Gardening is a hobby cultivated by many. In today’s world everyone likes to be surrounded by plants especially due to world’s pollution and drastically changing climate.

Then why not create it in your own home? Rose, tube rose, hibiscus and money plant are found nearly in everyone’s household. Not only does gardening help us to get connected to the plant world it teaches us important values like patience, compassion, love for others etc. It looks so cosy and nice to sit in one’s own garden or balcony filled with plants and enjoys the contact with the trees. But to be a good gardener we need to know some tricks.

Here are some simple ones that you can try:

1. Ensure that your plants are getting sufficient sunlight. (Surely, I won’t have to deal with importance of sunlight! We have being learning them for all these years in our biology textbooks!)

2. Make sure you water your plants twice a day in summer and once in winter times. Rather than using a mug you can also use old bottle whose cap has multiple holes pierced in it, so that it servers as water can. Instead of pouring out a lot of water, drizzles are preferred by plants as it helps them to absorb water more efficiently and also it saves wastage.

3. Take care of your gardening tools; you can preferably keep them in a bucket full with a mixture of sand and mineral oil, So that they remain sharp.

4. For manuring one can use the compost of your household green wastes. Nothing is better than an organic manure and that too homemade!

5. Make sure the plants are free from pests and diseases. Keep a regular check and if you find one plant infected keep it away from others and treat it. Do not allow fungus to grow or any parasitic creature as it may be fatal for your plants health, if found one then quickly uproot it

6. To make a complete garden one can also make a bird feeder by using bottles and sticks and putting grains in them. If birds visit your garden not only do they help in pollination , but all makes your garden full of life.

7. If ones home lacks space, they can also make a vertical garden in your colony.

8. Apart from pots you can also use cut out bottles, old tin tool box, old rubber boots, pen stands, broken cups for potting the plant. In this way you will be able to recycle your old things as well as save money.

9. For keeping the unplanted seeds securely, you can get hold of old unused photo albums to store their pockets or use small tic-tac boxes.

10. Prefer not to buy saplings from road vendors but visit a good nursery and buy them and make sure to know proper instructions of their care.
With this few simple hacks one can improve or start to make their own garden. Even I use these hacks and they have helped me a lot till date.

(Soumi Mandal is a Class X student from South Point High School)