Mangaluru-based advocate earns Rs 83,000 through her jasmine garden on terrace

A Mangaluru-based advocate used the lockdown as an opportunity to pursue her passion for gardening.
During the pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown last year, Kirana Devadiga, 36, started cultivating Udupi Jasmine on her terrace, which is now a successful business.

Kirana told STOI,“I have always been interested in gardening and agriculture. As a legal advisor for a private firm for the last 10 years, until the lockdown, I never thought that I could pursue my passion. It began in March, when I started doing an online search, and learning about terrace gardens. Things changed after I visited Sahyadri Nursery near Pumpwell, and bought nearly 100 jasmine plants. As we were returning from the nursery, Mahesh, my husband and a lecturer at a private PU college, asked me what I would be doing with so many plants. Just then, I spotted street vendors selling concrete pots. They were from North India, and wanted to sell whatever they had, before leaving the city. I bought more than 100 pots for about Rs 65 each,” she said.

The family stays on the ground floor in Derebail Konchady, and have rented out the first floor, and all these pots had to be shifted to the terrace.

Mahesh and her seven-year-old son Takshil Devadiga helped her. She went back to the nursery and bought organic manure and mud. Within three months, Udupi and Mangaluru variety jasmines began to bloom, but she did not pluck them for the first six months, hoping for a better yield.

“Initially, I had planted jasmine saplings only in one portion of the terrace, and the rest was dedicated to vegetables. After six months, my whole terrace was converted into a jasmine garden. As the yield increased, I learnt the art of tying jasmine buds together with a string made of plantain stalk. So far, I have earned about Rs 83,000. I have not sold less than an ‘atte’ comprising four chendus, till date. One chendu has 800 jasmines woven intricately to form a string. Time management is definitely a challenge. I have learnt to balance family, work and my passion for gardening,” she said.