‘My husband doesn’t like it when I go out to buy plants’

  • | Wednesday | 25th March, 2020

Shyamala nurtures an array of fruits, vegetables and flower-bearing plants on the ground floor, first floor and the terrace of her house. “He doesn’t like it when I go out to buy plants. “My sister’s daughter-in-law has a terrace garden. I talk to her about my plants and share tips and she, in turn, she tells me about the new plants in her garden,” she enthuses. A healthy harvestShyamala says she does not use any manure; her plants are healthy because the soil itself is fertile.

Veena Mani By Express News Service KOCHI: What was your favourite hobby as a kid? Do you continue to pursue it even as an adult? In Shyamala Rama Murthy’s case, it was gardening and she continues to pursue it even now, at the age of 64. Gardening helped Shyamala, a resident of Mogappair, earn a name and identity for herself in the locality. Ask anyone about her, they refer to her as the person with a variety of fruits and malli poo in her house. Shyamala nurtures an array of fruits, vegetables and flower-bearing plants on the ground floor, first floor and the terrace of her house. Giving us a tour of her L-shaped green area in the balcony and verandah, she says that she managed to source most of her plants without her husband’s knowledge. “He doesn’t like it when I go out to buy plants. A vendor regularly sells saplings outside our house. When my husband’s not around, I buy plants from him. If he happens to be at home, I’ve instructed the person to leave some plants at the doorstep in one corner and collect money from me later,” says Shyamala. Trial and error While Shyamala’s interest in gardening has been intact from the time she ventured into it as a young girl, she rues that neither her siblings nor her children are inclined to practise as much as she is. “Because of this, I currently only own around 50 plants. Though I would like to nurture more, at the moment, I can manage only these many,” she shares. “My sister’s daughter-in-law has a terrace garden. She loves gardening and is the only one who shares the interest with me. I talk to her about my plants and share tips and she, in turn, she tells me about the new plants in her garden,” she enthuses. A healthy harvest Shyamala says she does not use any manure; her plants are healthy because the soil itself is fertile. She doesn’t mix her soil with cocopeat — an otherwise usual practice done to strengthen the soil. Her tip for home gardeners is for them to ensure that pots have a proper outlet for the water to seep out. As she waters her plants, she points to one of the pots and explains how the water is stagnated there because of an improper hole at the bottom of the plastic pot. Apart from climbers, she also houses guava, chickoo and brinjal, among other plants. Shyamala beams with pride and says, “Children from the locality treat themselves to guavas and chickoos from my garden.” She is currently waiting to harvest the brinjal plant in her garden to get seeds for the next crop

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