STRUCTURAL ENGINEER FROM AHMEDABAD CREATED GREEN SPACE!

Structural Engineer Ankur Sethi who works in her own consulting firm owns a very alluring garden in her pent house in Ahmedabad, India. She is so much passionate about plants that she started growing plants in all over pent house, in her bedroom, kitchen, balcony, terrace, entrance, etc.

This has helped her to lead a happy life and reduce stress from day to day work. She considers gardening as a necessary part of everyone’s life and not only limited to a hobby. She says,

Gardening is not only a hobby but a good physical exercise and a necessity in everyone’s lifestyle to reduce stress.

Agriculture Review has covered her complete story on how a structural engineer started getting interested in gardening and its positive effects in her life. She is 43 year old working woman and a mother of two children. She has to manage both her household responsibilities and work in her office.

But nothing could hold her back from visiting her garden daily.

Table of Contents

The Beginning

She started getting interested and doing gardening since 28 years. When she was studying in her engineering college then to deal with stress and workload of studies she started doing physical activities like walking, going to gym, aerobics but the gardening gave her the best results.

It is not very easy for a working human with nearly 16 hours working schedule to go to a gym or aerobics centre but to visit garden in our home is quite easy and beneficial.

She loves sharing her problems with plants, this helps her to express everything that she have in her mind. Many activities performed during gardening also helped her to stay fit and healthy during her college days.

What happened in 2019!

After her college days she got busy in her work life to live a good life but never left gardening completely. In 2019, she got well settled in Ahmedabad and started getting connected to social media and sharing her experience and pictures on gardening.

She found many Facebook groups related to gardening and started sharing and learning more about gardening. Soon she realised that there are so many positive people that are growing plants and motivating each other to grow more and more plants in the surrounding.

She started getting so many positive comments on her gardening pictures that she got motivated to bring more and more plants from various plant nurseries to fill her pent house completely with plants. She said,

I never knew that I will become such a serious gardener. I just kept studying and learning about plants on internet and then trying the knowledge gained on my plants to grow them well. It is such a wonderful experience.

Over 400 Plants!

400 plants that belongs to over 60 varieties is growing in her pent house such as Snake plants, Aloe vera, Plumeria pudica, Oleanders, Syngoniums, Philodendrons, Bougainvillea, Canna Lily, Vinca, Pothos, Boston fern, Areca Palm, Asparagus fern, etc. Every morning she used to spend nearly one hour after morning walk in her terrace garden.

She says that her terrace has amazing view as it is in the middle of the city with multi storey buildings all around and plants all over her terrace. Every evening when she gets free from her work she visits her garden and enjoys the view of sunset with her plants.

Visiting garden gives mental peace and keeps motivated to do day to day activities such as cooking, cleaning, official work, etc. with more dedication that gives her better results. She believes that it is the gardening that made her life blissful.

Gardening Tips From Ankur Sethi

Ankur treats her plants like her children and always suggest that plant requires special care to grow properly. Not all plant grow similar, they have specific requirements. She purchases specific potting mix that has organic manure from the plant nursery for plants.

She says that most of the plant die due to over watering instead of under watering. One should always take care of drainage holes at the bottom of the pot and apply water in the pot only when the top layer of soil seems dry.

Drainage holes and the property of potting mix should be such that after watering your pots the applied water should come out from the drainage holes very easily.

Mistakes are great teacher in gardening and I also learned from my mistakes says Ankur Sethi. She generally fertilize her plants with NPK 19:19:19 and seaweed solution once after every two months in her plants. She also considers adding organic manures once in 3 to 4 months in the top layer of the soil.

READ MORE: HOW TO MAKE VERMICOMPOST IN HOME GARDEN

For pest management regular application of neem oil spray works very well although sometimes hazardous pest needs very serious treatment. She says to keep propagating plants from cuttings to multiply them in your garden. This is free of cost and very easy.

READ MORE: HOW TO MAKE NEEM OIL MIX SPRAY

Message From Ankur Sethi

During Lock down due to Covid-19, cases of domestic violence and suicides are increasing. People should realise the importance of their life and start growing plants in their home. This will help them to stay positive and happy.

Involving family members in gardening helps to build a special and strong relationship. Getting hands dirty in soil during gardening releases happy chemicals serotonin in brain. Serotonin is a natural anti depressant that strengthens the immune system.

Happy Gardening!