Story of my terrace gardening - I

Post my RWH project I was thinking of what next and started to explore terrace gardening. I visited Purna Organics founded by Mallesh Tigali an ex-Wiproite and saw the square-foot-garden. While the concept was good it did not fit my needs primarily since his “boxes” rested on the terrace which in my case would conflict with the RWH that I have. It is a collection system as opposed to a ground water recharge and hence there was the possibility of contaminating the collected rainwater with the water discharged from the garden. While still thinking of a way to use the box concept instead of waiting for a solution we started off with 22 pots. Initially we placed them where we expected the max sunlight. Disaster struck in terms of a heavy rain overnight which made the muddy water mixed with manure to overflow into our rainwater tank. As a result most of the rain water had to be let out. Luckily one of the terrace pipes had not been connected to the RWH system and hence we could move all the pots close to it though it was not the best corner in terms of sunlight. So this pot based system is going strong since last August.









I have tried to address some questions which you might have:

What vegetables can be grown?

I think there is no constraint given Bangalore’s weather. We have tried out tomatos, brinjal, chillies, doddipatre, groundnuts, greengram, potatoes, ridge-gourd (hirekai), cucumber, mara thogari (toor dal), ladies-finger, bitter-gourd, capsicum, alasande, avarekayi, dantu (greens) so far. Only our experiment with creepers has not been successful.

How about watering?
I am following the bucket and mug method. Needed about 2 buckets for the 22 pots on a daily basis. Apart from the physical exercise this also ensured that I pay attention to what is happening in the garden.
How about pests?
The major pest has been the white mealy bug which sticks to the underside of leaves. Have tried out the “ginger paste” concoction with some success though not 100%. With the onset of rains I have seen the bugs to reduce significantly. Another thought here is who defines the pests – perhaps we are also the greatest pests from the plants viewpoint!
Don’t you buy vegetables at all?
While we have tried out various varieties, I would’nt say that we are self sufficient. Unless we do this in a sufficient scale and in a kind of factory mode of operations we cannot expect a sustained yield. But then that would defeat the whole purpose of going for organic terrace gardening!

In my view the experiment is yielding a lot of insights into a miniature eco-system and the time spent in the garden is one of the most relaxing times during the day. Further it is also a time for introspection into what one wants from the garden – is it a measure of ROI (cost of inputs to market value of output), value of time spent in the garden (versus doing some other “productive job”), should there be only quantitative measures. Finally it is also a question worth mulling over what is the purpose of the plants to grow – to provide us with food, feed the various insects (so called “pests”), to propagate themselves…
It is interesting to recall what Woody Tasch says in Slow Money
Each head of broccoli that I grow costs me at least ten times what I could purchase an equivalent head for at the supermarket (or a lower multiple of an equivalent head at the health food store). In terms of economic rationality, my time working in the garden is wasted: I am investing thousands of dollars’ worth of time to produce vegetables with a market value of hundreds of dollars.
To a “ground zero” way of thinking, there is no such thing as an “equivalent” head of broccoli available from any purveyor, and what is incalculably valuable is the satisfaction that comes with the good work that is connected to the land. If it is not rooted in respite from good work, leisure becomes as cheap as the cheap food that makes it possible. If it is fresh, organic, and the product of my own nurturing over a few-month period, then broccoli is something more than just a product to be valued in terms of its market price and the market value of my labour.
I attended a workshop on Organic Terrace Gardening early this year at AME foundation by Dr. Viswanath where I got some more ideas on the “box”. So that triggered my experiments with terrace gardening phase 2 which is the subject of another post!