How to Raise a Plant Baby: A Beginner’s Guide to Happy Plants by Vinayak Garg
My take on the book:
All of us living in urban spaces, at some point, dreamt of having our own garden, nurture and grow plants — whether for flowers, homegrown organic vegetables, landscaping or interior decoration. With limited home space, natural light and air, these plants are naturally constrained for growth indoors or in shaded home balconies.
How to raise a plant baby is the definitive guide for all those who aspire to grow plants in urban, confined spaces. The author begins by recollecting how he transformed into the Lazy gardener beginning from his childhood memories of his parent’s growing plants at home. The next chapter is about the common myths and demystifying them, some even weird ones like ‘Plants will kill me in my sleep’.
The third chapter is about the common plants that are grown at home and their characteristics. The fourth chapter is about houseplants while the fifth and sixth are about preparing for plant parenthood, an important aspect most of us tend to overlook.
The next part is dedicated to elaborating the four important pillars of growing plants — light, water, soil and nutrition. The final part explains the ongoing care required by plants — trimming, repotting, pruning, propagating. There is an elaborate FAQs section at the end along with plant lists.
As the title signifies, the book is a beginner’s guide for all things plants, and the author excels in narrating the concepts in a lucid language. Generally, a book with such concepts tends to turn theoretical but the author makes sure to engage the reader, with few illustrations, summarizing in tabular format and concise information.
Also, the information and ideas presented in the book are not exotic or expensive and can be implemented by anyone, with least effort. The book hence makes for multiple reads, like a guide the reader can refer to whenever faced with a similar situation w.r.t their plants.
If you have always been enthusiastic about growing your own garden then look no further, pick a copy of this book.
My rating:
5/5.