reStore Gardens: The Joy of Giving

On October 13th, restore Gardens organized a delayed Joy of Giving celebration. We invited Chennai’s gardening enthusiasts to come and share the abundance of their garden – cuttings, plants, seeds, knowledge, resources.

We didn’t really advertise the event. We put out the word through our mailing list, and on facebook groups dedicated to growing your own veggies. And what a response!

Our facebook post generated much discussion. And many of the people who came were from the group. We had a reporter from the Vikatan group who is on reStore’s mailing list and asked to do a feature on the event.

We had such a diversity of saplings and cuttings. We kept adding to the list till the close of the event. We had a few seed varieties, and our young volunteer, Karun, made colourful seed packets.

But what was truly amazing about the event was the energy and joy of interactions. People who were “names” on facebook, were suddenly meeting in flesh and blood. There was avid discussion about shade and sun, how to cook certain plants that were there, recipes exchanged, invitations to visit gardens issued. A beautiful way to carry the spirit of Navratri.

And truly, the Joy of Community!

Plants came in all shapes, colours and sizes. Mahadevan brought malli/ jasmine in green cocount husks. Neat idea!

People who knew each other only from Facebook, met in person.

Much discussion on specific plants, uses, recipes.

As in all reStore Gardens events, the young participated with as much enthusiasm as the adults.

Karun made us origami seed packets.

Which the particpants used for taking away seeds.

Prema from Ananda Vikatan came to report on the event, but was an active participant as well.

A snapshot of the diversity exchanged in the short two hour event!