In overpopulated cities, where lush greenery is next to impossible to find, for one to be lost in tranquility, you can craft landscape and live out your dream. Landscaping is all about creating a haven, a surreal ambience. Landscaping enhances the surrounding; flowering plants add colour and vividness to the environment. It also allows us to be in touch with nature. Usually a factory site looks dull and gloomy but create a landscape around it and you will have a serene environment. 
For those whose leisure pursuit is gardening and horticulture, landscaping will not be a Herculean task. For those who have no knowledge of landscaping and still want it, they can hire a landscaping specialist. 
Agnelo Castellino is one such landscaping specialist who works toward titivating complexes, factory units and plants. He is a partner in the landscaping firm Garden Resort. His projects include JW Marriott, B. Raheja complexes at Versova and Yari Road, Shreepati Arcade, India's tallest building, and Reliance. He has also done landscaping for all the factory units in the Thane-Belapur industrial belt. He has also taken up landscaping for farmhouses and bungalows.
Before undertaking any project, Agnelo Castellino first visits the site and has a look at the area, surroundings and drainage system. He says, "The drainage system should be seamless or else excess water will destroy the garden." 
After the area to be landscaped is decided, a mixture of red soil and manure is filled in the area. Then slabs of grass are put on the soil; after continuous watering the grass gets matted in a couple of months. Usually one slab of grass measures 2 x 1 ft. "I mostly use Korean carpet grass due to its low maintenance," Castellino explains.
According to Castellino, there are three popular themes of landscaping: 
* Japanese: consisting of rocks, pebbles, bridges, bamboos and pagodas.
* American: comprising only lawn and flowering shrubs.
* The third theme is a mixture of both where you have a lawn with flowering shrubs and rock and pebble decoration.
Due to shortage of space for lawns and gardens, nowadays most of the builders provide each flat with a parapet garden and terrace garden.
As far as the cost factor is concerned, Castellino says that open lawns are cheaper than terrace and parapet gardens. Due to the small space the plants used to decorate these gardens are exotic and expensive. To this add rock decorations. "Compared to open lawns we only need to root grass and shrubs around the lawns and less expensive plants like hibiscus, tabarnamontana, duranta and tecoma, whose prices range from Rs 10 to Rs 15 per plant," he states. "The cost of landscaping is determined by square foot. For landscaping at Reliance we charged between Rs 40 and Rs 60 per sq. ft. The lowest cost for making a simple lawn with the aforementioned flowering shrubs is Rs 20 to Rs 30 per sq ft. This includes soil, manure and fertiliser and flowering shrubs."
Talking about trends and his own preference in plants, Castellino says, "Customers need something new and with low maintenance. Roses require a lot of fertiliser and manure and then only they flower, so I don't suggest roses. I neither suggest nor provide plants from foreign countries because if Indian climate doesn't suit them they will die." He further states that there is a demand for ornamental indoor plants, which give an exotic ambience. JW Marriott has kept such plants whose prices range from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000. The popular ones are Fish Tail and Arica.
"As Feng Shui is in vogue, a lot of clients want landscaping according to it. So we coordinate with their Feng Shui consultant and provide them with the needful plants and other landscaping material like waterfalls" Castellino adds. Waterfall installation costs anywhere from Rs 75,000 to a couple of lakhs of rupees. Installing a waterfall involves pump work, civil work, piping, electrical work and decorating materials like rocks and pebbles. The waterfall installed at Hotel Celebrations near the Mumbai airport cost around Rs 2 lakh.
After the garden is freshly laid, the work isn't over. Regular maintenance is required for which Agnelo Castellino and his team of gardeners visits clients every month. Maintenance service includes spraying of insecticides and providing manure and fertilisers. Some clients have their own gardeners who are provided with necessary maintenance tips.
Castellino's own favourite project is landscaping a hillock for a bungalow at Panchgani, a hill station in Maharashtra, because "it was a very challenging project but it turned out to be an amazing one."

Contact: Agnelo Castellino, Garden Resort, Garden Resort House, 606, Sion-Trombay Road, Chembur-Mumbai-400071. Tel: 22-25225576; E-mail: garden.resort@vsnl.com