Mumbai-resident Ekta Chaudhary’s venture ‘Garden Up’ sells gardening essentials and helps female artisans earn. This is how she goes through her journey from IISc to YouTube to business.
With over 1.4 million subscribers for her account ‘Garden Up’, Dr Ekta Chaudhary is among India’s favourite gardening creators. She talks about gardening tips and tricks, gardening for beginners, kitchen gardening, interior decoration with plants and more.
.jpeg)
Starting the channel as a hobby while pursuing a PhD in Ecology, she soon found success on YouTube, deciding to make this her full-time work. Because of her academic background, the tips in her videos are often backed by science and she takes the time to explain why she’s advising viewers to do things in a certain way.
Ekta recently launched a Hindi YouTube channel as well. Among her popular videos are ‘Food that Kids can Grow During the Lockdown,’ ‘Important tips for Aloe Vera,’ ‘5 easy vegetables to grow in the summers,’ and more.
In 2018, she also launched her business Garden Up, where she organises workshops and sells gardening essentials like pots, seeds, compost, and more. The decor is made by women artisans who in turn earn a steady income from the venture.
With around 100 indoor plants and over 40 vegetable plants in her kitchen garden, Ekta’s philosophy is ‘keep a plant wherever there is space.’ She’s still mindful of aesthetics though, preferring the plants-against-white-backdrop theme above all else.
Ekta is also mindful of the many benefits of gardening, from curbing anxiety and stress to offering relaxation and being a fun and cheap hobby.
.jpeg)