An urban city is only as good as the public spaces its residents can blissfully inhabit. If your city has enough spaces where the elderly can sit and reminisce, couples can canoodle, exercise junkies can get a good stretch, children can run amok, and aunties can partake in brisk walk-cum-gossip sessions, then it’s a city worth living in. And Delhi surely has plenty of such places, Sunder Nursery being the most popular these days.
Sunder Nursery, formerly called Azim Bagh or Bagh-e-Azeem, is a 16th-century heritage park complex adjacent to the Humayun's Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Delhi. It is a massive garden, spread across 90 acres of lush greens, and has 15 Mughal monuments, 280 tree species, 80 bird species, 36 butterfly species. A site with breath-taking monuments, gardens, and biodiversity, Sunder Nursery was listed amongst the 100 World's Greatest Places of 2018 by Time Magazine. This place is a treat for heritage and nature enthusiasts, as well as the perfect venue for recreational and cultural activities in the city!
After renovations starting in 2007, the nursery reopened to the public as a heritage park on 21 February 2018. Now it contains over 300 types of trees, making it Delhi's first arboretum. There is no doubt the very fact that Delhi has got another heritage park to rival the existing Lodhi Garden – Sunder Nursery.
A park full of sunshine
Just as you enter the garden, you can see sprawling greens, symmetrical walkways, and an ancient Mughal monument right in the middle of your line of sight. On the other side of the monument, geometric flowerbeds and fountains made of marble making the view magnificent.
A café for all palettes
Make sure to drop by Fab Café this winter and soak up on all the Vitamin D while you eat good food, surrounded by the warmth of nature. This café is located near an artificial lake developed in Sunder Nursery.
Promoting ‘Indian food with a twist’, the café is also built around the concept of conscious eating, with no refined sugars or oils, offering eco-friendly packaging in which you can take away your meals to sit and enjoy anywhere in the massive park.
A farmer's market designed to impress
On weekends, Sunder Nursery hosts The Earth Collective promoting organic and natural lifestyle market. The Earth Collective is a group of organic foodies and farmers committed to making a change by promoting holistic eating habits and sustainable growing practices. This market at the Sunder Nursery is the place for organic food aficionados to mingle, learn more about where your food comes from, and pick up some tasty treats for yourself.
This farmers' market is a weekly thing at Sunder Nursery, with a few permanent stalls and some new ones that you'll discover every time you go. They've got about 45 stalls like a ton of local handmade apparel, accessories, and home décor available, plus snacks and skincare that you'll find. The market timings are 9 AM - 2 PM, entry tickets to Sunder Nursery are priced at INR 35 (INR 15 for children between 5 - 12 years and free for children below 5 years), and there's ample parking space available.
Buy Indoor & Outdoor Plants
If you are looking for places where you can get plants for your rooftop garden and that too at reasonable prices, then you should definitely head to Sunder Nursery. It’s a governor's nursery, which is spread over acres of land and is well maintained. There is a wide variety of outdoor and indoor plants, you can also get good air purifier plants there. The price starts from INR 15 and is totally worth it.
The staff is very helpful and knowledgeable. They help you with the names and advise you on proper care. This Nursery has a wide collection of around 200 species of annual flowers, house plants, shrubs, trees, creepers, bonsai, ferns, fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants, etc. The nursery sells a wide range of all plant material and seedlings to the Delhiites.
I surely did enjoy my time, picnic-ing under the winter sun at this beautifully manicured not-so-hidden gem of Delhi.
Walking around the beautifully manicured Sunder Nursery this season, replete with its weekend organic market, sprawling gardens to practice your lockdown yoga routines, tombs to admire and picnic around, and thriving government-run nursery to purchase plants from.
As Delhi’s first Central Park it celebrates a mapping of biodiversity amidst the sacred symmetry of gardens and tombs. The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." The Sunder Nursery development and biodiversity projects are a testimony to this truth.
Happy Reading!
Love,
Sushmita