India: Man Quits Job to Start Gardening Business, Helps 5000 Setup Gardens from Scratch
Moreover, through his venture, he provides gardening inputs to a regular customer base of 10,000 people.
By Angarika Gogoi
The Better India
Aug 4, 2020
Excerpts:
Manikandan also gradually picked up hydroponics, a form of soil-less farming, and has helped over ten people set up their commercial farms. They further helped over 5,000 people begin their gardens through the sale of their DIY kits and have a repeat customer base of 10,000 avid gardeners who buy inputs from them regularly.
Additionally, Manikandan has his farm set-ups across Bengaluru where he grows leafy vegetables like spinach, basil, neem, kale, arugula, Bok Choy, etc. using Hydroponics. Every month, they sell about eight to ten tonnes of these leafy greens to aggregators who sell to customers.
“There was space in the terrace and balcony. I could finally maintain a kitchen garden, but at the time, finding inputs and materials to practice gardening wasn’t widely available online. I went to great lengths to find materials. And, I wanted to share this information and resources with other avid gardeners who could benefit from it. That led me to start my blog, ‘Geek Gardener’ in early 2008, anonymously,” recalls Manikandan.
Manikandan gained quite a few readers who often sent queries to him. “It was fun. People wrote to me as if I were a woman or a retired old man who is gardening. After a point, I did reveal myself, and a lot of my readers would call me ‘GG’ for ‘Geek Gardener’ and continue to do so,” laughs Manikandan.
