Last week, Nageswara Rao park played host of a different kind- a group of 50 people from the Chennai organic terrace gardeners (COTG), an online group on Facebook, met up on Saturday morning at the park to exchange and share their gardening skills with each other.
“We meet up regularly and share and discuss our gardening experiences and difficulties if any and look for solutions for them”, said Radhika Augustus, founder of the online forum. “We chose this location as its central for many people”, she added. The group has been meeting up regularly at various locations in Chennai. The topics discussed included safeguarding plants from summer heat, using water judiciously to meet the water scarcity, among others.
Though Radhika found the group to get advice on setting up her own terrace garden, she was joined by Dr. Malarvizhi, a botanist, Smitha Mohan and Anoop Kumar a horticulture consultant and together they have been taking the group forward.
“Anoop Kumar is our go to person for any advice on gardening”, said Radhika.
“I was glad to meet my co gardeners”, commented a group member, Premila Balaji. “I am proud to say that COTG is my parent gardening group, which has groomed persons like me who had no experience in terrace gardening”.
Their Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/486205128083236/
