His startup Rising Gardens, he says, is India’s first speciality hub for vertical gardens in felt system. It is a fabric-based pocket green wall system for both indoor and outdoor application. According to him, felt material allows for the rapid entrenching of the plant roots. “Here, the fabric does the job of the soil; the roots hold on it and grow. Considering the holding structure is neutral [does not contain nutrients], we add liquid nutrients in a drip system to enable the roots to grow. The advantage is that the entire area of the garden becomes the root zone for the plant.” Over the years, he has helped create breathable walls and urban kitchen rooftop gardens for homes and offices. The plants best suited for homes and corporate offices are ferns, monstera, philodendron, palms, pothos (money plant), fiddle fig leaf and snake plants, also called mother-in-law’s tongue, depending on the location and accessibility to sunlight. Plants are said to be effective at eliminating Volatile Organic Compounds, which are chemicals emitted into the air from products or processes, and reducing stress. Until now, Dedhia has set up close to 100 vertical gardens and breathing walls, converting dead walls into green spaces, in corporate offices across India.

He first encountered vertical gardens in Paris, while on a vacation in 2009. Inspired by the ideology of Patrick Blanc, the father of vertical gardens, Dedhia has tried to Indianise the approach to suit the tropical conditions here. He says a common reservation among clients is that the plants attract mosquitoes, which is now the chief cause of dengue and malaria. “I’ve been living with plants for 24 years, and if that was the case, I should have passed on long ago. What breeds mosquitoes are damp areas and stagnant water,” he explains.

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It’s not uncommon for him to come across visitors who remark, “Too bad, I don’t have a green thumb”. The main reason that people tend to fail at gardening, according to him, is that they overwater and don’t really understand how a plant grows. Incidentally, India has the highest ratio of plants dying in homes. The best way to tell if your plants need water is to stick your finger about an inch into the soil mix, and if it feels dry, pour water. If you detect dampness, wait another day and check again. The warmer the temperature, drier the air, or brighter the light, the more often you should check. 

Currently, Dedhia is working on a mechanism with an in-house scientist, to install sensors and smart controllers in vertical gardens. “Instead of an automatic irrigation system that works on timing and quantity based on our discretion, we are installing systems that will gauge the moisture levels, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and pH range of the plant. We are giving the plant  the freedom to choose whether it wants water or not. For example, if the moisture percentage has come down to 40, only then will the watering irrigation start. It will stop once it hits 75 per cent. The trials have been successful and the chances of fungal disease has reduced by 80 per cent.” This means that maintenance by his staff for the vertical walls has reduced. But he’s not complaining.

30:30
The ratio in seconds and minutes respectively of gazing at a plant on your desk after spending time in front of the computer