BENGALURU: Coles Park may soon home a 20,000 sq feet organic, vegetable garden maintained by residents. A large portion of this will be a butterfly garden. The corporator of Pulikeshinagar, Abdul Rakeeb Zakir, has promised to take this up with the Horticulture Department and ensure that this space is set aside for it.
He was speaking at the Oota from Your Thota event, held on Saturday, organised by the Garden City Farmers along with Cantonment Area OTGians. It was held at St. Josephs Convent Girls High School in Frazer Town.
This garden, to be maintained by Cantonment Area OTGians, will be community-farmed. Here workshops and demos will be held to educate people on urban farming and easy methods to do it. Corporator Zakir says, “A part of the Park will be maintained by the Garden City Farmers and Cantonment Area OTGians. They will not receive government funds to run it, but private sponsors will be invited to contribute.”
Dr BN Vishwanath, President of Garden City Farmers and a pioneer in organic, urban terrace farming in the city, says that he has been trying to get government land for the past 32 years to start such a vegetable garden.
He says that Cantonment Area OTGians will care for the park. “Roughly, 10,000 sq feet will be set aside for the butterfly garden, 5,000 sq ft for a herbal garden and 5,000 sq ft for a vegetable garden.”
Sapna Subramani, convener of Cantonment Area OTGians, says that the organic garden will have vegetables, medicinal plants and herbs. “Here we will educate people about composting,” she says. “We also plan to call people once a month and teach them about gardening.”
OFYT is organised every three months in different parts of the city to promote gardening. This two- day event had many stalls along with workshops. There were also seeds and saplings, garden tools, composting bins, organic vegetables/ foods and eco- friendly products on sale.