Far from the madding crowd, is Dr Sucheta Nakul’s terrace garden in S block, a little oasis reflecting her vibrant personality. The perfectly manicured green lawn almost in-vites you to walk bare feet and feel the moist grass in the blazing Delhi summer. What sets Dr Sucheta’s garden apart from other gardens is the amazing variety of plants, the different hues perfectly blended and their neat and systematic arrangement.
The beauty lies in the fact that though summers have set in, winter flowers like petunias, nasturtiums and begonias are still blooming. The surprise element is that you can see the summer flowers like sunflowers, cosmos, balsam and zinnias in their full glory, blossoming alongside. Her love for plants is not limited to seasonals but embraces a wide variety of succulents and creepers like cats’ claw, tecomas and ivies climbing up and adorning walls too. Water bodies with water hyacinths and water lilies, with little fountains make the place aesthetically appealing. A row of Rajanigandha plants on the parapet send me into a frenzy imagining how fragrant the garden will be in a month or so !
As we walk into the lobby cum lounge where we are served fresh lemonade with mint leaves, a strange peace pervades our entire being as we see peace lilies blooming in bulk – the mass effect – a must have for every garden. Rows of begonias and lots of unusual herbs like lemon Tulsi, Brahmi, Rosemary, celery on our left, we are led to the backyard, which has some incredibly huge Kadipatta, China orange and lemon trees in pots. Surely a treat for the eyes and the soul. The blue sky above, the green grass below and such colourful plants and butterflies around…time seemed to have stopped here in this little haven of solace. I leave but not without beautiful memories and lots of inspiration.
