Gardening - its therapeutic and definitely a ‘down to earth’ experience!

[This is a copy of my article in THE ALTERNATIVE e-magazine]

Uma Bhat   Jul 12, 2014

My journey with growing what I eat:

Uma Bhat in her OTG

What motivated you to start gardening?

“The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.” – George Bernard Shaw

In this stressful rat race driven life, I went in search of a new hobby and it so happened that Mother Nature attracted me towards growing veggies, composting and upcycling – it was a magical connection that she (Nature) herself made with me, without me going to her!

I started off with simple greens like methi, coriander, tomatoes and the joy I felt in seeing the seeds sprout, the joy of seeing the tender Methi leaves waving in the breeze,the joy I felt seeing first ever tomato, has no other match! I slowly started connecting with nature and realized what I have been missing.

Her bountiful harvest

Challenges along the way

I started off as a hobby, which later on became a passion. I used to literally dream about gardening and composting when I began. I used to wait for the weekend to begin so that I could shop things for my garden. Working for my garden never exhausted me!

However there were few challenges in the beginning,

• Only space available to grow is on the Terrace of my old home, with not such a strong foundation. I cannot keep heavy mud pots and heavy soil on the terrace. I overcame this challenge by using cocopeat + compost + little soil (rather than complete soil as the growing medium.)
• Specially since the maintenance is all organic – Pests – Few of my early tomato plants were a failure due to Aphid/Mealy Bugs attacks. OTG group in Facebook came to rescue! I have now been learning to deal with them in a natural way.
• Monkey menace: I have always been happy to share my harvests – with squirrels, birds, relatives and friends and tenants. However, my OTG once had a monkey group attack who threw the pots, harvested half grown veggies and that made me very sad. I overcame that by covering a portion of the terrace by grills.

Here’s how she monkey-proofed her terrace garden!

Tools used, technology and more

My first sources were my husband Hoysala Garudanagiri’s friends who bought few veggie plants at home. A few weeks later, looking at my interest in gardening, my father-in-law Harsha Garudanagiri, an agriculturist, sourced a few veggie seeds and boom, my garden was thriving!

Today I have around 150 containers (big and small) growing veggies like Tomatoes, Zucchini, Cucumber, Methi, Coriander, Curry leaves, Palak, Amaranthus, Raddish, Bhindi, White raddish, Red small raddish, Brinjal, Green Chilli, Cow pea, Wheatgrass, Herbs, Mangalore Cucumber, Water Melon, Pineappple, Pumpkin, Ginger, Misc greens and Ornamental Flowers.

As the days progressed, I researched on ways to give maximum nutrition to my plants, which made me start composting (Khamba and Vermicompost) at home. I have worked on making more than 15 batches of “Black Gold” – which I use for my plants.

Recently it was my birthday and my relatives and friends gifted me seeds!

Motivation that keeps you going?

“While we teach, we learn.” – Seneca, Roman philosopher

• Once I setup my garden, my friend and relatives started visiting and appreciating the garden, which acted as a boost for me to grow more and also inspired them to think of growing. They asked questions on how to start off with, the maintenance, the cost involved and they decided to go for it. I know many of them having atleast few plants growing in their mini gardens. I was happy that people were motivated.

• People who smelled the aroma of the compost I make at home, were surprised to see how thekitchen trash can become such a source of nutrition of the plants. I explained my friends and relatives on how to make this a part of daily chore rather than thinking of it as an additional task. I explained them the importance of segrregation from source (home) – which is the ultimate solution to the Waste management issues we currently face.

• I have also been involved in ‘seed sharing‘ event in “Oota From Your Thota” event – it is a fun driven event, where we get to meet experienced and beginners in gardening and share the seeds we have grown, share our experiences on gardening.
• My husband enjoys harvesting, we make fun dummy’s at the garden with the harvest. (Bird Nest, Flower Bouquet)

A flower bouquet?

A bird’s nest?

Garden Secrets

As a beginner, I wanted to get my hands dirty and try out everything possible! I wanted to sow EVERY type of seed and harvest everything. Gradually here are my lessons learnt -

• Go slow, grow what you really want : I learnt from my experience that I need to grow what I really want. To quote a funny instance -  I sow’ed two ladies finger plants since we all love that veggie. And one fine day, I got to harvest 9 lady finger, which had to be shared among 6 of us at home  Since I have the garden on the terrace, I need to be considerate of space crunch and be selective about what I grow and is sufficient for my family.
• Start off with easy veggies like – Greens (Palak, Amaranthus, Methi, Coriander), Tomato, Cucumber – they being easy and less maintenance, boost our confidence to reach for more challenging veggies.
• Go for Heirloom variety rather than Hybrid – Heirloom seeds are the native variety – which is better quality wise and tastewise – so I would want to opt for Heirloom than Hybrid variety.
• Start Composting! You would be saving on buying compost from stores + doing a big favor to yourself and the nation by being a part of successful waste management.
• Save seeds – Too many hybrid varieties are being introduced, due to which the originality of the veggie is slowly being lost.  Seed saving is easy!
• Learn about  friend and foe bugs – Few insects are helpful as they are the pollinators and some eat the foe insects that indirectly protect our garden.
• Stick to Organic – During pest attack, we would be tempted to try out those insecticides and pesticides. However, Never-ever go that way – as the whole moto of growing organic would be lost.
• Finally, enjoy the experience and share the harvest!  – Growing vegetables is not a destination, it’s a continuous process to be enjoyed right from preparing the soil to consuming the harvest. This experience make the veggies more precious than the ones we spend money and buy from stores. And the joy of growing and sharing has no comparison!

A chilli plant

I believe everyone should grow their own organic veggies and attain self sufficiency and I look forward for that day when I distribute food for free, for the poor.

The harvests from Uma’s OTG

Do check out our other articles in our series ‘The Kitchen Gardener’ – covering Lavannya’s, Indira’s, and Arati’s homegrown stores, among others.

The Kitchen Gardener is a fortnightly series on urban farmers who grow fresh produce in their backyards leading to growing people, community and a more sustainable earth. From journeys of starting to challenges along the way and practical wisdom, the kitchen gardening series helps you kickstart your own food patch wherever you live.