Anyone can look at this corner plot house opposite HA Park and guess that the residents are nature-lovers. Kamini, Hibiscus and Dolon Champa trees stand tall in the front yard, the hedges are dotted with pink and red Rangans and Allamanda stems twine up to the first-floor balconies. And this is just one section of Sarmistha Bera’s greens. She has much more upstairs.

Before getting married and moving to HA Block I lived in Karunamoyee. There my father would grow plants in the balcony and the terrace and I would be his little helper. That’s how I developed my love for plants. Gardening is a refreshing hobby and I believe one can pursue it, no matter how little space and resources one has. 

For instance, we never buy any fertilisers and chemicals and rely completely on home-made compost. We dig up a ditch in the garden and keep filling it with vegetable peels, used tea leaves, fish scales etc. When the ditch fills up we cover it and unearth the contents before the Pujas. By then, the soil is ready to nourish seasonal flowers like Chryanthemums and Petunias.

The summer is too hot for flowers and my husband Debashis and I grow vegetables this time of the year. We have Lal Shak, Palong Shak, Lady’s Finger, Barbati etc. They are healthy and delicious. We have Lime too but they’ve shrunk in size due to the heat and are not producing as many fruits. In monsoon, there are easily 50 to 60 Limes on every potted plant. Even the Sunflowers and white Hibiscuses have shrunk in this heat. 

I also enjoy photography and love clicking flowers and all the butterflies they attract. In fact, my first picture to be published in 

The Telegraph Salt Lake’s Click Your Township column was that of a butterfly on a Rangan in my garden. That image shall always remain special to me. 

As told to Brinda Sarkar

• If you have a garden you are proud of and tend to yourself, send your contact number to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or call 22600115 after 4pm or email to saltlake@abpmail.com