Curating garden, lives amid pandemic

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 25

From her busy schedule, Dr Anju Bala always spare an hour or two everday for her terrace garden.

Dr Bala, who is an anaesthetist, and posted at the Tarn Taran Civil Hospital, said travelling consumes a lot of time. Nevertheless, she makes it a point to oversee her garden twice a day – in the morning and evening.

“I wake up early in the morning and it usually takes an hour to water the plants,” she said.

Dr Bala said she started taking her gardening seriously after having their own house in Gopal Nagar on Majitha road. “I frankly did not know when I developed the hobby of gardening, but it surely increased manifold after having own house,” she said.

A passionate garden lover, she preferred evergreen kind of plants that though requires minimal care, but gave a sense of lush green atmosphere on her terrace. “One cannot express the satisfaction and joy, which one gets during the wee hours in your garden. It feels that these plants welcomes you with open hands,” she said. It gives immense pleasure to see them growing with new leaves and flowers, she said.

“Working as an anaesthesiologist it is a tough task, but gardening is a stress buster,” said Dr Bala.

She has more than 250 plants, including different varieties of palms, bauganvillas, hibiscus, rubber plants, besides seasonal plants.

Recently, she has grown some ornamental plants and vegetables as well. “Every Sunday, a gardener also visits to ensure proper maintenance of the garden,” she said.

Dr Bala said, “Disposable containers, glass bottles or oil cans are used in her garden. I keep them on walls or wherever I find any suitable place.”