Flower garden in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, Jan. 21: A garbage dumping ground in the silk city has been metamorphosed into a manicured garden — thanks to the devout couple Rajendra and Bhavna Mahapatra. Being staunch followers of Lord Jagannath, they have developed a garden on their plot at Bhaba Nagar and offer flowers exclusively to the deity at Puri. They have been doing this for the past 10 years.

“We visit Puri at least four to five times a month — every Monday and on ‘Sankranti’ — with the flowers. But we visit Puri every three days during ‘Baisakh’ and ‘Kartik’ when the Champa flower blooms in our garden. We take about 300 to 500 Champa flower for Lord Jagannath in one trip. During other seasons we take other flowers,” said Bhavna.

There are about 32 varieties of flower in their garden including dahlia, chrysanthemum, gladioli, orchid, javera, petunia, crossandra, almonda, calendula, all varieties of jasmine, three varieties of China rose and many others.

“Initially, we started the garden on the terrace. At that time, residents were using the plot adjacent to our house to dump garbage. We thought of a plan to develop the plot as a flower garden for its beautification. When the flowers bloomed we decided to offer all the flowers to Lord Jagannath and the process is still going on,” Rajendra said. The 35 X 70 sqft land has been developed into a flower garden at a cost of Rs 15 lakh and the couple chooses not to use it for commercial purpose but continue using it just for religious reasons.

“We have decided not to dispose off the plot at present and will continue to nourish the garden to serve Lord Jagannath,” he said.

“At first we used to buy plants from nurseries and flower exhibitions in Bhubaneswar. But later on we produced more plants with the help of mother plants. We apply manures and pesticides once in a week and never depend on others for cultivation. The plants require less attention during summer but they need a lot of nourishment during the winter season,” said Bhavana.