Reema and her Tips for Gardening:

“Hello and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the gardening talks featuring reemasgarden. Today we have a few questions on how to start gardening for beginners and the important things to keep in mind while gardening. And to answer them for us we have Reema Gopalan joining us today. Hello Reema, how are you?” Asked Zehra. 

“Hello Zehra, I am good. How are you?” Said Reema. 

“I am good. It’s a pleasure to have you with us today. Welcome to the Gardening Talks with Taos.” Said Zehra. 

“You all must be knowing Reema already as you all are plant lovers & gardeners and for those who don’t know her let me give you a brief about her, Reema has an amazing website for beginners in gardening. She is also active on her social media handle and shares tricks & guidelines for gardening. So before we start with the questions today, would you like to tell us about yourself, Reema?” Asked Zehra.

“Hello everyone, I am Reema Gopalan. So I do not have a horticultural, botany, or agriculture background, I am basically from the field of Finance. So over some time, I developed an interest in plants and gardening and the number of problems that I was encountering was not because of the unavailability of information but it is because of the unorganized information. As it is not helping anyone but rather confuses everyone. As a beginner, this unorganized information hampers the way you do gardening and they also don’t know where to start. Later I analyzed and then realized that it is not just the case with me but with many people. So, slowly I started by making blogs and workshops. During Covid-19 as in-person Workshop stopped, so I started with online workshops. And now I have courses on Gardening and have written two e-books, the on Flowering Plants and the other one on Indoor Plants. Apart from that Reema’s Garden, also features one more book written by Antra Khada, a Ph.D. in Agriculture. She is an Agriculturist and has also written a book on soil called ‘Finding a Soil Mix ’. I have worked with various brands like Amazon and many more. So, I teach gardening and I simplify gardening for everyone. So while concluding, I will say I run a knowledge portal for gardening for all the gardeners and that is me.” Said Reema. 

“That’s amazing Reema. So, let’s start with our questions for today. So the first question for today is, how to start gardening?” Asked Zehra.

“People don’t understand gardening, as they usually buy plants from nurseries or online and would place them here or there, just because it looks here and not there. So the important points on how to start gardening are:

1. Look at the space where you want to place the plant, it can be your balcony, TV cabinets, bedroom, or office desk. 
2. Go through and check how much light that space has for the plant. 
3. What type or kind of plant that you want and will it grow in that space with that amount of light?

And this is how you can grow or start gardening.” Said Reema. 

“What are the different types of plants/gardens?” Asked Zehra. 

“The types can be: 

• The one kind of garden/plant is the Indoor garden. So, these days Indoor plants or house plants are very common, which people want to place inside their houses for ornament or aesthetic purposes.
•  The second one is the Flowering plant. A lot of people love flowers but make sure that your balcony that has a flowering plant that receives a minimum of 4 hours of direct sunlight. It is considered a good place for a flowering plant, and if the plant doesn’t receive that amount of sunlight, I am not saying that it won’t bloom but it won’t be that great.
• The third kind is the Kitchen Garden. So in the Kitchen Garden, there are two types:

1. The leafy vegetables, micro greens, or herbs. 
2. The fruit vegetables, e.g. Tomato, cucumber, capsicum, chilly, etc.

If you are trying to grow leafy vegetables, a minimum of 4 hours of sunlight is needed. And for the other vegetables, a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight is advisable.” Said Reema. 

“What plants to pick?” Asked Zehra. 

“As I have already said. You have to keep in mind the three points:

• Look at the space
• The amount of sunlight received by the space
• The kind/type of plant you want

So whatever fits in these categories opts for those plants, and that is the easiest way to pick the right type of plant. So, buying a plant is not the end, you have to take care of the plant, most of the plants are perennial plants that stats with you for a year. So taking the first step properly will make the journey smooth. A wrongly placed plant or a plant that does not receive the right amount of sunlight will attract all kinds of problems whether it is stagnant growth, slow growth, pest infection, diseases, etc., and this happens all because of the one wrong step at the beginning of the journey.” Said Reema. 

“If somebody does not have this knowledge, like which plant needs how much light, etc.” Asked Zehra.

“So, this is the reason why I started this Reema’s Garden. So, one option is you can opt for the course that we provide. As I have also been through the same journey. So, my intention for writing the e-books is to make people familiarize themselves with different types of plants, and my courses are only for that purpose. If you are not interested in paying and gaining knowledge, you can go through different YouTube videos and can refer to Instagram. One tip, I will give, is that when you are browsing anything on the internet make sure that the blog or page that you are visiting is based in your locality.” Said Reema.

“How to maintain your Garden?” Asked Zehra.

“So, I will give you an example, I have brought this Peperomia plant and I placed it right, so now I know its needs, I may take initial days to figure out its watering. But I am aware that I have placed the plant in the correct space and it is getting good sunlight, and regarding the fertilizers, there are many websites where the amount and the information regarding fertilization are mentioned. To maintain any type of garden, you need to observe it thoroughly, acting to fertilizers, watering, and sunlight. The important point for beginners, it is always better to under-fertilize, as less fertilization has no effect but over-fertilization can create lots of problems. So basically, an Indoor plant is different from a Flowering plant as the growth of Indoor plants is slow in comparison to Flowering plants, so the number of fertilizers will also differ. For small or slow-growing plants use little fertilizer and for big or fast-growing plants use more fertilizers but not over-fertilization.” Said Reema.  

“So, our last question for today is, what is the impact of gardening?” Asked Zehra.

“This is such a beautiful question. So, the human cycle completely works on talking and interacting with human beings, our world, and our emotions, and everything gets limited. So when you have plants or do gardening, it takes you slightly above the world and you develop an Objective view. So, all our problems regarding the finance, relationship, etc., it is all centered around the human world and people. It takes you out of the human world, it makes your way, and your perspective changes, outlook changes. And we are in a better position to deal with our problems. You also become sensitive because you live with plants, it is a natural side-effect and it is beautiful to see them grow. If you are growing a Flowering plant or Kitchen garden, you will think I am giving get a little bit of manure & water and in return, I am receiving too much. You become empathetic as now you observe plants and are not centered around verbal communication. It improves your overall relationship with everyone as you are now very empathetic, emotional, and sensitive. So, in general, it makes you a very good and better person from the soul. The beginners can also opt for plants that can be grown for 6-8 months and are low maintenance.” Said Reema. 

Thank you so much, Reema!

“It was lovely to have you with us in this wonderful session. Thank you, Reema for giving your valuable time and sharing with us your valuable tips and guidelines regarding Gardening. Thank you, everyone, for being in this workshop. I hope you have enjoyed and liked the session. Thank you all for joining the workshop.”

HAPPY GARDENING!