A self-taught gardener, roof is the limit for him
It took almost a year for Yogesh Aneja to refurbish his terrace garden in the newly constructed house. A tea trader by profession, he believes that putting in a minor effort everyday yields magnificent results and he does exactly that.
He did not hire any gardener for maintaining his beautiful garden. Now, with the change of season, he is preparing to add more plants to his two-storey terrace garden. He also preserves seeds of the floral plants to prepare saplings during every season.
“I let my creativity lose during the lockdown period. I used artificial grass at the rooftop instead of growing natural grass and used the same to my advantage,” he said.
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, I had to renovate my house and it was really painful to dismantle the old terrace garden,” Aneja said, while adding that after reconstruction, he decided to create new garden on his terrace.
It is a combination of floral and plants that presents a colourful sight, he said.
“I use river soil, sand and manure to make the potting mixture. In fact, it is the right time to give manure to plants to boost its soil quality by pushing essential nutrients so that it help in the healthy growth for the upcoming flower season in March,” Aneja said.
Besides different variety of floral plants, including petunia, gazania or African daisies, pency, dehlia, marigold and roses, he has various fruit trees such as mango, kinno, chiku, gauva, seedless grapevine and papaya. He also has mint, lemon, tomato, brinjal, green chilly, broccoli and spinach. “My little garden defines my love for mother nature,” said the avid nature lover. He also made spaces for birds in his garden.
Seeing his love for plants and nature, even the district administration took his help for beautifying Amrit Anand Park during its development phase and historic Rambagh garden near legendary Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh statue.
Spreading the message of saving and nurturing environment, Aneja also volunteers in helping people build terrace gardens themselves. He said people needed to create green spaces in whatever possible way they can.
