CHENNAI: The sprawling 1,350 square feet area attached to Saraswati Venkataraman’s house in Nolambur hosts a thriving garden that is home to many flowering and medicinal plants. All this would not have come to be if it were not for a run-of-the-mill bureaucratic hiccup. “When we moved to this house, the builder gave us this additional space for he could not get the approval to build another house there. We got lucky. We decided to spend our retired life doing gardening,” she recounts.
And thus began Saraswati’s green adventure. Over the past six years, she has done a great deal of work in the space at hand. The crown glory of the garden would have its many varieties of hibiscus — there are plants sporting the flower in different colours all around the garden. The 70-year-old also grows vegetables and other flowers. She has made space for lotus plants too. There are a number of medicinal plants in her arsenal. Ranakali, Saraswati explains, is to address kidney stones, thuthuvalai keerai to treat piles, kesavardini for the hair and mudakattan keerai can help with knee pain.
Despite the amount of work it takes, Saraswati has ensured that her garden is completely organic. She makes a mixture out of coconut milk and sour curd to use as fertiliser. She also has a huge bin where she collects the waste from peanuts; this she mixes with neem powder and uses it as an insecticide. A mushy paste of banana peel also works as a pesticide.
While the garden seems to be Saraswati’s baby, her husband Pitchumani says he pitches in to help as well. He is in charge of watering the plants every day. “She does not like the idea of using a hose to water the plants. We have a lot of pots to water, after all. It would be impossible for her to do it herself. As I am 74-years-young, I can help her,” he jests. Saraswati is part of several gardening groups where fellow enthusiasts meet and discuss their work. Her younger son, Bharat Ram who lives in the USA, helps her too with tips on maintaining the garden well.