For the balcony gardeners of Mumbai, who grow more than 50 plants in airtight spaces, the leaves are a medium to invite air, light and happiness into their homes
Trisha Bora also grows ajwain, peppermint and curry leaves in her balcony. As she says, "What is a garden if you can't eat it?" Pic/Shadab Khan
Editor Trisha Bora's balcony, in her Bandra home, is the birthplace and nursery of about 70 plants. These include peacock plants, Chinese evergreens, jasmine, begonias, African violets, roses, peppers, mandarins, tomatoes, and a banana plant, which is currently, "the apple of my eye. It gets all the nourishment and care." Bora does container gardening in a balcony the size of a steel container. But, like everyone in Mumbai, the plants have grown accustomed to cramped spaces.
A "tea kid" from Assam, 35-year-old Bora grew up amid acres of gardens. "My mom always had a green thumb. When we finally moved out of the tea plantations, she had a thousand African violets and about 5,000 plants." Till today, Bora turns to her mother for sage advice on sage. "Her advice is usually about light, soil and watering. Most people kill their plants because of over-watering. What I grow mainly are plants that do well in the Mumbai climate. For example, it's very hard to grow English roses in Mumbai."
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Mukti Shah says, "Plants are a motivation, but they're also an addiction." Pic/Nimesh Dave
Though, that hasn't stopped her from trying. She has 10 rose plants, which include a miniature version called button roses, a hybrid English tea rose, and a couple of desi roses such as Kashmiri rose, floribunda, and scentimental, a botanical nickname, "because it's so fragrant." She says, "I can't live without plants. Container gardening is very peaceful, but, as Margaret Atwood says, it's also an act of madness. There's something primal about it, because you're connecting with soil and nature. But, you can't control it. You have to let things be."
Dr Samiya Shaikh, 49, who runs a popular YouTube tutorial channel called Mumbai Balcony Gardener, echoes this. "Can you grow food in a small space? Yes, you can. Definitely not as much as a terrace garden, but enough to give you small harvests every week and fill your heart with happiness."
Cherry tomatoes from Dr Samiya Shaikh’s garden; Geraniums from Bora’s garden
Technically, Shaikh doesn't even have a balcony in her South Mumbai home; she has French windows with box grills, on which she grows tomatoes, chillies, brinjal, greens, herbs, moringa, cacti and succulents. Her tomatoes bunk in 24-inch grow bags, her peppers in 15-inch grow bags. "My garden has grown out of a lot of observation and trial and error. I realised that because of the angle of the sun, whatever is inside gets little sun. So, I don't plant in the centre of the pot, I plant on the edge." With 13K followers, her advice is taken seriously by fellow gardeners. "Two years before I started gardening in 2012, I saw a lot of YouTube videos from gardeners across the world. But when I started gardening, my challenges and the resources available to me were completely different. So, I thought, I need to document [my journey] to help people."
Taking a leaf out of her book is Mukti Shah, a 36-year-old clinical psychologist, who grows about 60 plants in her "teeny-tiny balcony" in Malad. Shah grew up in Mount Abu and Pune and always had a garden of her own. "We had chikoo trees, lemon trees and rain trees. Gardening was a part of growing up. It was not looked at as a luxury done in your spare time. Every house had it, so you did not have to take extra dhaniya from the vegetable seller." When she moved to Mumbai, 11 years ago, so did her homegrown ingredients.
"As a paying guest, I had a tulsi and a lemongrass plant. When I moved to a rented house, I graduated to a window sill and set up plants that you can't really kill, like money plants. When we moved to our own house about a year ago, the balcony is still 10x2 feet, and I have an A/C vent, so nearly half of it is taken over, but I have a thriving green chilli plant, neem, tomatoes, a lemon tree, mint, kadi patta, brinjal, jade, jasmine, palm trees, snake plant and roses."
Shah is also part of a WhatsApp support group called Plantoholics, composed of 25 women with similar-sized balconies. "We have small balconies with big passion. We discuss how to phase the plants, or [make] SOS calls when we spot a mealybug or an inchworm, we shop at nurseries together, we are trying to figure composting. When anyone's plant doesn't survive, it's heartbreaking for all of us. [The plant dies] because of your mistake. But, we learn from them and share with each other." One lesson that Shah learnt was from her bougainvillea. "I had it for six years and it barely grew. When we moved here, I got an aloe from my mother. The minute it was next to another plant, it bloomed within ten days. Plants are social animals." She thinks gardening is good for the soul because, "it teaches you patience. You have to wait for the bud to bloom or the tomato to ripen. In a city like Mumbai, it forces you to pause, it forces you to stop." And, actually, smell the roses.
Komal Garg and Angud Bhalla
The Plant People
For those who need professional help in setting up their balcony gardens, they can turn to Komal Garg and Angud Bhalla. The former media professionals have been running Plant People for the last two years. "We design spaces around plants, whether it's a restaurant, home or office," says Garg. "We specialise in creating indoor gardens, and in varieties that do well indoors." They have a nursery in Andheri, where they sell a thousand varieties such as traveller's palms, monsteras, heliconias, succulents and air-purifying plants.
Where: Little Raina Studio, 73, Aram Nagar Part 2, Andheri West; 8369919360 Instagram: @plantpeople.in
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