15/05/2026
Growing More Than a Garden in Kameswaram
At Friend In Need (FIN), we have increasingly come to feel that every village should have a shared green space — a place where young mothers, children, and the elderly can come to relax, breathe, and simply spend time together peacefully.
In many villages today, trees are being cut down for economic purposes and sold as timber. Green spaces are shrinking. Yet the need for places of beauty, shade, and calm is becoming greater than ever.
It was with this thought that the idea of creating a community garden emerged in the Mariamman Temple complex in Kameswaram, where the FIN office is also located.
The idea first arose in 2024. It took many months of discussion before the temple trustees agreed to allocate a patch of land for the project. Once permission was granted, however, the trustees became highly supportive. They helped clear the land, about 38 feet by 48 feet, place a border around the area, and prepare the site for planting.
The transformation was gradual. Next to the proposed garden area was also the temple dumping ground. Slowly, over time, these spaces were cleaned and reclaimed.
But the challenges did not end there.
Goats regularly entered through the fencing and ate the young plants. To protect the garden, green netting had to be added. Altogether, the garden project has cost approximately ₹35,000 so far.
Perhaps the greatest challenge, however, was not financial — it was conceptual.
How does one create a “pretty” garden in a place where the idea of ornamental public gardens is not very common? Beauty in landscaping is something people often learn through exposure. When communities have rarely encountered maintained gardens, it becomes difficult to communicate ideas about layout, pruning, symmetry, or aesthetic presentation.
At FIN, Meena initially took charge of the garden project. There were countless Zoom calls and phone discussions about how the space should evolve. Yet when the garden was first reviewed on-site in Kameswaram, it still did not feel visually inviting.
A garden, after all, should make people feel happy when they enter it.
One major issue was pruning. Trees and plants need regular trimming to maintain shape and form, but pruning was often perceived as unnatural or even harmful. This became another learning process within the project.
Over time, however, things began to improve significantly. Additional work was carried out, observations were shared, and refinements were made. Raji also helped identify aspects that needed improvement. A fence was installed, a gate was added, and a signboard placed.
Today, the space is finally beginning to look like the peaceful village garden we had imagined.
Eight trees have also been planted outside the garden area:
• Two palm trees
• Two bougainvillea plants
• Two neem trees
• One naval (jamun) tree
• One guava tree
The naval tree, in particular, is growing rapidly.
At present, Mahalakshmi is overseeing the maintenance of the garden and is doing an excellent job.
We plan to put some benches for people to sit and a shed at the back to keep some balls and gardening equipment.
The Kameswaram garden may appear modest from the outside. But for us, it represents something larger: the reclaiming of shared green space, the nurturing of beauty in village life, and the belief that even small community efforts can slowly transform the environment around us.
Sometimes sustainability begins not with large infrastructure projects, but with planting a tree, protecting a flower, and creating a place where people can simply sit together in peace.
