Inthe era of growing urbanization and dwindling greenery, this retired armycouple from city is working hard to retain green space. A resident of KevalVihar, near GTB Nagar, Lieutenant Colonel (Rt.) Paramjeet Kaur has turned theterrace area of her house into a beautiful flower bed. While she grows andmaintains the green cover at her house, her husband, Colonel (Rt.) Resham SinghSandhu supports her by bringing suitable pesticides and pots. He keeps onvisiting nurseries to get varieties of plants.
Onceyou enter their rooftop, the fragrances of flowers, the aura, the entireambience is something that takes you to another world. “Today, taking care oftheir garden has become their full-time job”, they said adding that they wouldrather do this than anything else. While Kaur has been working at ECHSpolyclinic after taking a premature retirement, she spends two hours daily withher flowers and keeps a regular check on their maintenance.
On their 1000 sq ft terrace, they are growing over 100 varieties of seasonal flowersin over 500 flower pots and they say, “When you like a flower, you pluck it.But, when you love it, you water it daily and let it flourish,”
Thecouple’s deep passion for growing plants, consistent efforts, and dedicationhelped them to raise their entire house into a nursery. Kaur feels it apleasurable and rewarding job. Even at the entrance of their house, theblooming marigold and other imported plants are a delightful sight.
It’sbeen ten years since Paramjeet has been following her passion for gardening andwhen in the army she had also received the best garden prize several times inthe cities they were posted in. “I cameacross very exotic flowers. After looking it up online, I learnt that it was awhite exotic lily. By this time, I had an entire list of flowers I wanted togrow such as Daffodils, Asiatic lilies, gladiola, frangipani and more. I boughta few saplings from local nurseries and ordered a few online. I buy 30-40 new plants every year and growmany on many own though cutting and stemming methods”, added Paramjeet.
Besides,the pots are placed close to each other so space is never an issue to them. Thepots are kept in a systematic manner, with enough space for them to walkalongside or sit and have a cup of tea in such a stress buster ambience. Herflower bed needs a lot of care and attention, so she keeps on reading about theclimate and caution needed to cultivate a particular variety of plants. Apartfrom pots, she has used discarded cups and jugs to grow cactus. “Autumn andspring are the only two season when flowers boom and I place them accordingly.After every two months, I change the position of the pots and check whichplants and sun-loving and which need moisture”, said, Kaur.
Hyacinth,gazania,daisy dahlia, ashwagandha,chrysanthemum, ranunculus, freezia, marigold, nearly 10 varieties of roses,eight varieties of cactus are among the different kinds of flowers at herhouse. Besides, she grows green veggies and various seasonal fruits. As her son is settled in England she sayswhen she returns, she makes a separate package of gardening stuff.