The whole roof of the house is crowded with all kinds of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The charming garden holds native and foreign plants, some whose names are not even known. From one corner of the roof to the other, the mix of plants has created an enchanting space. Two maternal cousins, Esha and Lamia, have built this hobby garden at their home in the Banasree area of the capital. Their rooftop garden of fruit, flowers and vegetables has drawn attention, and the house is now an example for plant lovers. "Our plan was to find some calm amid the city's traffic jams, and a taste of farming among the greenery on our roof," Lamia said.

Plant lover Esha said her love of rooftop gardening came from her father. "My father had a government job, so I lived mostly outside the capital. I used to watch my father grow lots of vegetables. In winter he planted colourful flowers. Watching all this, I too wanted a garden of my own, with beautiful plants on the balcony and roof."

"Our rooftop garden has almost every kind of plant," Esha and Lamia said. "Among flowers, besides rose, beli and nayantara, there are native and foreign flowering plants, cactus and aloe vera. Among vegetables there are aubergine, tomato, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd and others. Among fruits there are dragon fruit, litchi, papaya, mango, jujube, guava and lemon. There are also chillies and sugarcane. A tamarind tree was planted a few days ago."

Plants on a roof have no direct contact with the ground, so they need a little extra care. The whole family looks after the plants together, the two cousins said. "For extra care we apply cow dung manure, along with potash, urea and so on."

Asked whether they had taken any steps against pests, Esha said: "Once our plants were attacked by insects, and my father brought pesticide. Apart from that we have to clear the weeds regularly, especially in winter when weeds grow a lot. Then we have to clear them with a weeder. And we water the plants regularly."

Lamia described the feeling of eating fruit and vegetables grown with their own hands. "Once we had a lot of dragon fruit, and we shared it with everyone around us. It feels good to eat completely unadulterated fresh vegetables or fruit. There is a sense of satisfaction, and it encourages us to plant more and more."

The capital no longer has as many trees as it once did, so the two cousins dream of planting more trees to keep the environment's temperature normal. "Space in the capital is shrinking, so rooftop gardens are a very effective alternative," they said. "If every house had a rooftop garden, the heat would come down and it would help maintain the balance of the environment. The colour green actually helps improve our eyesight; research has proved this."

Asked about their future plans, Esha and Lamia said: "Our hobby is to plant even more. We want to increase the greenery across the roof. We will also put plants on the balcony, and we plan to bring in our favourite bougainvillea, aparajita and madhabilata."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.