant inch in her house to keep plants. “There is a garden on the ramp that leads to the gate, a garden between the two gates, a garden in the backyard, a garden on the first-floor balcony and a garden in the terrace... I haven’t wasted any space,” she smiles.
The garden in her backyard resembles a farm with green chillies, lady’s fingers, anjeer, water apples and a small lotus pond. “I have a lot of adeniums at home,” she says of the plants that are native to Africa and the Arabian peninsula. “They don’t need attention for 10 days at stretch. But they need a lot of sunlight, so I have them in my balcony. Their blooming is directly proportional to sunlight. Bougainvillea colours decorate my house.”
Sunitha does not use pesticides, and chooses natural and innovative ways to keep her plants healthy. “Once a week, we spray the plants with neem oil. It keeps the diseases at bay. I use neem cakes for the soil and, in the pots, I mix red soil with vermicompost and coconut pits (fibre from the coconut). The looser the soil, the faster the growth of plants and red soil by itself hardens. For plants like red anthuriums, I don’t use soil at all and use only coconut pith. The fibre in coconut absorbs the water and retains the moisture, even for the days it is not watered”
She says that a garden can be planned to survive long absences. “We can travel for two to three weeks without worrying about them,” she says. “Use plants that will add colour to your garden and don’t require much maintenance.”
Sunitha manages her school’s garden too. “My school looks like a resort. I have more than 100 varieties of plants and when the government sent 50 plants as part of Harithaharam drive, I sent them back. They were disappointed... I asked them to visit the school and told them how the school is surrounded by plants. I am happy that I started this drive at my level, much before the government could implement,’ she says.