A new start

Dear garden lovers,

Wish you all a very Happy New year

We shall start a fresh from today. This blog will run with home garden contests every month. If you are interested in gardening, pls join and promote home gardening / kitchen gardening.

For the month of January, the sowing chart is as below.

Month	North India	South India
JANUARY	Brinjal	Lettuce,Spinach, Gourds, Melons, Radish, Carrot, Onion, Tomato,Okra,Brinjal, Bean

 The contest is to grow either radish / brinjal in your garden. take pictures of every step from today and share your garden photographs on 28th January in our facebook group - Home gardening India.

The best grower will be awarded. We are looking for sponsors, untill that only digital award will be provided.

Happy gardening

shylaashree

Setting up Terrace garden

Dear friends,

My today's post is to share you on points to note while setting up an organic terrace garden. These points are purely based on my experiments in my terrace and please keep one thing in mind - your plants are like small babies, individual care in required daily. Don't look for harvest alone from plants. Feel that you are saving the biodiversity of our soil.


Steps:

1. Decide on the area you would like set up and plants which you need to grow.
2. Quantity of seeds/ plant required (for example you need to plant minimum of  6 ~7 tomato plant to meet your daily requirement)
3. Design a layout of your garden.
4. Selecting the soil - Red soil - 2 part , sand - 1 part , compost - 1 part with this mix a handful of Neem powder / neem cake and manure(dried cowdung)
5. Tools to be bought - A trovel and Hand sprayer
6. Pot - Don't blindly choose growbag. You can plastic pots if you won't get mud pots
7. Watering must be done twice a day - morning before 10am and evening after 4PM is the ideal time.
8. Manuring 15 days once is a must.
9. Patience - is a must while safeguarding your plants from insects

Most importantly the time you spend with plants is the key thing. If you can't spend time, pls give up the idea of terrace garden.

Stay tuned for the posts on homemade pesticide

Seed Swap India

Dear friends,

Hope all might be now aware of #GlobalGoals. I would like bring awareness on #Goal3, #Goal13 and Goal15 - Food, Malnutrition, Biodiversity and Climate change part and support agriculture in a small way. 

  

  

 A small step will make a difference. Hence planned a seed swap event to exchange the seeds and grow organically. 

Share your organic vegetables with needy people and involve them

Seed Swap:
It is an event where we exchange seeds with friends

How does this work?

1. Register your name for the event - Limited to 20 Nos - first come first serve basis.
2. This swap is only for veggies and flower - target audience - home / terrace gardener.
3. Each participant has to pack same number of packs as the number of total participant.i.e. Each one has to prepare 20 seed mix packs(your head count is also included). Then each participant has to send the entire quantity to me. After receiving all I will send back to each participant a twenty sets of seed packs which i received from everyone. (Instead of sending it to 20 participants separately you will send it to me)( Single pack contains a mix of all seeds you have planned for exchange, similarly make 20 packs of the same).
4. The charges of actual postage / courier of the final parcel will be informed to you well in advance.
5. The last date of registration closes by 10th October.
6. All seed packs should reach me before 20th October.
7. Please write your name and city at the back of each pack. This will help others to know from whom they got it.

Please write to me for any queries /suggestions at hrshylaa(at)gmail(dot)com

Looking forward to your participation.

How to start a Organic Garden

Hello friends,

Today we will the step by step procedure to set up a terrace garden / DIY organic gardening

Zero budget terrace gardening / Zero budget Organic gardening

Requirement:

1. Seeds to start with - don't buy anything. Basic seeds are available in your kitchen

• Methi seeds
• Dhania Seeds
• Chilli seeds
• Collect the seeds from Rippen Tomato
• Chickpeas(soak in water for one day)
• Groundnut (soak in water for one day)
• Pudina cuttings
• Don't go for hybrid seed or costly seeds( seeds are available with local nursery. Buy if its price is less than Rs.30)

2. Pot - don't spend more on this initial - Reuse Plastic bottles, trays, buckets, ice cream cups etc

3. Soil - Red soil or the soil around your house + sand - 2:1 ratio
4. Compost - (Don't bother if you don't have - i will explain the procedure in a separate post)

Start with what you have got.

Procedure:

1. Fill the soil in the containers you have got
2. Sprinkle methi and dhania seeds
3. Tomato, chillies, groundnut to be sowed at minimum 20cm gap
4. Water them daily twice in the morning(before 10 am) and eveing (after 4pm)
5. Tiny little men will come out within 4 to 5 days of time

Your garden is set now. I will be explaining you on next steps in my future posts.

Happy Gardening!

Earthworms

Dear friends,

Today i would like to introduce one of our friend who helps a lot in farming.

