Parent Circle / July 201140

T he podalangai poriyal (snake gourd curry) you made for lunch tastes fresh, luscious and melts in the

mouth. Your teenage son gobbles it up with great intent! Impossible? Entirely possible - this vegetable has been grown in your own garden patch!

Vegetables bought in city markets, tend to be wilted and are tough to eat. They contain pesticides and chemicals that are used to hasten growth. Home-grown fresh vegetables are flavoursome and healthier. Many city residents are opting for roof-top and balcony gardens.

Lakshmi Sriram, a veteran home-garden-er of 20 years and a gardening consult-ant, shares her experience and wisdom on how to grow vegetables all year round in a little space within the confines of your home.

EVERYONE HAS GREEN FINGERS!

“There is a philosophy to gardening”, says Lakshmi. People who are unsuc-cessful gardeners think that they do not possess the gift of ‘green fingers’ because they do not understand this. Plants are living things that can commu-nicate with you if you are willing to listen. They can calm you down and bestow their bounty if you let them. For this you have to be gentle in your gardening;

Children feel excited about growing their own vegetables, a real-time lesson in science. Encourage them to help out with little chores such as planning the planting.

Gardening instills a nurturing attitude in children. They will gladly eat the very same vegetables they had shunned before!

spend quality time as you would with your child; use your hands as much as possible; have everyone in the family love them.

Once you have internalised these funda-mental principles, work on the practicali-ties of vegetable gardening!

SETTING UP A BALCONY GARDENFind a spot which gets four to five hours of direct sunlight every day.

Buy a minimum of 12 clay flower pots of roughly one and a half feet diameter, depending on the space available. You can expect 10kg of harvest per pot from every cycle.

Set aside at least five pots for the greens alone, to get adequate cooking quantity every third day.

Prepare each pot by mixing two portions of sand, one portion of red soil, half por-tion of organic fertiliser and ten table-spoons of neem powder.

Leave the pot to stand for a week and sprinkle water every day.

Then plant a few seeds – a handful for greens and three or four for vegetables like brinjal, ladies fingers, gourds, cauli-flower and cabbage.

Twice daily, sprinkle or pour from a

mug, just enough water to moisten the soil thoroughly. Stop when water seeps through the little hole in the pot. A pool under the pot indicates over-watering.

Between 45 and 50 days you will get your first crop. Gently clip the edible portion from the stalk with scissors, for your day’s requirement.

Spread fertiliser mixed with sand once in ten to twenty days as advised by a gardening expert.

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Your children and the vegetable patch

vegetableRangashree Srinivas

of

the

Lakshmi Sriram with her teenage

son, Kameswaran

circle of life

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Organic fertiliser and seedsInsist on buying organic seeds and fertilisers. The seller may persuade you to buy the regular chemically treated seeds and fertilisers claiming that they aid faster and fuller growth. Do not succumb; organically-grown produce is full of nutrients, tastier and healthier in the long term!

Seeds Buy them at reliable nurseries. Lakshmi buys from Shakti seeds and Ashoka Seeds at Natesan Street in T Nagar. You can store the leftover seeds

in your refrigerator and use them for the next planting. You can also leave the first few plants from one cycle and harvest their seeds at the end of that cycle for the next planting.

Manure Dry cow dung and goat dung are the best natural manure. Add neem cake powder to keep away insects. A word of caution: Buy manure only from

reliable sources like the people who keep cattle. Do not buy from the cart vendor on the road as this manure is mixed with toxic wastes. Good quality organic ma-nure is also available at Chennai Horticultural Gardens in Cathedral Road.Undigested seeds in the animal’s manure grow into weeds in your pot along with the seeds you plant. Remove these weeds immediately.

u Weather proof the area for the terrace garden. Water drip-ping from the pots can weaken the structure and cause seepage in the rooms below.u Keep the growing area clean. u Remove debris and dead foliage.u Water the plants early morning and late evening.u Everytime you use fertiliser, mix it with sand.u Remove pests and insects with a strong gush of water from your hose pipe, not with chemical spraying.u Change the soil, sand, fertiliser mixture once every 12 to18 months.

u Pour excess water. Use just

enough to keep the soil moist. u Use cement planters. They gen-erate too much heat harmful for plant growth.u Grow hibiscus plants which at-tract big black ants that can destroy your other veggies in days.u Use yellow or salty water. Use clear ground water or metro water instead.

Vegetable growing season Do

Don'’t

The first harvest will last roughly three months. When plants get smaller in size, it is time to change the crop. Uproot the plants and plant fresh seeds, even dif-ferent vegetable seeds if you wish. Let the sand, soil and fertiliser mixture dry completely before the next planting. Add some fertiliser mixed with sand before planting again.

Climbers like cucumber and snake gourd need vertical space. Plant these seeds in the pots near the wall or the balcony grill. They start climbing after growing 4 feet in height. When they overshoot the height of your wall, tie three rows of thin jute ropes from one

All year round Ladies fingers, Brinjal, To-matoes, Snake gourd, Ridge gourd, Bitter gourd, Radish, Onion, Cucumber, Chillies, Cluster beans, Broad beans, French beans, Cow peas (Karamani)

Non-rainy season

Greens – Keerai, Spinach, Corian-der, Mint, Ginger

Cool weather/shady patch

Carrot, Cabbage, Cauli-flower, Capsicum (preferably November to February)

In Lakshmi’s experience, potatoes, small onions, tinda and chow chow do not grow well in Chennai.

Call Lakshmi Sriram at 9444412111 or email: sriramlakshmi@hotmail.com

Need EXPERT advice?

The Urban Horticulture Development Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural Univer-sity frequently conducts one-day training programmes on roof gardening and kitchen gardening. For dates and details contact 044-26263484 / 42170506.

Costs A pot costs Rs 100. Each pot requires 1.5 kg sand, 750 gms red soil and 350 gms organic fertiliser. This is available as a pre-mix in standard packs costing Rs 63 at Chennai Horticultural Gardens, enough to fill five pots. A packet of 100 gms of seeds will cost around Rs 30 – Rs 50 and last for five to six plantings. Neem powder is available in 1 kg packs costing Rs 20 each.

end of the balcony to the other and link them to the plant. You can grow them as shrubs too with careful pruning. n