Feathered denizens take refuge in architect’s garden

Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, January 4

Birds and squirrels are permanent guests at the house of the architect couple Dalbir Singh and Parminder Golden.

They like to savour pomegranate, peach, guava and flowers in their garden.

An architect by profession, Parminder Golden (57) has been tending to her garden for the past many decades. Following in her footsteps are her two daughters Pearl and Sparkle. An architect herself, she designed three types of garden in her house spread over 750-square yard of land on the GT Road.

All five bedrooms in the house offer a garden view, which is possible even from the two lobbies and kitchen of the two storey building.

Spread over a 200 square yard, the front lawn has different varieties of cactus, narangi, bougainvillea, custard apple, blue climbers, madhumalti, kari pata, colourful seasonal plants and others. Before one enters the house, the outside boundary wall greets the visitors with phycus, kaner and other climbers.

If the front yard is replete with ornamental plants, the backyard has more fruit trees. The 250 square yard area has 10 plants of banana, five trees of papaya, four kinds of guavas, peach, six-foot high tamarind, shahtoot, which was planted two years ago, chakatra, laungath, pagoda, bamboo, floral bushes, phalsa, jasmine and two big walls are covered under climbers. In addition, chrysanthemums, seasonal flowers, bougainvillea, two kinds of jasmine, one full of aroma and another without it, Rat Ki Rani transports the visitors to a different world altogether.

In between the dense green growth is a jogging track luring fitness lovers.

The third level of garden is on the terrace, which has an amazing grassy lawn. It is beautified with 20 hibiscus trees, four pomegranates and seasonal flowers. She emphasises on creating natural surroundings in her designed houses, irrespective of the land sizes.