With the will, a house roof can gather flowers, fruit and birds, as a couple in Gulshan in the capital has shown by turning their roof into a small farm.

It began as a hobby, became a pleasure and then love; the rooftop plants are now part of their lives. Beyond toxin-free fruit and vegetables, the pull is to spend time among green plants. Jashimuddin and his wife Jesmin Akter of Gulshan have found this over twenty years.

Jesmin Akter said she started with tomatoes and later grew bottle gourd and sweet pumpkin, with big harvests, and gave vegetables to relatives and friends.

Rooftop plants also suffer pests and disease. She gets a spray from a nearby nursery that fixes the problem, though an expert advised replacing the soil in the pots.

Some much-loved foreign birds add to the garden, filling it with song. The couple dream that every roof in Dhaka will one day be green; Jashimuddin said he wants gardens on all the city's roofs.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Chhad Krishi. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.