Vinayak Garg, founder of Lazy Gardener is on a quest to make gardening easier for everyone. Born into a family of avid gardeners, Vinayak, an IIT graduate, started gardening as a passion. He always enjoyed gardening as a kid and he has very fond memories of this hobby from his childhood. But with the ageing of his parents and him being caught up with the daily hustle, his garden began missing the care it earlier received. So, in order to provide a simple solution for his parents, Vinayak began Lazy Gardener. Read on as Hashtag Magazine gives you an insight into the start up.
Today, his start-up is helping thousands of Indians turn into efficient home gardeners with its innovative products. “Gardening is a simple step for healing the environment, and oneself. Whether it’s to nurture nature, to overcome depression, or meditation; gardening helps in everything,” says Vinayak. A unique combination of e-commerce and environment-saving attempts, Lazy Gardener is on a mission to make urban gardening simple, and is committed to creating 1 million new gardeners by 2022.
“With shrinking home spaces and people’s busy schedules, gardening is being ignored. Lazy Gardener is on a mission to get more people to enjoy gardening by making urban gardening simple and by providing easy access to plant care information and tips, thereby resulting in not only more plants per person but also healthier plants,” says Vinayak.
People are drawn to indoor plants for its several health benefits like keeping the air clean and easing depression and anxiety.
In a span of two years, Lazy Gardener has gone from 0 to over 30,000 customers across India. The demand for houseplants is booming and so is the number of direct-to-consumer start-ups. The founder goes on to say, “The urban farming start-up ecosystem in India could reach $1 billion in the next two to four years and it will soon become an essential due to environmental concerns. In a few years, India will see progressive state governments ensuring that homeowners use their roofs for increasing greenery and urban farming.”
Gardening has become a popular trend since the beginning of the COVID 19 lockdown, and people seem to enjoy their lazy time with their plants. Nobody knew they could grow healthy greens and vegetables on their home terraces and in their tiny city apartments, but the lockdown has helped us understand that they can. You don’t have to live in the suburbs or drive far to your farms to enjoy home grown produce anymore. Vinayak explains, “People are turning to gardening as a soothing, family and kid-friendly hobby that also helps ease the concern over food security, as getting access to basic vegetables is suddenly becoming difficult. Though gardening is a rare yet positive trend that emerged from this pandemic, people will soon realise its pros of eating better and in turn start cultivating more.”
With shrinking home spaces and people’s busy schedules, gardening is being ignored. Lazy Gardener is on a mission to get more people to enjoy gardening by making urban gardening simple.
Story behind lazy Gardener
Most people are living in small, tight spaces in big cities and so getting access to nature has drastically reduced. Moreover, people are drawn to indoor plants for its several health benefits like keeping the air clean and easing depression and anxiety. With such growing needs, there has been an increase in direct-to-consumer startups that sell plants. “We noticed that there are people who love to keep plants but never had the time due to their hectic work schedules. When we launched our plant nutrition sticks, the sole purpose was to help people become gardeners and make sure their plants grow well with minimum time spent on them. That’s how the name Lazy Gardener came to form,” discloses Vinayak.
Industry trend
Gone are the days when people visited nurseries to buy plants and loaded heavy pots in their vehicles to transport them home. “People don’t mind paying some extra money to get the plants delivered home. Moreover, with the advent of e-commerce, people are looking to buy almost everything online, including plants. More often than not, nursery owners themselves are not well educated about the plants they keep. On the other hand, online nurseries not only list plants but also share detailed information about each of them. People living in concrete jungles are yearning for greenery, even in the form of little pots that they put in their balconies or windows,” says an alumnus of IIT-Delhi.
