Homes are shrinking and so is nature. Let’s Go Green.

Homes are shrinking and so is nature. Let’s Go Green.

Go Green:

Green is the color of nature. Green symbolizes Life and provides calmness to our eyes. We always want to take a walk in nature and like greenery all around us. Let’s give something back to nature and try to grow some plants at home.

Roof Top Farming:

In metros home sizes are shrinking and it’s not possible to get a land for farming. So the concept of roof top farming came up. Roof farming provides food and temperature control. Planting in containers and boxes are used extensively in roof top gardens and known as container gardening.

How to get Started:

The first and foremost thing in roof top gardening is your interest. A few other things which are needed:

1. Bricks   ( For building mounts to keep your containers )
2. Soil
3. Plastic Sheet
4. Container / Boxes

The biggest challenge is to get soil at roof top. I myself had a hard time, it is easy to get the soil but as it’s heavy and you need a lot of soil so it’s a hard work to get that at roof. Soil is most important factor in any garden and especially in a vegetable garden. Mix the soil with compost, it will be light and your roof will not have much load. First apply the plastic sheet and fill the soil in the container / Boxes and grow your plant. Container for your vegetables can be anything: Flower Pots, buckets, wooden boxes, washtubs or even plastic bags. Put your boxes on some mount to grow vegetables otherwise due to seepage your roof may get moisture.  Proper drainage is a must. Start with something which is easy to grow and then as you get experience and confidence, start growing other vegetables. Start small with few pots, for winter try Methi, Spinach, and Coriander. In summer you can start with: Tomato, Mint, Chilly, Lady’s Finger, Lauki, Tori and Beans. Another important aspect is not all seeds germinate. So if you want 4 plants then put at least 6-7 seeds.

            Lady’s finger from garden                                            Mount with Lauki

Pest Control and Maintenance:

Regular water is must for plants. In summer it’s must to provide water on daily basis. In winter you can be lazy and plan to water in 2-3 days. If soil is very moist, avoid the water therapy for a day. Too much water make the roots rot. Vegetables will grow fast in summer while in winter growth of plant is really slow.

Pest trouble:

Ø       Spray neem oil to avoid insects – once in 2-3 months is fine.

Ø       Boil neem leaves in water, cool and mix with water meant for plants.

Cost of Setup:

Initial investment could be around 3000/- as you need to purchase pot/boxes, seeds and compost. But later it’s just 100/- per month. Time spend in the garden is most relaxing time of the day. The investment of time is hardly 15-20 min daily once all setup is done.

Pleasure of Green:

Don’t determine the worth of what you grow in terms of money as the pleasure you have in growing them is way beyond than any monetary benefit. You can get those vegetable from market may be in few bucks, but home grown vegetables are chemical free and always taste best. Other aspect is that it gives us so much happiness. I am always excited and happy by seeing even a single flower/ vegetable on my plant. Then to see them growing is equally exciting.

At this stage I am full of dreams, dreams of having a lush green vegetable garden at my home with so many varieties of vegetables and being self sufficient in terms of my vegetable requirement. Too Big a dream for city life ?? !!

  

What’s Next:

GO GREEN!! Let’s share the experience and your story about roof top farming.