Journal
Terrace gardening, landscaping ideas and garden design ideas from what we have learnt building and maintaining gardens in Rajasthan — written for people who want the detail, not the brochure.
Latest
Garden design and landscape design in India: a practical guide
The design process, layout, planting in layers, water and irrigation, garden styles and the mistakes to avoid.
Landscape designer vs garden designer vs landscape architect
What a landscape architect, landscape designer and garden designer each do, and which one your project needs.
What landscaping costs in India, and what moves the number
Site size, hardscape, soil, irrigation, plant sizes and access: what moves a landscaping budget, and how to compare quotes.
Terrace gardens across India: what changes by climate
Hot and dry, humid coastal, northern plains, southern plateau and hills: how a terrace garden changes with the climate.
Drought-resistant, low-maintenance plants for Indian gardens
Trees, shrubs, groundcover, climbers and succulents that stay green through a dry summer, and how to establish them.
What to plant in October and November in North and West India
Trees, fruit trees, hedges, shrubs, climbers and lawns to plant after the monsoon, and how to plant them so they last.
Winter flowers that bloom by Diwali, and what to plant now for winter
Chrysanthemum, marigold and the other flowers that bloom by Diwali, and what to plant now for colour until March.
Landscaping ideas for Indian homes and gardens
Front gardens, backyards, small spaces and low-water landscapes, with the plants and materials that suit Indian conditions.
Garden maintenance checklist: weekly, monthly and through the Indian year
Weekly and monthly tasks, a season-by-season calendar, lawn care, pruning and irrigation upkeep for Indian gardens.
Hotel and resort landscaping in India: a planning guide for owners
Writing the brief, designing for guests, water planning, heritage properties, working on an open hotel and handover.
Winter vegetables to grow on a terrace in India
Spinach, methi, radish, carrot, tomato and peas: what to sow from October, container depths and organic pest control.
Rajasthan garden calendar: what to plant and do each month
What to plant, sow, prune and water each month in Rajasthan's summer, monsoon and winter.
Landscaping and garden glossary
Soft landscaping, hardscape, drip irrigation, AMC, charbagh and more, explained in plain English.
Terrace gardening in India: the complete guide
Roof checks, setup, design, plants, soil, watering, a month-by-month calendar and what decides the cost.
Pergola design ideas for Indian homes: shade, materials and climbers
Pergola types, steel vs timber vs aluminium, designing for real shade, and the climbers that thrive in Indian heat.
Vertical gardens in India: types, plants and what keeps them alive
Pocket, modular, pot-rack and climber systems, the right plants for each wall, and the irrigation that keeps a green wall alive.
Terrace garden ideas for Indian homes that survive a 45°C summer
Shade, heat-tolerant plants, container sizes, floors and drip irrigation: the ideas that still work on an Indian roof in May.
Roof terrace gardens: turning an unused roof into a room
The types, the constraints, and how to judge whether your roof can carry one.
Small terrace gardens: what works when you have four metres
What fits in four metres, what to leave out, and the mistakes that make a small terrace feel smaller.
Setting up a terrace garden: the order the work has to happen in
Load, waterproofing, drainage, irrigation, medium, planting. Getting the sequence wrong is what causes leaks.
Plants that actually survive a terrace in Rajasthan
Species by species, with the failure modes, container depths and the summer regime that keeps them alive.
Most garden writing is written by people who have not had to keep a garden alive through a Rajasthan May.
Everything here comes out of work the studio has actually done — which species held and which did not, what order the construction has to happen in, what a maintenance year really involves, and what goes wrong when the sequence is rushed.
It is deliberately specific. Named species, real depths, actual months. If a piece here could have been written about any garden anywhere, it should not be on this page.
What this journal covers.
Terrace and rooftopWhere most of this writing sits.
Terrace and rooftop gardening is the subject we are asked about most, and the one where the published advice is least reliable — most of it is written for climates where a container does not reach 50 °C by mid-afternoon and where the water supply does not change character between March and July.
A terrace garden in Rajasthan is really four problems stacked on top of each other, and they have to be solved in order. Load comes first: what the slab will carry, wet, with people standing on it. Waterproofing and drainage come second, because they are the only part that cannot be corrected later without taking the garden apart. Irrigation comes third, sized to containers that dry faster than ground beds. Planting comes last, and is the part everyone wants to start with.
Get the order wrong and the failure is not gradual. It shows up as a leak into the room below, or as an entire terrace of dead planting after one week in May.
The four pieces below cover that sequence end to end — species selection, the construction order, what changes when the terrace is small, and what a full roof build involves. They are written from schemes the studio has built and maintained, so the depths, months and species are the real ones.
What else is comingThe rest of the year.
The writing continues, working through the questions that arrive most often: what garden maintenance actually involves month by month, what landscaping costs and which decisions move the number, terrace gardening across India’s climate zones, drought-resistant planting for Rajasthan, and a month-by-month calendar for the Rajasthan garden year.
If you have a question about a site — a roof that might not carry a garden, a lawn that will not hold through summer, an irrigation system nobody has serviced in three years — it is usually faster to ask the studio directly than to wait for the post.
Tell us about the site.
Every scheme begins with a survey. Send us the essentials and we will arrange one, then return a drawn plan — not a quotation against an assumption.
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