VIJAYAWADA: Call it a great stress buster or a hobby, or at least a step towards healthy and organic living. Yes, now one can easily grow their own vegetable garden on the roof tops with just a beginners’ kit. Krishna district horticulture wing is receiving amazing responses while distributing rooftop beginner kits for the citizens across the district for people who wanted to have their own vegetable garden. The interesting part is that these kits are being given at 50 percent subsidy to the citizens.
The project took off in the year 2015 and the initial response of residents to the state government’s rooftop garden seemed very encouraging. So far, in Vijayawada alone, 300 residents have received their kits and started growing their gardens. For the year 2017-18, the department targeted to supply 150 kits and of them 80 were already taken by the citizens. “We have been receiving requests from residents at our department office in the city, seeking garden kits. The main objective of the project is to promote the habit of growing vegetable gardens in homes and apartments, wherever there is ample space. We will provide all necessary items right from digging fork to seeds, bio fertilizers, seed varieties and polythene sheets to ensure there is no leakage of water from the garden into the structure,” said A Jyothi, horticulture officer, Vijayawada.
According to horticulture officials, the kit provided to the public will comprise eight bags 20/13 inches for growing plants. About 33 bags of potted mixture will fill the eight bags. The kit also contains 12 varieties of vegetable seeds, of which four are leafy vegetables, four essential veggies and four others creeper varieties. For growing creepers, two supporting meshes and 500 ml of neem oil and 3 kgs of neem cake would also be provided. With bio nutrients and fertilizers, along with gardening tools and supplies, the entire kit is worth over `6,000. But, the department is offering it only for `3000 (subsidised price). Rather than just providing the supplies, the department is also offering a user manual to the residents to achieve good results with the kit. Officials said that the kit is self sufficient for use.
“It fulfils my domestic requirements to a major extent and also fulfils the needs of physical workout. Without any use of these pesticides and fertilizers, I am harvesting my crops and very proud of it. Also, it cools down my house during summers. All you need is one hour a day. It actually helps you de-stress and gives relief. I will recommend it to all people.” said N Jayashree, resident of Vijayawada who developed a rooftop garden with the beginners’ kit.