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."