Green Fingers: A garden of dreams

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 22

Even as the lawn grass, in most houses, dry up during the winter months, it is lush green at the house of veteran journalist Irwin Khanna in Lajpat Nagar here. Walk on it barefoot and it feels so soft and refreshing.

“It is where our family spends maximum time during the winter months. Our guests, too, prefer enjoying most of their time in the front garden or in the backyard. So, we cannot let it to go patchy or yellowish. It is a Korean grass, which requires right amount of water for various seasons and we take care of it appropriately,” shares Irwin’s wife Veenu Khanna proudly, as she holds the charge of the entire garden area.

Around the garden are some unique, big trees – Bismarckia Palm, Traveller’s Palm, Peepal, Plum, Kinnow, Chausa and Dusehri mango. Khannas say: “We came in this house in 1969. We had planted these trees around the same time and hence these are huge now. The volume of fruits that grow here is quite something and we do not let even a single piece go waste. We make chutneys and syrups and then enjoy these throughout the year.”

Veenu shows earthen lanterns and designer lights that she has put up all around her garden. “The evening time is even more beautiful here,” she says. The garden furniture, swings, creepers hanging from pots, pots kept in designer stands, use of rocks, stones, statues, ceramic stuff, round pots, cages, used water bottles etc. has been arranged so aesthetically that any visitor is left mesmerised and awestruck.

They say: “We do not use any urea or inorganic fertiliser in our house. Since we are producing some vegetables such as spinach, lettuce etc., we do not want any of these chemicals to move to our vegetables through water or otherwise. Instead, we have set up two huge compost pits, wherein we are making organic manure from our kitchen waste and using it for nutrition of our plants.”

A mini-aviary to look up to

If Veenu has taken the charge of her garden area, her husband Irwin, too, has his own passion. A die-hard animal lover, he is raising six dogs and about 50-60 birds, largely pigeons. “I enjoy their company so much. I have been keeping pets since I was 10. One of my schoolteachers had gifted me my first dog,” he said.

His entire terrace area is covered with huge cages, some of these 40 feet wide and 16 feet high. The cages have swings, rods for perching. “I provide them with all items including multiple holed pots, straws, dry leaves for building their warm nests. Some of them even lay eggs inside the boxes kept there. Every morning, I spend almost one-and-a-half hour with my animals and birds, training and feeding them. This is the best time of my day and I do not go anywhere in this time (between 9 am to 10:30 am). The birds and animals teach us so much. Since they have a short life, we see how they struggle with age-related problems. Their loss makes us understand that the cycle of life and death is inevitable. Love, passion, care, attachment — all such feelings get clear if we spend time with God’s beautiful creatures,” he explains.