Rooftop garden at my parent’s place..

When I was little, our roof-garden used to turn in to my dreamland, with a magic wand in my hand which looked like a bamboo stick 😛 All the trees used to be my students or some other imaginary creatures and I would tell stories to them by myself waving my magic wand! A fruit from my garden would be special magic fruit and I would conquer some other Kingdoms . This time when I went to the rooftop, I missed my magic kingdom a lot 🙂

Previously, we had lots of trees in the roof. We lived in a semi-urban place and did not have any land left in front of the house. My parents love gardening since both of them grew up in suburb. So, lack of place for gardening could not stop them. The rooftop became our new found piece of heaven and since then the garden has always amazed me.

Orange yellow double petalled hibiscus

Once there used to be around 50 to 60 type of roses in our roof garden. And few garden french veggies and fruits always have been in the menus. But with time, my dad was not able to manage so many trees. In my childhood, I used to help him in watering the trees, making of fertilisers and keeping the trees free from worms. I could see a number of insects of different colors and some caterpillars turning into butterflies. But in my middle school, I went to another town, so no one was there to help him any more.

Flower of Sapodilla

Gradually, the garden shrunk in size. This time when I went home, I saw the garden confined to the rooftop of second floor. Here, I can say that we have some open area in the first floor, and the whole roof of second floor, and previously both  were used for keeping the trees. So, now the garden mainly have some fruits and few flowers. Still, the garden can surprise you.

Lemon tree

This time my most favourite is the  lemon tree. It is full of green lemons with a nice fresh smell, an though they are green they are full of juice.

 

Growing unripe Guava

There are mangos, plenty of them, which is quite surprising, as all are planted in big cement containers without any connection to earth.

 

 

Strawberry

No, they have not started giving us some fruit 🙂 And below is the Pomegranate tree with its bright red flower and one unripe fruit.

 

Aloe vera: garden fresh skin care

 

Basil

This one is a different species of basil (above) that we use in salad. It is mostly used as spices and also the steam inhalation using this one will decease the skin pores and help you keeping your skin clear and free of black heads. In the right side , there is a herb we eat making a pesto , I do not know it’s name in English.

Then we have the mint trees(Below), in a small tub. We use them for making refreshing lemon drinks or making a pesto with green mango.

Fresh leaves of mint

 

 

Peanut tree

We have a little bamboo tree in one side. You can see the  sticks above, it is not the usual big variant, a smaller one giving a nice touch over the garden.

This time we went for a drive to an ancient temple. And while coming back I saw many peanuts are kept in front of the farmhouses. My dad told us that now there is extensive farming of Peanuts in this area because it is profitable and the weather is particularly helpful for the growth of the tree.  So we have one in our place as a sample may be 😛 and I did not know peanuts actually grow underground . Can you believe how stupid I am? So, here is a little info: the pollinated flower elongates the stalk , causing it to bend until the ovary touches the ground and  continues to grow and pushes the ovary underground where the mature pea nut develops in a legume pod. The whole process is known as geocarpy , which is a rare method of plant reproduction. That is another thing  I love about gardening, I can learn so much!

And then there are some flowers .

Night queen

 

 

My Mahogany tree

Last but not the least, I must mention my Mahogany tree. It is not the part of the roof garden. When I was in junior school, my school used to end  at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I used to spent the rest of the afternoon in my mom’s school, which was full of big trees, fields and gardens. I collected the seed from one big Mahogany tree from there and planted in front of my house, in a narrow space. Now it has grown so large and so green! When the golden rays of sun crosses in between the leaves , I keep staring at the tree. I consider it my first child 🙂

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