Half. That’s the portion of Haraprosad Bhattacharyya’s AE Block plot on which he has built his garden. So his garden is as big as his house, and if he’s not resting in the house, he’s surely working in the garden. He’s built beautiful pathways, weaving in and out of the greenery, and takes equal pride in growing common flowers like Rangan and Nayantara as well as rare ones like Bhutan Hibiscus and Bankura Kundo.

When we selected this plot, we did so as it faces the Green Verge and overlooks the canal. We wanted to be in the midst of nature. My father built this house in the 70s but back then, I neither had the time nor finances to do much gardening. I got to explore my hobby actively only after retiring, in 2013.

We have many kinds of Hibiscus, including lavender-coloured ones and clustered, pink Australian ones. There’s a rare blue Togor, and another beautiful tree that stays filled with pink flowers for three months at a time in summer.

I like growing fruits, but they are not without challenges. Their canopy blocks sunlight from smaller plants underneath it, neighbours complain of leaves falling into their yards…. So we mainly grow Curry Leaf Trees as they attract koyals. One hardly gets to see pairs of koyals together, but they come here for the fruits of this tree. We also have a Jamrul tree, but keep it short as we can’t pluck the fruits on top and then have to remove three to four buckets of over-ripe fruits that have fall off.

Flowers growing in his care

During the pandemic, friends would come over, but we would be wary of letting them into the house as my nonagenarian mother was inside. So we built benches in the garden. The soil would also get muddy, and my wife would return with soiled slippers whenever she went to pluck puja flowers. So I built pathways in the garden, with broken marbles and tiles. Now it looks so beautiful that even health workers who come for anti-mosquito drives stop and stare at it.

Gardening has benefited me in so many ways. Post-retirement, it keeps me engaged constructively and, since I do not hire a gardener, also keeps me on my toes. This is the secret to my mental and physical health.

As told to Brinda Sarkar