CHENNAI: Gone are those days when you needed a large backyard to create a garden of your own. Bengaluru-based Muddy Waters helps you create mini-gardens, even ones with tiny tables and chairs, in one pot or layered setting of a few.
Mini gardens or miniature gardening can be traced back to the 12th Century, when it became popular among the Chinese and Japanese to create small plants. Many believe it to be an off shoot of the famous practice of Japanese Bonsai. Miniature gardening is the art of recreating large landscapes into a small space.
The mother-daughter duo and founders of Muddy Waters, Nirmala Prakash Kadur and Vydehi Kadur, converse with City Express on the art of miniature gardening.
“My mother is the soul behind Muddy Waters. Every time she visited a landscape, she would want to get a piece of that place back home. Once she had just returned from a trip and was missing the landscape so much that she decided to create a miniature of it, that was the beginning of our miniature gardening project,” recollects Vydehi .
At Muddy Waters, the goal is that gardening is for everyone who loves the nature, whether you live in a spacious bungalow or in an apartment with no soil space. And, the delicate miniature plants are not expensive as one might think. It is not expensive it too. All you need is the right amount of light, water and some time to spare. People at Muddy Waters recommend organic methods to deal with pest problems and most of the organic inputs are available at reasonable prices at any farmers’ market.
Vydehi adds, “This is a great way to introduce children to gardening. Creating a miniature garden is like painting on a canvas. It is an extension of your personality and a way of expressing your creativity. You can disappear into the little world you have created as an escape from the daily grind and enjoy its therapeutic benefits.”
Simple things needed for miniature gardening:
A recycled water bottle with a small mouth for watering the garden. A sprayer attached with it to spray water on the leaves A pair of scissors or pruner for trimming plants An old tooth brush or coarse paint brush to brush of stains An old fork to loosen the soil A cloth to wipe the planter
You can grow most plants in it
Vydehi says, “One can grow plants, ranging from sun loving succulents and flowering plants to semi-shade plants such as miniature palms. In a miniature garden, the soil space is restricted so one may have to use plants that do well in such an environment.”