People

Keen to populate the city with more green, she started Green Twigs.

A plant-retailing company, Green Twigs provides a range of services related to farming, gardening and landscaping for the urban population.

Year of inception: December’2014

Initial investment: Rs.2,00,000

Though a Masters in pharmacy, Kumuda is passionate about greenery and it was the denuded sight of Vizag during Hudhud that spurred her to ‘do something about it’. She volunteered for the many plantation projects that the city witnessed in the recent past, and realised the lack of proper cognizance and plant assistance in Vizag. Keen to populate the city with more green, she started Green Twigs.

Inheriting the green thumb from her mother who helps her out with the venture, Kumuda has been interested in anything and everything to do with plants since childhood. She used to rear earthworms for vermicompost, grow vegetables, learn the art of bonsai, and even helped her dad in dairy and in his fruit-pulp-processing industry. She was fascinated with how simple techniques could turn waste into viable manure. Armed with her background and interest in plants, supported by her parents and fortified with advice from experts in the field, she embarked on a journey of urban farming, roof and terrace gardening with self-supporting mechanisms.

Just three years old, her organization has been growing steadily and today provides a range of services in urban farming, terrace, kitchen and balcony gardening, garden maintenance, landscaping, poly-houses, corporate gifting, potting, and selling all types of plants – indoor, outdoor, medicinal flowering and bonsai and exotic, as well as gardening needs like ceramic, plastic and terracotta pots, organic manure, fertilizers, plant feeds and medicines.

With her venture, in addition to providing planting services she is also keen on educating people about how the environs can be improved just by growing a few plants indoors. While starting Green Twigs was a natural progression for the nature lover, it was a challenge to identify her customer’s tastes and meet their expectations. Her first contract was designing a green balcony for a flat owner whose satisfaction encouraged her further. She first posted about her service on ‘Quikr’ and soon by word of mouth publicity, her business picked up. She started giving classes on kitchen gardening and maintenance of plants in addition to her usual services.

Despite having no formal training, she manages to achieve results by acquiring information and creating pilot tests before providing guidance. She helps customers turn small areas into green zones on a budget and also guide them in their maintenance. She also provides consultancy services for corporate farming, provides green-solutions to landlords and assists medicinal plant producers by connecting them to manufactures. In addition to all this, she also runs a tuition centre.