Report on the first Family Fun Gardening Day of 2023

We are happy to share with you this report on our first Family Fun Gardening Day for 2023. It has been written by Mihika (14 yrs) who lives in the vicinity of Puttenahalli Puttakere. 

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After a gap of 4 years and more, this Saturday on 7th January 2023, we woke up early in the morning, excited to visit Puttenahalli Lake. In spite of the cold weather my sister, mother, five of my friends and I were gung-ho about spending our weekend sweating it out for a cause. We had attended the Family Fun Gardening Day at Puttenahalli Lake a few years back, before Covid, and we were really excited to go again.

At first I was nervous to meet new people and socialise but when we arrived, Sapana, Divya and Rashmi aunty from PNLIT, made us feel at home and the head gardener Ramu uncle guided us on the proper ways to complete the tasks at hand. Though there were not as many people like the earlier times we were eager to get going, so with a jump and skip we started.

The lake has become more beautiful since the last time we visited! It was now filled to the brim due to good rainfall over the past 4-5 months. We saw so many different birds enjoying the sun. I still remember the lake being dry earlier and this was such a happy contrast! I am not a regular visitor to the lake and I was soaking in the atmosphere but there was work to be done!

We started off with raking the dry leaves to clear the garden a bit, then we cut off the excess leaves growing off the hedges, after that we removed the weeds growing in the garden area. Ramu uncle guided us throughout and showed us how to do each of these tasks. It was hard work but we did take the customary selfie breaks and photo sessions.

After finishing all the tasks we were really tired but we truly enjoyed our time here. We had been so engrossed that we hadn’t looked at the clock! Those 2 + hours of work just didn’t feel like 120 minutes of raking, cleaning and deweeding. All of us had so much fun and didn't want to leave. This was the best start to a weekend!

We will surely attend the upcoming gardening events as it is truly great fun. I will also visit the lake on a regular basis. Thanks a ton to PNLIT for a memorable experience.

Mihika