It always begins with hope.

You bring home a healthy money plant or a flowering hibiscus, carefully pick the perfect corner on your balcony, water it every day, and picture your home slowly turning into a green retreat. But a few weeks later, the leaves begin turning yellow. The stems droop, new growth stops, and before you know it, another empty pot is staring back at you.

For many first-time gardeners, this cycle repeats itself so frequently that they begin believing they don’t have a ‘green thumb’.

But 25-year-old entrepreneur Avichal Ojha, founder of Noida-based ‘TheGreenWealth’, says that’s one of the biggest myths about gardening.

“I hear people tell me all the time, ‘Please plant it yourself because our plants never survive.’ But I do not believe in the idea of having a black thumb. People are not bad at gardening. They just don’t know how plants communicate and what small things make a big difference,” he tells The Better India.

Growing up in Surahi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district, plants were always a part of his life. But it was while pursuing a BSc in agriculture in Noida that he realised his knowledge could help people build a lasting connection with nature. 

During his college days, he began selling small table plants to professors and, more importantly, showing them how to care for them. Those early conversations about keeping plants alive planted the seed for what would later become his startup.

As he started interacting with families living in apartment complexes, one sight became impossible to ignore. Balconies were dotted with empty pots, reminders of plants that had once been lovingly bought but had failed to survive. Most people were not giving up because they didn’t enjoy gardening. They probably didn’t know what had gone wrong.

That inspired him to establish his company in 2022, with a mission of helping urban residents become confident plant parents through practical, easy-to-follow guidance.

“Gardening is a combination of science and art. Science helps us understand what plants need, while art teaches us patience, observation, and care. Once people stop treating plants like decoration and start understanding them as living beings, everything changes,” he explains.

Most beginners believe growing plants is easy. Water them every day, give them some sunlight, and they will flourish. According to the entrepreneur, that’s where the first mistake begins.

Plants growing in the ground have a natural ecosystem supporting them. Their roots can spread freely, the soil holds moisture differently, and nature does much of the balancing act. Balcony plants, however, depend entirely on the environment we create for them.

“Growing a plant in the ground and growing one in a pot are........

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