Anand Maheshwari, a readymade garments dealer from Rajasthan, has had a passion for gardening since he was young.
However, due to his father’s job requiring frequent moves, it was challenging for Anand to pursue this hobby. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 lockdown that he finally began gardening.
Today, he has converted his 800-sq-ft terrace into a lush green jungle with around 1,000 plants. And what’s interesting is that all the plants are grown in discarded cans, containers, bags, and boxes.
Without any prior expertise, he would get plants from the nursery and plant them. Unfortunately, many of these saplings would perish soon after.
“It is not easy to retain a garden in the heat of Rajasthan. Most of the places sell cement pots in which a plant can’t survive for more than a year and a half,” he says.
This, he says, is what led to him using waste boxes and bags to grow plants, which became instantly successful. Soon after, Anand started recycling waste materials to grow his garden.
“My family teased me when I began collecting boxes and covers from the garbage. But when the results of gardening in those were better than that in cement pots, they extended their full support,” he shares.
Anand grows plant saplings in milk bags, snack packets, detergent packets, cold drink bottles, and empty thermocol cans.
His major focus is on growing flowering and ornamental plants like cacti, succulents, spider plants, and money plants, along with daily-use vegetable plants like brinjal, curry leaves, coriander leaves, and tomatoes.
Anand even set up a hydroponic farm on his terrace and installed a drip irrigation system after watching multiple tutorial videos.
He says he wishes to engage children in gardening. “The future generation should understand its significance and start practising even if it’s in small quantities,” he says, adding that he also helps senior citizens build their own home gardens.
Finding the whole process therapeutic, Anand enjoys experimenting with new gardening techniques. “Having gardening as a hobby energises a person mentally and physically,” he remarks.