Christmas was joyous for Lazy Gardener (LG), a Delhi-based home gardening brand. A nook in their office is now lush with two dozen potted syngoniums, philodendrons (ring of fire), variegated money plants (pothos), snake plants, and poinsettias, arranged on shelves to form a chubby Christmas tree.
The core team also wore Santa hats and surprised a few followers at their homes, gifting them the houseplant on their wish-list (the video is uploaded on their Instagram page @lazygardener).
LG launched in May 2019 with their product – plant stixs (three-inch-long sticks made from minerals and multi-nutrients).
These GreenStix and BloomStix (for flowering plants), Rs 500 each, are designed for the new-age green thumb, who is a busy bee and wants a ‘lazy’, non-messy, low-maintenance patch of green, to curb air pollution and stress, upgrade home décor, and indulge in a bit of showoff. You have to push the stick/s (their number depends on the pot size) into the soil around the roots. This becomes the plant’s ‘manure-source’ for two months, after which you insert a new stick.
Founder Vinayak Garg, 32, ex-IITian, has over a decade’s experience of building apps in the health and education sectors.
The idea to view gardening as a lifestyle trend came to Garg in 2017, while visiting his sister who had delivered a baby.
“While waiting for the baby to wake up, we’d have these discussions. One being, what we can do to save the environment. My sister is not as much into gardening as my mom and I, and after these conversations, I realised that if I can solve the three variables of light, water and nutrition, which are required for good plant growth, in an easy, friendly manner, then even those who are busy will learn to enjoy gardening.”
After much research and minglings with online gardening groups, Garg devised PlantStix, and distributed these among fellow green thumbs as an R&D exercise. Initially many tested these sticks with dying plants and saw no results.
“But these sticks are for your ‘alive’ houseplants healthier and get greener leaves. These are meant to retrofit into whatever you are currently doing.”
Today, LG has is thick with plant lovers (already 56.1k Instagram followers), hooked to all the activities up their greensleeves. It starts with hashtags like #ApnaThymeAayega and #AloeYou (I Love You), and activities such as #SpellWithLazy (spelling every initial of your name with a plant name) and #GrowWithLazy (how to plant and nurture a seasonal plant).
The highlight: their instructional videos starring Garg. Bursting myths that succulents don’t need sunlight, to tips on watering plants in extreme weather conditions, are two examples.
Sneak-peak into home gardens and testimonies on how plants have bettered mental health are equally engaging.
In November, they hosted an offline event at India Habitat Centre, with discussions and plant solutions. This month, there was a plant-swap event in Hyderabad.
Garg’s 2020 plans include more products, and podcasts.
“I’m also working on indoor gardening solutions as balcony gardens may vanish in the near future.”