Love for lush: This Jalandhar couple bought a plot to fulfil its passion for lawn

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 20

Medical specialist Dr Anil Chopra and his academician better half Nupur Chopra had been living in Kalgidhar Avenue and maintaining as much greenery as possible in their house in the form of potted plants.

About seven to eight years back, they purchased another plot right in front of their house across the road. This one is solely for the purpose of having a lawn in one section and fruit and vegetable garden in the other half.

Says Nupur, who has recently retired after having served as a lecturer of home science at BD Arya College for 37 years: “I enjoy spending my whole day in the lawn. Earlier, it was my husband who was fond of greenery, but since my retirement I have sort of taken over his passion. Though we have a gardener, but we both spend an hour or two daily shifting plants to make them look better and get more sunlight, doing some pruning, developing new plantlets and nurturing our precious bonsais that we have readied out of peepal, ficus, pomegranate and rubber plants. The process involves cutting some roots and removing some extra shoots to make its appearance dwarf-like but we are enjoying learning the nuances and experimenting them on daily basis.”

The most attractive part of the lawn of Chopras is the solar fountains that they have installed. The fountains are connected to a water reservoir and they work till the time there is Sun. These are shifted from time to time to water the grass and work almost like drip irrigation.

Says Nupur: “My qualification in home science, too, is coming to use in setting my garden. I have used some best-out-of-waste concepts here. Many extra containers and plastic ware, which was not in use in my kitchen, are serving as hanging pots for my plants around tree branches. They look colourful and attractive and some of them have even been painted, decorated and made into wind chimes.”

Besides, the garden has designer ceramic pots in various shapes, high stands as planters and some sculptures kept for aesthetic purposes here and there. The creepers, bushes and hedge plants add a lot of greenery in every nook and corner.

She adds: “I make sure that I buy the best seeds available in the market for my kitchen garden so that they grow well and give me a lot of vegetables. Even though the summer vegetables are at their fag end and the seeds for the winter veggies are yet to be sown, I am still able to harvest some lady fingers, capsicums, brinjals, gourds, green chillies and mint from my garden daily.”

Nupur also takes us around mini fruit orchard. She says: “My kinnows are set to ripen any time soon. My lemons are available all 12 months of the year. Mangoes may be out of market now, but I still have one variety giving fruits.” She also has some papaya, peach and litchi trees.

Back in her lawn, she shows varieties of different colours of bougainvillea. There are some pots where portulacas are still flowering. Preparations have been done for the onset of the upcoming winter season. Pots have been readied with the cuttings of chrysanthemum, gerbera and petunias.

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