Noida dentist who loves gardening

Aditya Vaibhav
New Delhi: Driving down the Sector-37 road from Golf Course metro station in Noida, UP, one can’t overlook the beautiful plants, flowers on the right hand side which is a rare scenario in Delhi, NCR. The lush green garden belongs to award winning and multi talented Dr Sunali Joshi Kashyap.
I was so amazed with the scenario that could not control the urge to have a look at the striking garden and meet the person who has invested a good amount of time in maintaining the garden.
As I entered through the entrance gate there were pots of various sizes and shapes with plants of different variety. Soon I reached the waiting area of her clinic and found the atmosphere so soothing and vibrant that I was awestruck. There were Bosai, cacti, etc and at a time when temperature in Noida is hovering around 40, there was no sign of any of the plant wilting or needing care, they were well maintained as if someone has watered them few minutes back. Soon, Dr Sunali despite have long queue of patients waiting agreed to share her journey of gardening which was itself evident of the fact how much she enjoyed her hobby and is passionate about it.
Dr Sunali said, “I was passionate about gardening since my childhood days. As my father was in the Air Force, we always used to have houses which had lawn to maintain and that too you have to do that on your own. So, since I was child I loved watering them and my parents were also into gardening and during those days too our garden used to be the best in the locality.”
She added that she went for textile designing to NID and from there she got into dentistry but somewhere it was always at the back of her mind to pursue her interest in gardening. “Later I got married to a ‘Fauji’ and we had to travel a lot and those days we used to get smaller houses with little terrace or balcony. So I used to have pots . It started from Bareilly. In Pune we had small terrace and made a terrace garden there. I was awarded for the first time for my ‘Terrace Garden’ by the Women Council of India. College of Military Engineering, Maharashtra State Electricity Board also awarded us,” she adds.
Gardening in Noida: Dr Sunali created a record in Noida as plants from her garden won a total of 19 prizes in the Flower Show 2014. As per Sunal,i she never intended to do gardening to compete, it was her patients who pushed her to participate. Talking about the difficulties facing her in gardening in Noida, she said that it has been the toughest of all the places for gardening in the entire country. She says, “I have also stayed in Lebanon and we had a beautiful garden there also. Noida is bit tough because of the weather, water and soil. ”
Though Sunali has never counted the number of plants she has but as per her estimate there are over 1,000 of them. She has Bonsai, Cacti. She n has plants in Japanese Art of Gardening, in which there is no pot and the plant is held by mud and moss and with the help of jute strings it is hanged up. As every plant needs different kind of care, Dr. Sunali is very particular about it. To take care of her plants , Dr. Sunali uses only organic fertilizers.
Many of Dr. Sunali’s neighbours have been inspired by her and have started gardening and taking tips from her on how to maintain plants in best form. One advice that she gives to everyone coming to her is that don’t hire or completely rely on gardeners to take care of your plants.