When Arti Doshi is not busy arranging her flowers, she is busy arranging her flowers. The scent of flowers is what she breathes in all day long, from morning to night.
She prefers to spend more time in the garden than at home.
“I love waking up every morning and walking in the garden. My husband and I enjoy looking at the happy plants and checking their growth. We also notice any changes that need to be made,” says Artie.
At their home in Kitisuru, Nairobi, the half-acre plot is a testament to their landscaping prowess. The stunning view that covers their home is the result of passion and hard work over time.
Artie Doshi’s home garden in Kitosoro, Nairobi.
Image source: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
“When we built the house in 2022, there was a big slope. So I cut the slope and created terraces to get the current shape. It was a lot of hard work. I was there from morning to night guiding people on what to do,” she recalls.
Plants have been an important part of Artie’s life since she was a little girl, influenced by her mother. When she got married, her husband’s relatives had a garden, but after moving to a new place two years ago, she started taking care of the plants herself.
It has a collection of plants that are over 20 years old, creating an oasis in the concrete jungle.
In her garden, she has succulents, such as heartwort and horsetail, in hanging pots that have grown very tall and are not just used for decoration. Old man’s beard also thrives in hanging pots.
“I wanted to have some privacy and be away from the other part because I’m at the bottom of the slope. So I decided to use hanging baskets because I didn’t want to have curtains everywhere,” she says.
She added some pebbles to the pot to keep it moist. The dominant color in her front garden is green. It may seem boring at first, but with its various shades, shapes, and textures, green is very attractive.
Arti Doshi and her husband love to walk in their garden every morning.
Image source: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
There are over 30 varieties of potted plants in dark green, light green and everything in between, including a variety of evergreens, anthuriums, cacti, philodendrons and ravens palms. Her favorite spot is where the air plant art piece hangs on the balcony wall.
“I love the structure and the way it looks,” she says. The space also includes bromeliads, philodendrons and a bird’s nest.
In her backyard is a garden with a variety of flowering plants, including brown and yellow heliconia, ginger, bougainvillea, magnolias, dark agapanthus, bromeliads, and the shade-loving Peruvian paper tree.
Succulents in Arti Doshi’s garden.
Image source: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
This stunning two-year-old red Mucuna has red flowers that adorn my husband’s favorite orchid corner.
The extensive garden also contains foxtail ferns, money plants, donkey tail plants, pink and yellow lilies, palm trees, cycads, royal palms, fishtail palms, golden palms, Indian song plants, torch lilies, xanadu plants, dahlias, various types of cypress, oriental grass, medinella and allamanda. She especially enjoys the scent of lavender.
Bird’s nest fern in the garden of Arti Doshi’s home in Kitosoro, Nairobi.
Image source: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
The oldest tree in her garden is a 20-year-old pink ginger. She also has a stock of more than 50 anthurium plants in about 10 different varieties, ranging in color from pink, peach, white, dark pink to yellow.
It also has other types of succulents, including Klenia petraea and Stapelia gigantea, which produce a beautiful flower that resembles a starfish.
“I bought my collection from everywhere, from nurseries, and from just one place,” she says, adding that she never passes up a beautiful plant in her small garden.
“If I see something I don’t have, I want to go buy it, borrow it, or trade it with friends,” says the mother of two.
Her vibrant emerald green garden is carefully trimmed with soft, water-hungry Arabica plants that feel good underfoot, with no signs of weeds or bare spots. She waters it three times a week and mows it twice a week.
Red Jade Plant in Arti Doshi’s Garden.
Image source: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
Although it may seem like an easy task, she says weeding is an ongoing exercise. To help with watering, she installed an automatic irrigation system that uses recycled wastewater. Organic neem trees are also helpful in keeping pests and diseases at bay.
Like most plant lovers, Artie has one wish for her garden. “I would like to add more shade plants, like hanging plants,” she says. “And in the future, I would like to have a garden that sits in the shade.”
She realizes that the garden can give you satisfaction, but you are always working to make it better.
“The garden is never finished, it’s a work in progress. It’s a race. It’s wrong for someone to say they want a perfect, complete garden. It will never be finished,” says the 44-year-old.