CHENNAI: Shanthi Venkatesh from Madipakkam is a professor at Loyola Institute of Business Management, Chennai. But her passion is terrace gardening. Shanthi was inspired by her father to take to gardening. Maintaining a terrace garden for almost two years, she says, “Terrace gardening is different from normal gardening. Right from soil composition, the leakage it causes and the weight that the house ceiling can hold, everything matters.” Shanthi did a lot of homework before setting up this 1,300 sqft terrace garden.
“Each plant is unique. The water they consume and the moisture they require are different and they should be treated accordingly,” she says.
The routine of watering differs according to the season. In summers, she waters her plants at least twice a day and during the rains, the plants get enough moisture. In winter, she adds pesticides and waters the plants once a day.
“I have around 300 plants in my garden, and I have researched on each of them. Most of them are country varieties; they are easier to grow, require less care and are extremely resistant compared to the hybrid ones,” says Shanthi. Food is cooked in her house using the vegetables grown in her garden. She shares the produce with her neighbours, too. “It is pure and tastes better than the vegetables we get from shops. We even make and sell hair oil which is extracted from the flowers we grow here,” she shares.
From roses and sunflowers to fructiferous brinjals, tomatoes and capsicums, and from herbs and spinaches to ornamental plants, you can find them all in Shanthi’s terrace garden. “Observation is the best tool a gardener can have. The gardener and the plants share a mother-child relationship,” she points out. The highlights of her garden are mint, kesavardhini, sweet leaf bush and thavasi keerai, which is said to prevent cancer.
Summer makes for a good harvest season and winter is the best growing season, says Shanthi. She hangs unused CDs to prevent squirrels from eating the plants away. According to Shanthi, the best way to maintain plants is by grouping them. “Gardening is all about trial and error. You need to understand each and every plant, their behaviour and growth pattern, and take steps accordingly. I noticed that pests attack hybrid plants more than the country variety,” she says.
Shanthi believes patience, observation and commitment are key to terrace gardening. “Don’t be sad when a plant dies. Everything doesn’t happen overnight. Replant it, and wait patiently. Shade and a good source of water are necessary to maintain a good terrace garden. When I look at my garden now, it calms me and relieves me of stress,” she says.