The fallacy of manicured gardens

I was at the Mumbai clinic of Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal yesterday. These folks do a great job in providing Ayurvedic treatment for many diseases where the first port of call should not be Allopathy. The world would be a much better place if more people give Ayurveda a fair shot.

But this post is about something that struck me at the clinic. They had put up a calendar of the Arya Vaidya Sala. The cover of the calendar has a picture of what I’m guessing is the main building of the Sala (I have not being to the Sala myself) with a nicely manicured garden in the front.

Of course the Sala has its’ own herbal garden where the medicinal plants are grown. It struck me that even an institute like the Arya Vaidya Sala of Kottakkal feels the need to show a lawn and manicured garden (LMG) on its’ annual calendar. These LMGs may look aesthetically nice, but have no functional value. While it is nice to have some such gardens that are pleasing to the eyes, it is time we reduce the prevalence of such gardens that have little horticultural or ecological value, end up consuming significant amount of resources.

In my housing society in Mumbai I see many garden workers and huge amount of water spent in maintaining these LMGs that can actually be considered criminal waste of resources considering the scarcity of both land and water in the city. It does not matter if recycled water used for maintenance of these LMGs; it is still water wasted at the cost of growing something of utility like herbs, vegetables and fruits.

It is time we replace LMGs with gardens that have native flora, medicinal plants, herbs, flowers and fruits.

P.S: Our infatuation with lawns has now also resulted in artificial lawns being laid at many places to reduce the cost of maintaining natural grass. This is a worse option than natural lawn, since it does not provide even the limited ecological value of grass and the ability to act as a carbon sink, and the micro particles of its’ synthetic material gets washed out to the rivers and seas ending up in our food chain.