Page 14 - THEBEACON VOL 4

Kurnool |AUG 30th - SEP 05th| VOL 04,2020
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Neela learnt the basics of soilless gardening from the
N e w s p a p e r F o r C h i l d r e n
internet. She watched several videos to understand how to
create a plant bed, how to water soilless plants, and what
sort of fertilizers to use.
Then, she moved on to preparing the compost. For this, she
collected dry leaves and put them in a compost bin. She
procured fresh cow dung from a local farm in Pune, and it
became the starter that she added to the dry leaves.
“For the next few weeks, my family dumped food waste into
the compost bin, and the compost was ready in a month. I put
it into a discarded bucket and planted cucumber seeds as
my rst attempt. I watered it in regular intervals, and within
40 days, two cucumbers were ready for harvest. This victory
gave me the condence to grow more vegetables like
tomatoes, chillies, and potatoes,” says Neela.
The discarded bucket was a conscious choice to recycle old
items, and that has continued till date. Neela grows her
plants in old bottles, containers, bags, and baskets, and if
she runs out, she approaches her neighbours and scrap
dealers.
Today her garden has more than 100 containers where she
grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. While
vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplants
and capsicum are grown in bags and buckets. Carrots and
spring onions are grown in bottles hanging around the
terrace. Cabbage, cauliower, and other leafy vegetables
are in thermocol boxes or scrapped crates. Neela is also
growing owering plants such as periwinkle, and portulaca
in hanging bottles.
“Each time I successfully grew one plant, It motivated me to
experiment more, and expand the varieties I had. After one
year of successfully harvesting from containers, I decided to
expand my garden all over the terrace,” says Neela.
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At the centre of the terrace, she created a 250 sq ft by 100
sq ft plant bed. This was done by raising a 3 ft four-sided
wall using bricks cemented together. This was lled with
compost and nally mulched with leaves.
On the plant bed, Neela cultivates different varieties of
root vegetables and exotic fruits such as dragon fruit, During her weekly harvest, Neela picks at least one kilo of each
passion fruit, and cherries. Recently, she also harvested fruit and vegetable. Most weeks, she is left with more than what
sugarcanes. she requires and distributes the extra among neighbours, friends,
“I planted a few pieces of the cane fruit into my plant bed, and family members.
and within seven months, more than six to seven full-grown Organic Gardening Group
shoots were ready for harvest. Sugarcane needed more Three years ago, Neela and 40 other residents of the society,
water compared to other plants but no special techniques or decided to start a Facebook group named Organic Gardening
nutrients were required. To give myself a challenge, I also Group, to share tips and techniques about farming with each
grew them in bags,” says Neela. other.
Earthworms are an integral part of Neela’s garden. They “Today the community has 30,000 members. It comprises
not only promote healthy growth for plants, but they also experienced gardeners, beginners who want to pursue organic
loosen the soil and make it more porous. To ensure the worms farming, and individuals who are interested in organic farming,”
are healthy she ensures to feed them kitchen waste that is says Neela.
not too spicy or oily. Instead, they are fed with bits of fruits After seeing a few pictures of Neela’s garden on Facebook,
and vegetables. many budding gardeners requested to visit her garden to learn
For all her plants, Neela uses only one kind of organic from her. This started to happen frequently, and now, every
fertiliser — ‘Jeevamrut’. Sunday Neela conducts a 2-hour gardening workshop where she
“This is a traditional Indian recipe that not only promotes the teaches participants how to prepare compost, fertiliser, and
growth of plants but also earthworms. It is prepared by plant beds — all for free.
mixing different proportions of cow dung, urine, jaggery,
and gram our,” says Neela.

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