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Tending to Time:
Soham Kacker on Preserving
Geoffrey Bawa’s Garden Vision

24 July 2025
By Teardrop Hotels
Soham Kacker serves as the Curator of Living Collections at the Geoffrey Bawa and Lunuganga Trusts, where his work revolves around nurturing the living legacy of Lunuganga. Surrounded by over 300 species of plants, he draws on archival materials to conserve the garden’s intricate interplay of built and natural features. In an interview with Teardrop, Soham discusses how he bridges heritage and ecology to ensure Bawa’s vision endures and remains relevant for generations of visitors and scholars alike.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAVOURITE GARDENS
OR NATURAL LANDSCAPES

The gardens of my home city New Delhi are particularly close to my heart, especially the several gardens of the Humayun’s Tomb complex. I find beauty in all natural landscapes, although the forests and valleys of the western Himalayas in Uttarakhand are among my favourites.

Which elements of Bawa’s landscaping philosophy are still actively maintained today?

The garden team at Lunuganga strives to maintain the garden exactly as it was left behind by Bawa, relying on archival materials and collective memory to do so. That being said, Bawa’s landscaping philosophy is difficult to define and when changes become necessary, we rely on certain observable patterns such as natural planting, focus species, and prioritising the experience of the garden over its individual components.

What makes Lunuganga’s gardens unique in the context of tropical horticulture or garden design in Sri Lanka?

Before beginning work on Lunuganga, Bawa travelled extensively across Europe, visiting many gardens and landscapes, and this influence can be traced in the design of his garden. The combination of these wide-ranging influences with indigenous Sri Lankan materials, plants, and landscape aesthetics into a coherent space which feels contiguous with the surrounding landscape lies at the core of what makes this garden unique, in my view.

DO YOU KNOW HOW PLANTS WERE CHOSEN FOR DIFFERENT SECTIONS OF THE GARDEN—WAS IT MORE AESTHETIC, FUNCTIONAL, OR ECOLOGICAL?

My perception is that Bawa was primarily an aesthete when it came to planting choices, emphasising the overall experience or effect of a planting over its individual components, writing: “I have always enjoyed visual pleasures, and nature has often provided marvellous scenes and settings.” He worked a lot with what was already there – over half of the plants in the garden are indigenous species which would have already existed on the land. These were complemented by specific plants chosen for their shape, size, scent, or rarely, their colour, which would complete the vision of a particular area.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE CORNER OR FEATURE IN THE GARDEN? WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL TO YOU?

I love the Hidden Pavilion on the north-west corner of the main hill in the garden. Concealed behind a dense planting, it is easy to miss but is always breezy, peaceful, and contemplative, and I love spending a quiet afternoon there after a day’s work.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ANY RARE OR PARTICULARLY SYMBOLIC SPECIES FOUND HERE?

There are several unusual plants in the garden, both indigenous and introduced. The garden contains over thirty species of endangered Sri Lankan flora, among these the famous agarwood tree, a native species of coffee, and a beautiful shrub-forming primrose. Among introduced species, there are a few species of rare palms such as the thief palm, which is still rare in cultivation in Sri Lanka.

What is a typical day like for the horticulture team at Lunuganga?

Each day is different! The morning usually starts with cleaning the key areas of the garden and making sure they are ready to receive visitors. The rest of the day involves anything from pruning trees or planting, planting up areas, renovating or repairing structures, propagating plants for the nursery, to making trips to nearby areas to source material or plants.

How does the changing monsoon season affect your work in the garden?

Lunuganga is a fairly drought-tolerant garden by design, owing to the many native species of plants. The monsoon crucially determines the cultivation of the approximately 1.5 acres of rice paddies which form a key aesthetic and functional element of the garden. With climate change altering weather patterns, the team has made the switch to indigenous rice varieties which are often much more tolerant of harsh and unpredictable conditions.

Are there any months when Lunuganga is at its most visually striking?

Each season brings a different mood at Lunuganga, although I personally love the monsoon season when the monochromatic greens of the garden are accentuated by the cloudy skies and rains.

WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE IN MAINTAINING SUCH A VAST AND HISTORIC GARDEN IN THE TROPICS?

Maintaining a heritage garden like Lunuganga comes with unique challenges. Weather can be unpredictable, plantings need constant attention and regular pruning, and in a mature garden like Lunuganga, our team needs to pay particular attention to old plantings, which may need replacement. Irregular weather patterns caused by climate change affect the seasonal flooding of the lake, which impacts low-lying areas of the garden like the water garden. The team works to meet these challenges while ensuring the garden remains open to visitors every day of the year!

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE EVERY VISITOR TO NOTICE—OR FEEL—WHEN THEY WALK THROUGH LUNUGANGA?

Bawa described Lunuganga as “a place of many moods, the result of many imaginings.” Every area in the garden invokes a different aesthetic experience, and this is something I encourage every visitor to feel as they walk through Lunuganga.

WHY AND HOW DO GARDENS MATTER TO THE NEXT GENERATION?

Gardens are a form of living natural heritage, which contain histories, stories, ecologies and practices beyond their tangible aesthetic value. Especially heritage spaces like Lunuganga link us to the past while simultaneously suggesting approaches to future opportunities and challenges. By conserving these spaces for the future, I hope that we can pass on their legacy as spaces for inspiration and introspection.