Summer is here! How to take care of the plants?

Whenever the summer sets in, the plants need extra care as they could get burnt due to extreme sunlight or they get dehydrated.

Proactiveness

We can start planning this even before the summer season comes in.

Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!

The nature's work is so well planned, but we often fail to notice!

Before the summer, the nature has scheduled "the leaf shedding" season. We let the fallen dried leaves been swept away by the BBMP staff. However did you know you could use them to mulch the plants? The term "Mulching" may sound a fancy, but it just means to cover the topsoil with dried leaves, so that the water does not evaporate.

So start collecting these dry leaves during the shedding in gunny bags!

This is THE BEST option that would work. You could also mulch with sugarcane pith or coconut husk if available.

On a side note, did you know you could also compost these dry leaves if you have in excess? Click here to read about it.

Mulching

Cocopeat 

Usage of cocopeat in your potting mix retains the moisture and also keeps the soil loose for the roots to grow well. Ensure it does not exceed the 1:1:1 ratio of redsoil:compost:cocopeat for veggies and 1:1:1/2 for the greens, else they could rot.

Cocopeat
(Pic Source : Internet)

Re-use and recycle water 

• If you have the rainwater harvesting in place, it would be the best. 
• Now a days people are also looking at re-using the water from kitchen and RO water purifiers for the plants and some even from the bathroom! But the last option would need some water treatment.
• Reuse the water with which you wash the rice and dal. 
• Ensure you are not using chemicals for cleaning purpose. Use bio enzyme or soapnut liquid for cleaning utensils and sink. 
• Water treatment can be installed at home; watch the below video as an example. 

Shade Nets 

These are also an option. There are various types of shade nets. When  S.V. Hittalmani (Additional director, department of horticulture, Government of Karnataka) visited my terrace garden to give me tips on growing edibles, he suggested that the shade nets with 30-40% density are ideal for Bangalore weather. Lesser than that, the plants may still burn. More than that, the plants might not get good sunlight, which would affect the growth of the plants. 

Shadenet
(btw, this pic was taken in the year 2014. Now my garden is nothing like this! :-D Felt nice to come across this pic!)  

Drip Irrigation

Even after following the above (some/all) steps, the option is to water the plants twice a day. If you cannot make that additional time in the evening due to working hours, and if you have the budget, you could setup a drip irrigation system. There are many variants and now with the help of technology, we can even automate the schedule. See here to know more about the options to setup the drip. 

During Summer, Save Water and Retain your plants too!

The main goal is to keep the soil moist during summer and also to save water. Using the above methods, we not only avoid quick evaporation of water in summer, but also save the water by not watering the plants twice/thrice a day. 

Pic Source : ken-foundation

Let us do our bit - choose the method that suits your lifestyle! 

[If you wish to contribute other methods which is not mentioned in this post, please feel free to leave a comment for it to be included. TIA!]

Organic Producers @Bangalore

From where does the food come from?

Whatever we buy from the stores (be it clothes , groceries, household items, just anything), we always go on the brand name, trust the brand blindly and buy - this is the normal human tendency.

Since food is so important (it is something we consume internally and not wear externally) - have we ever given a thought as to from where does the veggie vendor source all the veggies that you buy? You may say - "From the market?" okay... but from where before that? The sad truth is no one knows the answer, including me.

We are clueless as to what are we eating and from where!

Take a look at the videos here and here and here to see how clueless we are on what all the veggies undergo before it reaches us.

Direct deals with farmers

Did we ever realize that the most important job on earth is of a FARMER than anything else in this world? 

More than anything else, it is the food because of which we are alive, because of which we are able to go for work, because of which we are living our families happily. 

Over the times, we have taken food for granted. We don't realize that there should be some person (farmer) physically standing, sowing seeds, taking care of them, harvesting them for it to reach us one day. And that is a job which has been taken for granted. 

What if the farmers stop growing food? Where do we get the food supply from? Did you know even if we want to grow it ourselves, each crop would take 30-60 days or even more for us to get one batch of crop? How can we live without food? (It is not just vegetables and fruits; it includes even the grains like rice, dal, wheat etc)

Nowadays it is a huge question mark for the Indian urbanears as to why are so many farmers are committing suicide. It is because they are in debt and in no way can repay what they have spent. How can any human (not only farmer) repay their debt if this is what (below bill) they are paid in return for their crop?

You may wonder that even though you would have spent so much on the veggies and fruits, where did all that money go? The truth is most of it is going to the middlemen and transportation from one city to another and not even reaching the farmer, who is the sole reason for us to eat what we got from the shop.

Looking at the current trend, farmers are discouraged and you can take a guess that none of their family members would continue farming. Who would supply the food for us then? We will start importing the food and that is going to cost our money (in the form of tax again in the next year's budget)

Knowing these problems (and there may be other unknown/hidden problems as well) to create a win-win situation, for us - the consumers and the farmers, the best model would be to buy directly from the farmer.


With direct buying from the farmers : 

1. You buy FRESH food, it is not preserved in cold storage and does not have to deal with all the dust from various cities.
2. You are sure from where you have sourced it. 
3. It is even better if you find out that they have an Organic Farm - we can see the site they grow the food on, we can trust the farmer that he is maintaining the farm organically.
4. The money you spend decreases (as there are no/less middlemen involved)
5. The farmer can earn what he deserves for his hardwork - he gets justice, and hence indirectly we (consumers) are saved.

