CHENNAI: Saad Pasha’s friends always ask him how he is a landscape designer when he is afraid of lizards. He runs into his house if there’s a lizard in his garden, and doesn’t come out until it’s gone.
In the backyard of his house, Pasha has a garden with a variety of plants, ranging from a Mandarin plant that is just about to bear fruit to different types of orchids from Mulberry shrubs to a Mangalorean Maiden Hair Fern, with black stalks and square leaves.
There are plants in ponds, kept inside Buddha head figurines and a small tree called Cassia Fruticosa, which forms a curtain of yellow flowers in the garden. A hotel management graduate from MS Ramaiah College, the now 27-year-old got his first landscaping assignment when he was 17. His friend’s parents wanted their garden designed for Christmas. Seeing his work there, more people wanted him to work on their gardens. “I have my own company now called Planters Paradise. I started it in 2009. I never had to advertise it because my work spread through word of mouth,” he says.
Saad has a host of water plants, one being a miniature lotus and a Bulrush, which is planted in a pot and kept in a pond with water being constantly recirculated. There are pots of water with rocks in them, above which hyacinths grow. “This is to encourage pollination. The bees sit on the rocks to drink water and help pollinate the plants above the water pots.”
While he used to help his grandmother as a kid, Saad went on to care for the entire garden himself. Currently, his is a mixed, tropical-themed garden. “Previously, it was an English garden. I had an archway at the entrance of the garden, where there were roses, hydrangeas and fuchsias. They survive in minimal sunlight. When the tree that blocked direct sunlight fell down, all the plants started dying. Then, I had to change the theme of the garden,” he says.
Saad has experimented with almost every landscape theme — contemporary, English, tropical, butterfly gardens etc. He changes the plants in his garden twice a year. Being the recipient of Best Garden Award in the small garden category from the Mysuru Horticultural Society for 12 years now, Saad makes sure that every year, judges from the society have some new element to see. He revamps his garden before Independence Day and Republic Day. While designing for gardens, Saad takes into account the particular theme that has to be followed, whether the garden should be pet or child friendly, and the amount of sunlight and water available for the plants to grow.
He also uses non-chemical methods for growing his plants. “I use neem oil to get rid of bugs. Previously, I had a compost bin, but had to get rid of it due to space restraints. For the soil, I use sheep manure, and to create humidity, I keep water troughs below the plants,” he says.
Except for the summers, Saad finds Bengaluru’s climate very conducive to grow many types of plants. He has plants from Bali, US, England, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia so far. “Every time someone goes abroad and asks me what I want, I ask them to get me plant seeds.”
Saad is waiting for a certain type of Heliconia from Honolulu, which is supposed to be purple in colour. While talking about his plants, Saad sneezes and confesses that, ironically, he’s allergic to pollen!