“Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are,” wrote English poet Alfred Austin—and in these enchanting home garden designs, that sentiment is in bloom. Dense planting, flowering canopies, and cool grass underfoot: what more would one want? From a Geoffrey Bawa-inspired escape to a colourful place of repose in the hills, these home garden designs are bucolic bliss personified.
An Alibag Garden With Bawa Influences
Mango trees, sculpted into igloos, with khat beds underneath, offer the perfect spot for a siesta.
Ishita Sitwala
The limestone table designed by Maniar sets the ideal spot for al-fresco breakfasts.
Ishita Sitwala
Romantic strolls through the garden reveal intimate nooks and secret hideouts nestled in the foliage of this Alibag home.
Ishita Sitwala
Romantic strolls through the garden reveal intimate nooks and secret hideouts nestled in the foliage of this home in Alibag, created by architects Kunal Maniar and Rahul Mehrotra. Maniar’s soft spot for nostalgia is a recurring motif in the two-acre property— one that presents itself strongly in the way he has annexed ideas of intelligent, biophilic landscape design with memories of comfort borrowed from childhood. For instance, clusters of mango trees, sculpted to form an igloo, nestle charpoys within—a perfect spot to submit to an afternoon siesta under the overhang of sweet, succulent mangoes. “We have come to a point where we find it easier to plonk a sun umbrella in the middle of the lawn. It’s as if we have forgotten the joy of resting under the shade of a tree,” says Maniar.
It helped that the homeowners’ brief for the garden was that it be designed to celebrate a coexistence with the birds and the bees. What Maniar feels grateful for, though, is that his earth-loving vision is the same as the one espoused by the legendary architect on the project, Rahul Mehrotra. “Rahul is a maverick at what he does and I love that about his work. He created lots of opportunities for me to design unique spaces in the landscape.”
Original text by Rajashree Balaram
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