The Garden Store

If you look for us in Alwarpet, you’ll find our place in Seethammal Colony, right near Girishwari Hospital. It’s a busy little corner of Chennai. We spend most of our time surrounded by green things, pots, and bags of soil. It’s a messy job, honestly. There is always some dirt on the floor or water leaking from a hose somewhere. We don't wear suits or anything like that because we’re usually moving heavy plants around or helping someone figure out why their bushes aren’t growing. The sun gets really strong in the middle of the day, so we try to get the heavy lifting done early in the morning. People from the neighborhood come in all the time just to look around or ask for a bit of advice. We aren’t experts with fancy degrees, we just know what works after years of trying things out ourselves. The shop isn’t very big, so we have to stack things up high. Sometimes it feels a bit cramped when a big delivery arrives. We don’t have a fancy coffee machine, just a small stove for tea in the back. It’s a simple life, focused on the stuff growing in the pots and making sure they get enough water. We like the quiet rhythm of the seasons and seeing the same faces come back every year for their garden supplies. Sometimes the birds from the colony make a lot of noise in the trees overhead.