Amidst the hustle and bustle of Gurugram, you will find a two-storeyed house enveloped in green.
The gardener behind his feat is 70-year-old Shashi Manchanda, who fulfilled her goal of building an attractive garden well into her 60s.
She enjoyed tending to plants as a child in her ancestral home. However, living in small apartments and managing a family didn’t leave her with time to pursue her interests.
Moving to Gurugram from Delhi in 2019 to a house with a 1,000-square-foot terrace gave Shashi the perfect opportunity to work towards her dream garden.
To learn the nitty gritty of growing an organic garden, she attended a workshop on composting at the Daulat Ram College in Delhi in 2019.
After preparing a rich compost and adding it to the soil, she started growing vegetables in over 100 grow bags on the terrace.
“I wanted my family to eat healthy for which I grow all the vegetables needed in day-to-day cooking on the terrace,” shares Shashi.
She grows bottle gourd, sponge gourd, pumpkin, brinjal, okra, spinach, mint leaves, tomatoes, coriander, mustard, broccoli, all lettuce varieties, kohlrabi, beetroot, radish, carrot, turmeric, ginger and more.
Other than vegetables, she also grows ornamental and flowering plants in 50 pots in her front yard.
She also shares her knowledge in a gardening community in her locality, besides sharing her chemical-free vegetables.
For her, gardening is a way to stay healthy and find peace. “I’m trying to keep diseases at bay by eating healthy. The garden is my family’s favourite place to be. The satisfaction and peace gained from gardening are unmatchable,” she shares.
Starting at 65 also taught her an important lesson: “Don’t wait for the perfect time to begin something you’re passionate about. Also, never feel that it’s too late to start,” she says.