Keep calm and 'compos' in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: Many say that it’s just not feasible to grow plants in cities using organic methods as it consumes space and time. Busting the myth are several Hyderabadis including celebs such as actor Samantha Akkineni and entrepreneur Upasana Kamineni Konidela who have taken up making their own compost and fertilisers
Organic farming is not a new trend. People in villages across the country have been practising it for years. It’s the city folks like us who live in the concrete jungle who have forgotten the traditional ways of growing plants. Many say that it’s just not feasible to grow plants using organic methods as it requires a lot of space and is a time-consuming process.
Busting the myth are several Hyderabadis who have taken their hobby of gardening one step further by not just growing plants, but also making their own compost and fertilisers. One such hobbyist with a green thumb is 64-year-old Rajyalaxmi, who started gardening around 28 years ago, after shifting to their newly-built independent house, which is little over 200 sq yards. Today, the Miyapur resident, along with her 39-year-old daughter Jyothi have succeeded in building a thriving garden in their front yard as well as a full-fledged rooftop vegetable garden.
Ten years ago, the mother-daughter duo decided that it was time to get back to basics and stopped buying fertilisers and pesticides.
“We realised that using chemical-based fertilisers is neither good for the plants nor for those consuming the produce,” says Jyothi, who quit her MNC job a couple months ago to start her own consultancy.
“Today, smartphones have changed the way we access information using the internet and there are a plethora of videos available on every subject on YouTube. But it was not the case couple of years ago. We started collecting newspaper articles and watching TV programmes on organic farming, and then began converting the waste generated at home into compost.”
While the Maddalis have come a long way and have mastered several techniques of preparing compost, there’s another mother-daughter duo, who started their journey recently and are learning the art of compost making through trial and error. Tanuja Kondapalli, 35, and her mother, K Jyothi, 55, began their journey four years ago by raising four flowering plants at the balcony of their apartment in Kukatpally. Today, they have several plants on their roof-top and have inspired a couple of other families also to follow take the ‘green’ route.
Tanuja, who worked at the IIIT-H campus earlier, says she did not have much idea about gardening, but her mother who grew up in Nalgonda, always had a green thumb. Her grandparents had an independent house, where they used to grow various vegetables and also had several fruit bearing trees.
“My mom started gardening after my father passed away, it was like therapy for her. Two years ago, we thought ‘why not set up a roof-top garden’ and began getting more and more plants, seeds, soil, fertiliser and pesticides. But everything was so expensive. Then, we started looking for places which would provide quality product at a reasonable price. We found a nursery, 30 km away from our place at Hayathnagar, on the city outskirts. But, going there every time was a task in itself,” she adds.
Instead of going to the nursery, she took the online route and started sifting through YouTube videos looking for a solution. Tanuja, who lives in a joint family, says they generate a lot of kitchen waste every day, which she has started converting into highly nutritious fertiliser. She is happy and her plants are glowing.
Buoyed by their successes at home, both Jyothi and Tanuja, recently started their individual Facebook pages where they share tips on gardening and composting. For details check out lakshgardening created by Jyothi and Seeds & Soils by Tanuja.
Keep pests at bay
Onion peel water - Soak onion peels in water and store it in a closed bottle for two days. Spray the water on the plants
Soap solution mixed with little cooking or any other oil. Add nine portions of water to one portion of the solution and spray on the plants
Keep butter milk aside for 10 days, then mix one portion of sour butter milk with two portions of water and spray on plants
Boil neem leaves with some turmeric roots or turmeric powder, strain the solution, mix with three portions of water and spray on plants
