KOCHI: Urban life leaves little space for gardens. This means, the green thumbs have to be extremely creative with their growing spaces and choices. Let us share with you ten pointers to make the most of space and recycled or re-purposed containers to create a beautiful garden to grow succulents and organic food.
You can grow in almost any container (almost).
Selecting the right type of container to grow in is important, but most containers can be adapted easily with a little bit of creativity and effort. Almost any container that can withstand watering for a period of time is useful and we’ve used ones made from wood, plastic, metal, jute and much more. Avoid growing in containers like old tyres and poor plastics however as these can leach un-friendly compounds into the soil.
Once you’ve picked a container, a few modifications and you’re ready to grow.
The most important consideration with containers is to ensure that there are proper drainage holes. In containers of wood or metal is best to line them with UV stabilized plastic which extends their useful life too.
Reimagine terraces and balconies. Usually we tend to view these as horizontal spaces, but there is a lot of free vertical space to use, like wall hanging or ceiling mounted.
Preparing great organic soil that is nourishing for most herb and vegetable plants. Take your existing soil (even if you think its poor) and modify it by adding coco soil or coco peat and compost. The soil, coco-soil and compost should be mixed in a 50:25:25 ratio for most vegetables and fruits. This lets you have great organic soil for your garden in less than 10 mins of work.
Picking the right things to grow for the season is important.
Seeds can be germinated in paper or plastic cups.
You’ll find it easy to manage small nurseries where you grow seedlings till they are ready for transplant. These cups can be filled with a seeding medium that is 50% vermi-compost and 50% coco soil.
Transplant the vegetable seedlings into your growing container when they are 3-4 weeks old. This is when they have 4-5 real leaves and will establish nicely in the containers you had prepared with the organic soil.
Your plants are dependent on sun, soil, water and compost for their healthy growth. Make sure that they get adequate amounts of each, but not too much. Place them where sufficient light is available for what you’re planning to grow.
Dealing with pests organically. To avoid pests, ensure that you don’t grow too much of one vegetable type and also use pest repellents like neem and cow urine. Each of these needs to be diluted to about 10% before it is used. Other mechanical pest management tools like sticky traps and pheromone lures are also useful.
Harvesting your produce. Fruiting vegetables will be ready for harvest in 8-10 weeks, but leafy vegetables are ready as early as 6 weeks from sowing. Don’t just uproot them, use a few leaves from each plant and make sure you’ve grown several plants to meet your food needs.