How to find out Local Sources

A few start up's have come up with this model of creating a win-win situation. Here are few ones which I am aware of. If you know if some more, please feel free to convey it as a comment and I shall add these up to benefit the others,reading the blog. 

1. http://jivabhumi.com/ -- claims organic
2. https://farmily.com/ -- may or may not be organic
3. https://www.ketto.org/organicfarming -- claims organic

[Disclaimer : Try finding a local farmer yourself within your area; Speak to them and confirm if they are organic or not, if you are very particular for it to be organic]

"Refuse/Reuse Plastic Covers" Drive

Refuse / Reuse Plastic Covers

Everybody would have heard this a million times. But have we REALLY given it a thought? Why do we, specially educated people do this? Is it because of the ease of not requiring to carrying bags? Look what we so called "educated" people are upto! We see the below state of the city almost in every street, yet do not bother, thinking it is BBMP's work and they are not doing it.

Streets piling up with plastic covers - is so alarming !!! 

Until the BBMP picks them up, many cattles come and feed here, consuming plastic covers. So what? It is from this cow, you will get the milk and consume it yourself. And that cattle dies eventually due to KG's of plastic covers in it's stomach. 

Remember - "What goes around, comes around!" Yes, this is THE RULE nature follows. 

Pic Source : Internet

Pic Source : Internet

Even though BBMP takes it away from this spot, the maximum they could do is dump it to the landfills. What happens there? Has anyone given it a thought?

Trucks to dump the waste we generate in landfills - Pic Source : Internet

Can you imagine the smell this generates in this area?  Pic Source : Internet

These landfills will have these for centuries together, as the plastic is NOT decomposable. So what?

If pictures are not convincing enough, take a look at the vidoes showing what is happening in the landfills -

(Video Source : Deccan Herald)

(Video Source : Deccan Herald)

After looking at these video, what is the feeling we get if we are real, educated human beings? It should be "the guilt".

Oh please, let us stop blaming someone else for the things we are responsible for! Look what have we been doing to the Nature all these years. It is high time, we REFUSE plastic covers at the first point.

Also a reminder that Plastic Covers are very much REUSABLE. We all understand that it is not practical to use cloth bag every time, but we can ALWAYS REUSE these plastic bags already at home!

Since cleaning begins at "home" we, volunteers of South Bangalore Organic Gardening, (group named The SOUTHekais)  planned and set out to make the "Refuse/Reuse Plastic Covers" Drive on 6th Dec 2015 near the Mini Forest Park, where we see roadside veggie vendors selling on daily basis and their customers are mostly the morning walkers, who after a stroll in the park, take back the veggies home on daily basis, also taking back NEW plastic covers every single day (a regular pattern as observed in any area probably)

The target was to spread awareness on this among:

• The roadside veggie vendors
• Their customers, who EACH time took a new cover every day.

So ,we prepared ourselves with a few banners on what we want to convey, a table, few cloth bags, compost bins for demo (an additional msg to re-use the kitchen waste) and setup a stall on the road side by 7am.

Pic Source : TSK

Looking at the new faces, people started getting curious or probably wondered if we are new veggie vendors in the area :-P

At first, they were hesitant and were scared to pass near to our stall. We welcomed each passer by, who looked at us and few were courageous enough ( :-P ) to ask what were we upto!

While we observed the vendors who were giving away plastic bags and also observed the walkers, who carried plastic bags and then and there started conveying and they said "sure, we know... but still..." , we also saw a set of people carrying their own cloth/jute bags. We clapped in group for them and thanked them for carrying their own bags and they felt proud, smiled back and said "Yes, we understand and we practice it" ! 

Those who were curious about the bins labelled as "Demo Bokashi Bins" and the tiny Khamba, came nearer to ask what was that about and we gave various details about - what is composting, different types of composting and how easily we can do it either via a DIY way at home or buy readily available stuffs from Vendors. 

We also informed them about how harmful is using disposable containers - the paper cups (which is wax coated and contains a plastic layer in between), the disposable plates which contains harmful chemicals , which when used on a longer period of time, can cause harm.

Milkman - encourages bringing own bags

A silent crusader, the milkman as we saw, did not give away plastic bags so easily. He asked if the customer has brought his bag. Proud to have such informed people around! 

The "technique" of folding a Plastic Bag

Well, it is not a robotic science :-D , but this triangular fold definitely works like a charm! And then you could put them in your vanity bags, laptop bags, car, scooter, or even your pocket! 

Video 

Overall Experience 

By the time the TSK team wrapped up by 9am, we had the sense of immense happiness that people actually wanted to know (about composting), but did not know where to gather the information from; that people agreed on re-using plastic covers; that people actually showed their interest in growing veggies organically at their home!

It is just the beginning and we have more such campaigns planned up! And yes, we are volunteers and do this for FREE :) We would like to encourage every individual to contribute in below ways :

• Reuse plastic covers. Refuse new ones.
• Spread awareness among your family, friends whenever you see them asking for a new plastic cover or not carrying their own bags, when they very much know that they are out for shopping.
• Compost at home, you can even do it at your apartment level or community level
• Join the subgroups of Organic Kitchen Gardeners and be present physically for such events!

Everyone can do their bit. Let's get responsible :)