Tag: sustainability

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blog Sustainable Gardening Basics

Why should housing societies invest in a sustainable garden?

An evening stroll in the garden and came back with an itchy skin? Your pet accidentally chewed on some leaves and felt uneasy? Maintaining the health, look of your garden is digging a hole in your pocket?
If any of the above scenarios read familiar to you, then it’s time to transform your society garden into a sustainable garden. As pretentious as it may sound, it is just about going back to our roots.
1) People-Friendly:
Since society gardens are used by everyone, especially the vulnerable – children, senior citizens, pets, one must be conscious of the plants being used in such spaces. A few plants are known to be highly toxic for the above groups such as Dieffenbachia, Lantana, Morning Glory, Croton, etc. Instead using native plants can create a safer space for all.
2) Environment-Friendly:
What is the purpose of a garden without its residents? The sight of butterflies and the melody of birds makes a garden pleasurable. By using chemical-free, organic fertilizers, pesticides or any other plant care materials, every small space can do its bit in protecting biodiversity. At the same time, using such natural products enhances soil health, longevity of plants and reduces its carbon footprint.
3) Pocket-Friendly:
Can we create a garden which is aesthetic and low on maintenance at the same time? Yes, of course. Replacing exotic plants with native / indigenous and hardy varieties can not only increase your garden’s lifespan but also reduce maintenance costs to a considerable extent. Native plants are well-adapted for our local climate. This means, they’re more resistant to pests – hence, reducing the use of pesticides. They contribute more towards soil nutrition – hence, reducing the use of fertilizers. They’re hardy in nature – hence, they tend to survive better in harsher weather conditions – hence, reducing the replantation efforts.
To sum up, the choices that we make in our gardens make them sustainable. Choices that put self-sustenance at the centre of garden design. Choices that create a balance between contemporary aesthetics and traditional wisdom.
If any of the above scenarios read familiar to you, then it’s time to transform your society garden into a sustainable garden. As pretentious as it may sound, it is just about going back to our roots.Be it the colours from flowers, the vibrancy from birds and butterflies, the joy of growing your own organic food or a cooler sense of surroundings, a garden has much more to offer than one can think. From improving our physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, to even social health, it can enhance our quality of life. Not just for us, but everyone around us.
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blog Sustainable Gardening Basics

3 things we can learn about community building from trees

Have you ever wondered about we build communities? Well, the answer may not be that complex. Building communities is much like growing a garden. Both need time, patience, knowledge and above all, compassion to thrive in an environment.

Investing in creating a community and garden has immense payoffs – not immediately, but in the near and far future. Plants not only help us in our day-to-day living but also teach us several virtues. Such as:

With the help of an extensive root system, native plants, share their nutrients with their neighbours. Such sharing of materials enables plants, trees self-sufficient.

It’s no surprise that trees change colours of their leaves with changing seasons. Such adaptive behaviour helps them survive better and longer than being rigid.

No one does it better than trees. From alerting others about pests attack to sharing an underground root network, plants know that working together is best for survival.

Plants are no different than us in their behaviour. Observe these similarities between you and them next time when you’re in your garden.

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blog Sustainable Gardening Basics

FAQ: How to create a sustainable garden?

Such balanced, consistent, and self-sustained ecosystems require minimal or no intervention, resulting into ecological conservation at a macro level.

At an individual level, choosing eco-friendly materials, native plants, optimising time and resources to create your home garden, makes it sustainable.

Such methods encourage natural ways of –

Growing

(with no frills attached)

Fertilization

(where the kitchen is the gold mine)

Pest control

(when the job can be done gently)

Watering

(when less is more)

Creating a sustainable garden at home requires a holistic approach towards incorporating natural ecosystems at a smaller scale. From the choice of planter materials to the type of plants and maintenance of gardens, one can create a self-sustaining microcosm within the confines of one’s home.
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blog Sustainable Gardening Basics

FAQ: Where can I get sustainable gardening products?