Earthworms - Farmers best friend

Earthworms, the key players of vermicomposting, have many positive and indirect effects on soil quality, both in terms of the effects on soil physical properties and nutrient cycling. They are vital to soil organic matter turnover.

Earthworm populations can indicate the structural, microclimatic, nutritive, and toxic situations in soils. They are highly suitable bioindicators of soil fertility, and they are known for their sensitivity to synthetic pesticides and to many agricultural practices. Earthworms help improve soil structure and provide a high concentration of nutrients in a form accessible to plants.

Studies have shown that organically managed soils have greater number of earthworms compared to conventional farmlands. A possible reason for the abundance of earthworms in organic farming could be that organic production depends more on a sustained supply of organic substances from plant residues and manure than conventional farming.

Researchers have found greater diversity and abundance of soil and surface-living arthropods, such as spiders, beetles, parasitic flies, and wasps, as well as non-pest butterflies and many other invertebrate species, in organic farming systems compared to conventional farming systems

Go Organic and increase the population of our farming friends

Pollinators

Hi Friends,

Today we will get to know about Pollinators.

Pollinators are important part of any ecosystem. Reports show that butterflies and honeybees are declining due to excessive use of pesticides in an agro-ecosystem. It is well known that the bees and butterfly play an important role in agriculture by the process of pollination. 

Pollination is the process wherein, the bees and butterfly help in cross fertilization of the pollens in the adjoining field and widen the genetic base of the crop. This helps in significant improvement of yields or quality of seeds and fruits and, setting of seed itself through pollination. 

Pollinators need protection from excessive exposure to pesticides and other chemicals that can poison them or impair their reproduction. These chemicals can also eliminate nectar sources for pollinators, destroy larval host plants for moths and butterflies, and deplete nesting materials for bees.

Currents threats:

Habitat reduction: The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats have disrupted native populations of many plants and pollinators. Every time that wild lands are converted to shopping malls or housing, for example, many pollinators lose their homes.

Pesticides. In an attempt to eliminate herbivorous crop pests, growers have been spraying complex mixtures of pesticides that kill not only the pests, but also the native pollinator populations.

Fungal, protozoan, and bacterial diseases of honey bees. The usual set of problem diseases that affect any highly social animal continue to infest many domestic honeybee colonies, adding to the expense and difficulty of maintaining healthy populations.

Go for Organic Fertilizers.  We will share the posts on preparation of organic Fertilizers in our furture posts.

Reference - Book on Organic Farming by Dr Vandana Siva

Why go Organic

Dear Friends,

Many of us will have this question in mind. Why suddenly the word organic is popular now.

We Indians are mostly unconcerned about the quality of the food we consume. Despite numerous and regular reports in the media about the presence of pesticides and other chemical contaminants in food and water, we neglect many things due to our machine life and the importance given to health. Our focus is now more on quantity and “outer” quality rather than intrinsic or nutritional quality of the food we eat. Our ignorance of the food production process has led us to consume chemically processed food.

 The current modern agriculture has impacted very negative effect on the environment. The use of pesticides has led to enormous levels of chemical buildup in our soil, water, air and all of us.

Fertilisers have a short-term effect on productivity but on longer term it has left negative effect on the environment leading to contaminated ground water and water bodies. Hybrid seeds usage is a severe threat to the local and indigenous varieties of heirloom seeds

This is the place where Organic popped up.

Key characteristics of Organic agriculture are below

• relies primarily on local, renewable resources;
• Makes efficient use of solar energy and the production potential of biological systems;
• Maintains the fertility of the soil;
• Maximises recycling of plant nutrients and organic matter;
• Does not use organisms or substances foreign to nature (e.g. GMOs, chemical fertilisers or pesticides);
• Maintains diversity in the production system as well as the agricultural landscape;
• Gives farm animals life conditions that correspond to their ecological role and allow them a natural behaviour.

In today's terminology it is a method which primarily aims at cultivating the land and raising crops in such a way, as to keep the soil alive and in good health by use of organic wastes (crop, animal and farm wastes, aquatic wastes) and other biological materials along with beneficial microbes (biofertilisers) to release nutrients to crops for increased sustainable production in an eco-friendly
pollution free environment.

India has traditionally been a country of organic agriculture, but the growth of modern scientific, input intensive agriculture has pushed it to wall. But with the increasing awareness about the safety and quality of foods, long term sustainability of the system and accumulating evidences of being equally productive, the organic farming has emerged as an alternative system of farming which not only address the quality and sustainability concerns, but also ensures a debt free, profitable livelihood option.

We are just sharing the importance of Organic, stay united