CHENNAI: In the era of dwindling green cover, this family from Mysuru is working to retain green space amidst the concrete jungle. The family of CS Sudarshana, the principal of Pramati Hill View Academy in Mysuru, is growing some greenery on the terrace of their house, which they feel, is a pleasurable and rewarding job.
The family basks in the joy of terrace gardening and over the last five years, they have created a greenhouse full of flowering and vegetable plants along with various herbal and medicinal plants, which welcome the eye of green lovers
The four-member family, who has an immense passion for gardening, gives a great value to nature and is conserving greens on their terrace. Hundreds of flowering and vegetable plants, including tomatoes, green beans, brinjal, ridge gourd, coriander leaves, mint leaves, curry leaves, hibiscus, jasmine, different varieties of roses, Brahma Kamala, Chrysanthemum, Sugandha Raja and Amrithaballi are arranged in neat rows — some in pots, a few in milk trays, plastic containers and grow bags.
Sudarshana says gardening is another exercise which keeps all of us involved and has great benefits. “We started the rooftop garden close to five years now after moving in to this house. The department of horticulture conducted a programme and they distributed some pots and saplings as a part of it. We started to nurture them in the pots first and then, we made use of the 25-litre plastic container to grow the plants. We collected the plastic container from a water distributor as these containers are hard and if the plastic pots are thin, they can heat up quickly. Similarly, we purchased milk trays to grow medicinal plants and greens. We created this garden with minimum investment and it’s our collective family project,” says Sudarshana.
He further adds, “The kitchen waste and the wet waste are accumulated in a compost bin and then, converted into bio-manure for the plants. It takes around 45-60 days to convert into manure and by adopting home composting method, we never have to buy any manure from outside.” An approximate area of 500 sqft has been utilised to grow their terrace garden and a separate section for flowers, vegetables and herbs are made.
“From the past few years, I haven’t purchased tomatoes and other vegetables from outside for cooking purpose, as we grow many organic vegetables on the terrace of our house which is sufficient for our family. In addition, fresh homegrown vegetables taste delicious and are good for health and safe from chemicals,” says Shobha, Sudarshana’s wife, who has a great passion for gardening.
“My two daughters help in watering the plants. Gardening for us is family work. One more benefit of gardening is that we can see different birds flying around our house and inside the garden area. Sparrows and Myna are regular visitors to our garden,” Shobha adds.