My Green Oasis...

 Home Gardening!

Home is where your heart is and in that it’s a bliss to have a small tranquil green corner - My balcony garden!
In the urban jungle, where space is a constraint, a nature lover like me tried to make a miniature nature’s paradise in my balcony. It’s the best place of my house and I can spend hours out here.
As an amateur urban gardener, one of my passions in life is my plants….
Sharing, what my senses perceive when I am in my garden is not easy, but I have tried my best to pen down my thoughts while I try to bring the smell, the sights and the ambiance alive on paper.
On one side of what once was a bare whitewashed plain wall, today canvases a colorful line of butterflies, money plant foliage and some lanterns. The other wall talks of the basics of my life...Love, Live and Laugh.

This private oasis is arranged using many ethnic items as well. Placing the plants around the balcony edge in taller pots creates privacy. By bringing floor pillows and a rug, an old lantern into this design, this balcony becomes an extension of the home and, of course is an invitation to sit and relax.
This is my favorite reading nook. The mornings and evenings get so pleasant with this environment. I spend hours reading my books in the evenings or weekends in my cozy space.

Looking at flowering plants

blooming against bright, cerulean sky
The marshmallow clouds,
droplets dripping, pecking the flower cheeks
sitting in my balcony and
holding hands with my peace
Am surrounded by the greens 
and whistling air mingles with the flowers 
and I mingle with my peace…


Inspired by the New York High rise balcony apartments, I added a small patio coffee table set as it adds to the contemporary look. I enjoy my morning tea in my balcony. As you see the early morning artistic sun going up and lighting the dark sky into shades of orange and yellow, you can also feel the bright looking milky clouds wake up from sleep and start travelling around the sky. Fresh windy cool and crispy air starts whistling as I take a sip of my tea. The fresh dew on the plants brings in a zest to begin each day with a warm welcome.

Nature has its own way to teach you the lessons of life, if one patiently understands...

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.    -  (R.W. Emerson) 

After a storm, a rainbow.

All I need to know about life I learned from gardening. 

All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.

All things grow with love.

Always remember the beauty of the garden, for there is peace.

An angel belongs in the garden.

An angel helps my garden grow. 

As is the gardener so is the garden.

As the garden grows so does the gardener…

In the corner of my garden, I have left a patch where nature creeps in its natural form. 

There are no trimmed edges, or prim, proper hedges…
Have left earth still and alone. Allowed the forces of nature to roam.
You don’t always have to be tidy and neat.
Just watch the beauty of opportunity grow at your feet
Just watch the earth produce its own glory…
Add water and light, Behold the sight. There are poppies and flowering weeds
Purple thistles and strange grasses. Colours that alight and ignite masses
Dark ferns and pigeon feathers…Birds visiting once a while.

The dazzling foliage of spruces that portray an array of colours. The ornamental plants add texture, movement, and sound to the garden. Some shine with their flowers or inflorescence, but many, need only their leaf stalks to standout. Simple planting of ferns adds a sense of grandeur while mixing up with different sizes of planters with different varieties to showcase. I always feel that adding colour to anything not only makes it look vibrant and colourful but its makes it alive. 

 

I too have a section growing herbs like Thai Basil, Parsley, Aloe Vera, Tulsi, and Green Tea.
This has made me take another baby step towards Horticulture, where I have tried to plant Tomatoes, Lemons, Coriander, Curry Leaves, Mint leaves, Chillies, Papaya, Broad leaf Thyme (Ajwain plant).

Tomato plant

 

Lemon

Papaya

 

Curry leaves

 

Thai basil

Mint

Not to miss the little handmade water well fountain ...

The quintessential Zen Area created....

It’s a treat to see the wonderful, translucent way the Hibiscus, the rose look and the changes in colour that take effect when the sun is shining through the petals in a way that makes it glow.
I love the sound of wind chimes, waterfalls and plants gently rustling in the wind. When these sounds combine, it’s really amazing.

My Garden is a home to different colours of Roses, Hydrangeas, Poinsettia, variety of Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, Champa flower, Periwinkles, Jasmines, Red velvet Celosia, poppy flowers and many more…

Poinsettia

Hydrangea

 

Lastly my room has a miniature world created in form of a terrarium...

Any outdoor space, however small it may be, is a privilege these days, and it shouldn't be wasted. Our modern urban housing often leaves us with very little space for a garden or even a terrace or a balcony. So if you're lucky enough to have a small balcony in your home, it definitely deserves a makeover...

Add in the delightful smells that waft through the summer air, the sound of birds sometimes and the tinkling of wind chimes and you will begin to understand that my garden is truly a delightful mix of fragrance that is brought alive by the sounds of nature and enhanced with colors that only Mother Nature herself can create.