Home gardening trend blooms in Hyderabad
Scores of people, especially youngsters, are turning to gardening as a soothing hobby amid pandemic
Hyderabad: What started as a survival instinct during last year’s lockdown has now become a blooming garden. Pranita Sandela has grown at least 35 plants in a year, on her balcony. Due to lack of time, she could not pursue gardening earlier. But now she has used the space to explore how she could grow her own food.
“Gardening kept me occupied. Also, while working from home, plants made my space livelier,” the 25-year-old says, adding that it is good to invest in backyards when we are so confined to them.
While buckling down at home, scores of people, especially youngsters, are turning to gardening as a soothing hobby. Without having to go to the office, they are using that time to nurture plants.
Rajender, who runs a nursery in Secunderabad, is seeing at least 50 visitors daily and he says half among them are youngsters. “Before the pandemic, I would get an average of 10 visitors a day. There is a sudden influx of customers. I hope this interest doesn’t fade away in the coming times.”
The demand for vegetable seeds rose with people wanting to grow their own. Bharati Matam’s kitchen is almost stocked with produce from her terrace garden which she has nurtured for over a decade now. She grows varieties of vegetables, fruits and flowering plants. The pandemic has led the entire family of five to maintain the garden.
Not just youngsters, middle-aged and octogenarians too are picking up gardening.
The 50-year-old Srilatha Kota, a teacher by profession, spends at least 8 hours per day in front of a laptop tutoring her students. She had to reduce her mental stress and psychological burden. “What would be a great way other than gardening?” she asks. Today, she has grown at least 45 plants on her unutilised balcony. She says it is keeping her body and mind active and fed.
According to Sharada Jayaram, a leading counselling psychologist from the city, gardening can help boost one’s mood and calm worries.
For Manjula Harpanahalli, an educational consultant from the city, gardening is therapeutic and a great stressbuster. She and her husband have together grown 150 varieties of plants so far on their terrace.
“We didn’t miss stepping out of the home much during the lockdown because of gardening. Recently we had some 30 odd butterflies in our garden. It was such a magical experience to watch the beauties. A sense of peace and calm prevails,” she says.
Sharada Jayaram says gardening is even used as a therapy. “It is good for your heart health, it keeps you calm, controls high blood pressure and sugar levels. Doing at least an hour of light gardening and yard work will burn so many calories.”
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