When Arti Doshi is not tending her garden, she is busy arranging her flowers. The scent of flowers is what she breathes all day long, from morning to night.
She prefers to spend more time in the garden than in the house.
“I love waking up every morning and taking a walk in the garden. My husband and I enjoy looking at the happy plants and checking their progress. We also take note of any changes that need to be made,” says Arti.
At their home in Nairobi’s Kitisuru, the half-acre plot is a testament to their landscaping prowess. The magnificent view that covers their home is the result of passion and hard work over time.
Arti Doshi’s home garden in Kitusuru, Nairobi.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
“When we built the house in 2022, there was a big slope. So I cut into the slope and created terraces to get the current look. It was a lot of hard work. I was out there from morning to night directing people on what to do,” she recalls.
Plants have been an important part of Arti’s life since she was a little girl, influenced by her mother. When she got married, her in-laws had a garden, but after moving to a new place two years ago, she took up gardening herself.
She has a collection of plants that spans over 20 years, creating an oasis in the concrete jungle.
In her garden, she has succulents, the Heartstring and Equisetum grass, in hanging pots that have grown quite long and are not just for decoration. The old man’s beard is also thriving in the hanging pots.
“I wanted a bit of privacy and closure from the other part because I am at the bottom of the slope. So I decided to do hanging baskets because I didn’t want to put curtains everywhere,” she says.
She added pebbles to the pot to keep it moist. The dominant colour in her front garden is green. It may seem boring at first, but in its various shades, shapes, and textures, green is quite appealing.
Arti Doshi and her husband like to walk in their garden every morning.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
There are more than 30 varieties of potted plants in dark green, light green, and everything in between, including variegated evergreens, anthuriums, cacti, philodendrons, and Rafis palms. Her favourite spot is where she has a piece of air plant art on the veranda wall.
“I just love the structure and the way it turned out,” she says. The spot is also home to bromeliads, philodendrons, and a bird’s nest.
In her back garden is a garden with a variety of flowering plants, including brown and yellow heliconia, ginger, bougainvillaea, magnolia, dark agapanthus, bromeliads, and the shade-loving Peruvian paper tree.
Succulents in Arti Doshi’s garden.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
The stunning two-year-old red mucuna has red flowers that adorn her husband’s favourite orchid corner.
The extensive garden also contains foxtail ferns, money plants, donkeytail plants, pink and yellow lilies, date palms, cycads, royal palms, fishtail palms, golden palms, Song of India plants, torch lilies, Xanadu plants, dahlias, various species of cypress, oriental grass, Medinilla and allamanda. She particularly enjoys the scent of lavender.
A bird’s nest fern plant at Arti Doshi’s home garden in Kitusuru, Nairobi.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
The oldest tree in her garden is a 20-year-old pink ginger. She also has a stock of over 50 propagated anthuriums in about 10 different varieties, ranging in colour from pink, peach, white, and dark pink to yellow.
She also has other types of succulents, including Klenia petraea and Stapelia gigantea, which produce a beautiful starfish-like flower.
“I’ve bought my collection from all over the place, from nurseries, from no particular place,” she says. With a compact garden, she says she never passes a beautiful plant.
“If I see something I don’t have, I want to go and buy it, borrow it, or swap it with friends,” says the mother of two.
Her vibrant emerald green lawn is neatly cut with soft, plush, water-thirsty Arabica grass that feels welcoming underfoot, with no sign of weeds or bare patches. She waters it three times a week and mows it twice a week.
The red jade vine plant at Arti Doshi’s garden.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
Although it looks like an easy task, she says weeding is a constant exercise. To help with watering, she has installed an automatic irrigation system that uses recycled wastewater. The organic neem comes in handy to keep pests and diseases at bay.
Like most plant lovers, Arti has one wish for her garden. “I would like to add more shade plants, like hanging plants. In the future, I would like to sit in the garden, in the shade,” she says.
She acknowledges that a garden can give you satisfaction, but you are always working to make it better.
“A garden is never finished, it’s a work in progress. It’s a race. It’s a misconception for someone to say they want a complete, perfect garden. It’s never finished,” says the 44-year-old.
