My beautiful terrace garden

In the 1 BHKs of Mumbai, there is not enough scope to plant many plants. But there is some place called balcony which I have under-utilized for my love for plants (I have only mentioned love for plants and not knowledge of gardening). The balcony's corner where the sunlight becomes generous after 2:00 pm lies my beautiful terrace garden.

A 'terrace garden' probably evokes the expectation of a lush green lawn, few flowering plants, few fruits or vegetables and few more greens to add to the word. But I am the proud owner of a garden which consists of a huge number of five plants.

The youngest of them being aloe vera. The medicinal properties of this plant are becoming more famous with the increasing ailments. Aloe vera gel can be used as skin cream and hair conditioner. It can also be eaten or its juice could be drunk. It was truly the wisest decision of buying this multi-utility plant.

The second in the line is a decorative plant which the seller told could go on pretty well without much sunlight. It has green colored leaves with yellow patches. Its thin long leaves beautifully branch out of a not-so-strong stem. But as the seller said, it really doesn't need much sunlight.

Then comes the good old tulsi- yeh tulsi mere angan ki. This tulsi (also known as basil) plant is rightfully placed in a beautiful pot made of ceramic. It is square in shape and has the pictures of Gods and Goddesses made on it in all the four directions. This so called holy pot which is also called vrindavan was left here by the earlier occupants of this house. This is the third plant in that vrindavan. The earlier two died when we were out of station. One plant that we got was probably the junglee tulsi (wild basil). It was growing as fast as the pregnant woman's stomach in her third trimester. Every morning I used to notice some new growth. Then somebody told it is not the usual medicinal tulsi but some wild variety. It really made me think as to why wild and artificial things grow faster than the natural and useful ones.

The fourth one is a lemon plant which I had put almost an year ago with lots of expectations. The vendor sold it at an exaggerated Rs 500. My eyebrows went up and mouth open after hearing that amount. The vendor said there will be so many lemons on the plant that you will not know what to do. Then my dear husband said le lo (take it). I still wonder his le lo was because of what reason- his original generosity, my constant failure to successfully plant a fruit or vegetable or our irritated year old daughter who was in his custody while I made a bargain at the plant shop. Whatever! This plant is alive since an year and till date it has yielded the generous quantity of lemons. Oh, it has to be singular- one lemon. Yes, that proves it is indeed a lemon plant. Wow!

The oldest plant and a special one is a curry leaves plant (kadi patta). That was my first and the only successful attempt to plant something useful. That plant has seen excess of sunlight and rains. It has also seen so many of our outings. It really has survived everything that would be called trauma in the life of a plant. I thought it is growing beautifully but my father-in-law (the only one who seems to have some experience in gardening) pointed out that it is branching out only at the top. He meant that its long size zero stem did not have a single bud. Gracefully over-looking its flaw it still holds a special place in my heart. I often use curry leaves for dishes like kadhi, chiwda, sambar etc. The plant gives more leaves than are necessary for a family of three- oh, two and a half. One of my friend has suggested that I fry curry leaves and put it in vegetables. That would lend it a nice flavor and make the dish good for immunity and eyes. I have not tried it yet. But surely it is at the back of my mind.

These five plants- sorry, this beautiful garden is my real priced possession. The only thing I do is regularly water them and observe them grow. They get dirtied in the pollution so they have to be bathed often. I will do whatever it takes to keep my terrace garden alive. After all, beautiful gardens (cultivated purely on the basis of hard-core research done on the internet) need lots of mehnat (efforts).