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How Reema Gopalan is spreading awareness for a cleaner environment with her startup – Reema’s Garden

A gardener by passion and the founder of Reema's Garden by profession, Reema had a long journey planned when she started gard
A gardener by passion and the founder of Reema’s Garden by profession, Reema had a long journey planned when she started gardening in 2015.

The rising level of pollution in the country have made living conditions worse for people. Metro cities like Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Lucknow, etc. have seen an increase in the level of pollution at a fast rate, and this is leading to many health and environmental issues for the people living there.

Industrial expansion and revolution are taking place at a fast rate due to which the governments are cutting up areas of lands where forests are present. The development in today’s world is taking place at the cost of the environment of the country, and the tricky part is that both things are essential for a better life. The trees that give us so many things, but most importantly, oxygen is being chopped down to build apartments that would provide people shelter or for factories that will provide employment and goods. To tackle this problem, one homepreneur from Pune, Reema Gopalan, decided to take matters into her own hands with her startup – Reema’s Garden.

The beginning of the journey

A gardener by passion and the founder of Reema’s Garden by profession, Reema had a long journey planned when she started gardening in 2015. Living in Mumbai, she moved to Pune four years ago, and in 2016 she completely fell in love with gardening and decided to share her passion for gardening with the world. This was the time when she started blogging about gardening, and this marked the beginning of Reema’s Garden.

In November 2017, she held her first gardening workshop in Mulund, Mumbai, and the response she received pushed her to conduct more workshops. In the early days, she would conduct these workshops at different locations in Mumbai, but they were not consistent and regular, so in October 2019, she opened her gardening hub in Pune.

What is Reema’s Garden?

The blog turned to a website that was introduced as a way to spread awareness among people and help them pick up gardening as a hobby, but it is more than that. It is a great hobby but also a one-stop solution for many urban problems like stress, pollution, waste management, making kids aware of nature, etc.

They hold several workshops based on different levels:

  • Beginners- for learning the basics of gardening
  • Advanced- For learning how to grow your herbs, leafy vegetables, and other vegetables
  • Expert- For learning about creepers, climbers plants, pollinations, and underground vegetables
  • Kids- Soon to be started workshops for kids

Gardening is a sustainable activity, but the lack of knowledge on how to grow and maintain plants is a big challenge for every individual. They hold workshops and training classes to teach people about gardening, and she believes that gardening helps a person become better individuals, and it happens on a subconscious level. This also makes us aware of our surroundings.

Challenges faced in the initial days

The biggest challenge faced by her was that she wants to change the notion of thinking gardening as a hobby, and she wants to spread awareness about gardening. The second biggest challenge is with kitchen gardening in that you can never predict the results. Even after doing everything right, the desired effect can be not what you expect, and you’ll have to be okay with it. There are many variables involved, like plant nutrition, season, pest, pollination, and many more.

The first milestone and collaboration

Shifting from freelancing business to having her own set up of Gardening Hub was the most significant and first milestone in her life. She believes that setting up a business model/system is more critical in the space, and she believes that getting featured in TimesNext would be another milestone in her journey.

Starting solo and still working on her own, Gardening Hub is a one-woman army that is taking care of the startup.

The current growth of the company and her vision

As the company is still in the initial phase as they have started in October 2019 and she wants to open the Gardening Hubs across India as a franchise model. They are coming up as a digital course of gardening as well to help people understand the importance of gardening and how this would help them to do their bit in improving the environment.

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