For the ideal setting, go in for a grill garden
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It does not need much maintenance or care, writes Hema Vijay
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BEAUTIFUL FAÇADE: Trailing creepers create the right mood
You don’t really need a patch of soil to have greenery in your home. Just a grill will do.
“It is ideal for people staying in apartments. It doesn’t need much maintenance or care. Added to it, grill gardens can effectively cut off the sun’s glare into the room and create a stunningly beautiful façade in no time,”
; says Navneeth Raghavan, landscape architect.
Grill gardens can be grown on both vertical and overhead grills with trailing creepers. Don’t worry; these creepers send out gentle roots, if at all, and will not leave cracks on your walls. Some enthusiasts have the entire fence done up by creepers.
Guiding the creepers
This is the crucial part in raising your grill garden. Start off with a potted creeper variety by the grill.
Guide the creeper on to the grill by tying a string near the tip of the plant. This will prevent the plant from creeping on to your floor.
Tie the other end of the string to the grill. Once the plant trails over to the grill and starts winding around it, the string can be cut off. A single sapling or cutting can grow to cover the entire grill surface.
Plant varieties
There are many to choose from, such as perennial money plants, orange flowering Tecoma creepers, varieties of jasmine like Nithyamalli with its exquisite fragrance and colourful Bougainvillea creepers.
They are very easy to grow, especially creeping varieties of money plants.
Water the soil in the pot from which the creeper starts, every day. While jasmine creepers need a 12-inch pot to start off, you can even grow money plant creepers from attractive glass bottles placed on the window sill.
While money plants do not require any further attention apart from daily watering, Jasmine creepers require manuring (two handfuls each of manure and fresh red earth) once a year.
If you encounter ants around the creepers (which is rare), spray the area with lemon grass oil or ant powder. In a lighter vein, grill gardens will not grill you.
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