CHENNAI: Finding a lush patch of greenery in a metropolis like Hyderabad is no mean feat. However, some enterprising people like Sunita Fatehpuria, a 66-year-old-housewife, manage to create their own garden and grow enough vegetables for a meal.
Living in Tarnaka along with her family in a spacious independent house, gardening was not the first thing on her mind. However, she soon grew to love the plants, thanks to her mother, a certified green thumb. Today Sunita is an owner of a fruitful vegetable patch.
“I’m happy to maintain this little space – which is the size of an average master bedroom. Water problems are aplenty and this is the reason I did not plant flowers. I feel that letting a flower die is a sin and on days when water is short, we barely meet our needs and the plants are left to wilt,” she says.
Her patch currently sprouts ladies fingers, spinach, mint, coriander, brinjals, bottle gourds, tomatoes and chilies, but lately, she’s been noticing a batch of cucumbers growing as well! “I never planted the cucumber seeds. Recent showers have caused havoc on my garden. Most of my crop got washed away or killed due to the excessive rains and the next thing I see is these wild cucumbers growing” she adds, hinting at the almost flood-like situation the city saw last month.
One of the major challenges of maintaining a garden is to ensure that the foliage does not get infected by pests. It gets even tougher when one avoids chemicals (as it destroys the nutrition in the vegetables). Sunita adheres to the philosophy of keeping everything au naturale.
Using manure and neem cakes, she ensures that her vegetables get all the nutrition they need whilst remaining free of pests. Water for the plants comes from the boring water and occasionally government supplied water is used.
Although she is glad to keep working on her own project for nearly three decades now, she confesses that it pains her that due to her age, she is forced to hire a few gardeners. "But it’s a small compromise in exchange for a green and bountiful garden". Now her aim is to ensure that her patch stays that way.