The answer is simple and within your reach. To create a garden with sustainable materials, you don’t have to travel far.

Buying these products online will certainly give you a variety to choose from. However, longevity and sustainability – especially in the case of plants, remains highly doubtful.

For example, when you buy plants online, they travel from various locations outside the city. The time spent in transit from one location to the other in a cardboard box pushes the plant into shock. By the time it reaches your doorstop, it has already suffered the long journey and transplanting in a new environment becomes lesser conducive.

When it comes to plants, always buy from a local nursery or plant store. It not only ensure good health of the plant but also reduces cost of transportation, carbon emission etc. Plus the entire experience of visiting nursery itself is fulfilling.

Same applies for planters. Each city in India from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad is filled with skilled pottery artisans. Visit any local pottery hub to acquire some unique terracotta planters for your garden.

To sum up, here are two interesting ways
of making your garden sustainable.

Go local

Buy terracotta planters from local pottery artists, native plants from local nurseries, and other gardening materials from local stores.

Not only it will save you the transportation and packaging hassles but you may just find artistic and real products too.

Up-cycle

Reuse, recycle some of your junk / used products into interesting planters. Using empty plastic bottles, glass jars, tin boxes, can be made to grow plants that do well in water and lesser soil.

From money plants to kitchen herbs, such planters can help you make your own style statement.
Needless to mention, we will be happy to assist you in your quest to make your garden fully sustainable by recommending local partners who can fit the bill.
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blog Peepal uncategorized

Why I chose Peepal as the brand name?

One of the most difficult tasks in creating a brand is choosing the right brand name. In addition to being different, it also needs to reflect a brand’s philosophy in a simple and relatable way. A real tough challenge to crack.

Like many others, there were in-numerous brainstorming sessions to arrive at a logical conclusion. And one fine morning, I woke up to the name literally.

But before that, what is the brand and the business, one would ask.

As it turns out, sowing a seed or growing a sapling isn’t enough to create a truly green, sustainable world. The complete knowledge of gardening and study of our natural world determines how well we are inching towards our green goals.

In simple terms, my brand aims to make a difference in the lives of people, plants and the planet we live. Not that simple, right? Let me break it down for you.

Good health is often described as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not just merely the absence of a disease.

One of the most underrated enablers in achieving this state are — plants. Several global studies show that gardening promotes physical health through activity, mental health through self-care, and spiritual health through discovery. To that effect and coupled with the Covid-19 lockdown, gardening took the centre-stage in our lives, globally.

While this may seem all known and good, there is bad news too.

Thanks to the internet, we can now buy these living things online — just like any other (non-living) thing. Thanks to technology, we can mass produce them in almost any climatic condition — making them exotic and aspirational. And thanks to cheap transportation, we can introduce them in any part of the world — making them invasive in the local ecosystem.

Plants, the genesis of a sustainable world, are creating a negative impact on our environment, if planted without knowledge and wisdom.

Consumerism and commercialization in the gardening, horticulture industry has given rise to the most unsustainable practices today, be it opting for exotic (non-native) plants or non-eco-friendly gardening materials (plastic, concrete, fiber).

Peepal was born out of this observation.

Since the roots of these challenges lie in our past, we turned to the ancient wisdom and combined it with the present knowledge.

Peepal is not a tree — ficus religiosa but a combination of many things that universe has packed into one. And our brand aims to embody the many qualities that it has to offer:
  • The spiritual connection: a sacred, native, indigenous plant of India representing enlightenment
  • The health connection: a healer with medicinal properties that cures several diseases
  • The social connection: a common place for ‘people’ to celebrate and convene
  • The emotional and mental connection: a symbol of perseverance and adaptability
  • The sustainability connection: a key player in maintaining the ecological balance
Above all, it is humble unlike its sibling — ficus benghalensis also known as a strangler tree which is famous for building its foundation on someone else’s.