Organic Terrace Gardening

The Department of Botany created the Innovative technique “Organic terrace gardening” on 20.12.2018. The seeds were sown by our students. Every student has their own plant and they are regularly watering and maintaining the plants. The first harvesting is done on 18.01.2019. Now we have completed 10 harvests and we have got an yield of 23.900kg. The students sold the vegetables like lady’s finger, Radish, Cluster beans, Capsicum, Cauliflower, Tomato, Brinjal, greens like Amaranthus, Pallak, Corriander, Drumstick leaves to the teaching and non- teaching staff members and students of our institution.

Organic terrace gardening is mainly based on growing vegetables, fruits, greens and any other herbs without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers and placed on roof top of the house or building. The kitchen garden is a standard in every Indian household and has been shifted to the roof due to constraints of space, and called as terrace garden. These gardens can be created in almost all kinds of buildings like residential flats, individual houses, commercial hubs, godowns and factories. It is a personal or family based activity. It also comes under the bigger umbrella of urban farming.

As urban open areas are shrinking in size every day the only real viable place that one can grow one’s own vegetables in the balcony. A 30 square feet balcony can yield sufficient green leaves and a few vegetables while a terrace of 1000 sq feet can fulfill 50% vegetable requirements of a family of four. The 1 square meter of the terrace area can produce anywhere between 25-30 kg of vegetables in a year. We can grow 6 different types of vegetables in a season. It takes some planning and imagination to utilize the available area and resources efficiently and effectively.

Planters or pots are best for terrace garden. Containers of all sizes, shapes, whether of plastic, ceramic, metal or mud can be used. Glass bottles, take away plastic boxes, old sacks & Jeans, coconut shells, old broken buckets, dented kitchen pots and pans, just about everything can be recycled and used as containers. Organic matter rich medium containing Coir pith, Vermicompost/ Farm Yard manure/ Green manure, ground limestone, bone meal, leaf mould & neem cake is the important nutrients for plants growth. The household usage of vegetables and fruits like Coriander, Fenugreek, Chilli, Capsicum, Spinach, Garlic, Basil, Green leafy vegetables, Mint, Onions, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Radish, Cucumbers, Curry leaves, Tomato, Lady’s finger, Green peas, Cluster Beans, Broad beans, Ginger, Bottle gourd, Bitter gourd, Pumpkin, Sweet potato, Tapioca, Papaya, Custard apple, Lemon, Pomegranate, Guava, Grapes, Oranges etc., can be grown in the terrace garden.

The greatest advantage of terrace garden is that to relax in the lap of nature whenever we want. Apart from health and environment it has an aesthetic benefit too. It can also make our home cooler by 6-8 degree. So a big saving in air conditioning cost. It also reduces the heat absorption by buildings and act as an insulation from heat and cold. We can also get fresh clean air right at our home and enjoy the healthy and organically grown green and fresh vegetables in our terrace.