The helping hand that started it all

A few days before our terrace veggie beds took shape, Deepak Kasthwal, a friend with a green thumb visited us. He advised us on the correct placement of the beds ("Udhar dhoop bahut zyada hai, udhar bahut kam hai... Yehaan theek rahega"). Then helped us spread the first bagful of coconut husk and straw on the terrace. So thats what started the greening.

Today while speaking to him on the phone we realised that we had forgotten to mention this. Better late than never, so here's all credit to you Deeps.

Connections and Cabbages

We are these days discovering the power of connections in strange ways. No, we do not mean connections of the political, economic or the 'powerful' kind. We mean simple human to human connections that are arising as a result of our being more conscious.

When we started our garbage collection activities - we used to wonder where we could get all the stuff we needed in order to make beds to grow our veggies in. So we started looking out for any opportunity to pick up stuff that was being discarded by people, which might be useful to us. That's how we landed up at our fruit vendor's stall one day - and yes, while we did 'buy' fruits from him, we also asked him casually if he had any 'bhusa'/ grain stalks to throw away from the boxes in which he gets the fruits from the wholesale market. He immediately pulled out 2-3 discarded boxes, emptied them of all the straw and filled a bag for us. He was curious to know what we intended to do with it. When we told him our idea of growing plants on them, he told us to come everyday to pick up a bagful.

Then we spotted this lady selling coconuts outside a temple - so we asked her if she had coconut husks for us to take away and another thread was set in motion. We quickly managed to amass a wealth of straw, coconut husk, rotten veggies/ leaves of vegetables thrown away at a subzi mandi, dry leaves being swept up at a local shopping complex. We now needed stones to make the bunds for our veggie beds - so we remembered the shop we had bought granite from for our kitchen - all we had to do was drive up to the shop and we see a huge pile of small discarded pieces of granite/marble, lying by the roadside for us to pick and choose the shapes and sizes we wanted. Soon we had a pile beyond which we couldn't carry.

Then our friend Shammi called us and said he had another friend with him, whom he would like us to meet, and would we like if they came over and we all did some work on starting our terrace farm. We were overjoyed. The next morning we were up early and started working on our terrace - plastic sheets were cut up and laid out, the granite bits were used to create bunds, coconut husk used to line the bottom, the straw went on top of it, followed by the vegetable waste....and lo and behold 4 small beds were almost ready. Shammi then suggested we should add a thin layer of compost/ soil and make the beds the way Kaveritai had explained to us. We wondered were we could get some top soil from - now that we had got used to getting things without having to pay for them. So we looked down from the terrace and spotted a pile of garbage with a lot of dry leaves on top on the empty plot in front of our house. Shammi says "Hey, I see humus-rich compost right there - why don't we go get that?". So we trudged down with a few sacks and started digging through the dirt - apprehensive at first about what all we will find - plastics, metals, sharp objects etc. - but soon feeling elated about the rich manure we were getting right at our frontyard. We soon had 3-4 sackfuls which went right on top of our beds - and there our beds were ready for planting. And it was all in a morning's work or karma yoga as we like to believe.

This is what I meant by connections. In this whole process, the people we have met & interacted with - the fruit vendor, the coconut seller, the sweeper, vegetable vendors, Shammi's friend Pooja (who is the editor of a magazine 'Bhoomi'), Kaveritai, Mrs. Jyoti Shah........are the connections which are propelling us forward.

Coming to the cabbages part, that was our reward for our morning's work - when we were emptying the sackfuls of green garbage we had got from the vegetable vendors, we found 2 whole cabbages with just their outer leaves decaying. So we simply took of 3-4 outer leaves and we were left with good looking fine cabbages for use in our lunch. So looks like our veggie patch has started yielding vegetables even before we could plant in it :-)

Back from the Brink

We are back....and it really has taken us a long time to come back - to the blog as well as to doing something to do with plants.

A lot of things have changed (and not changed too) in the meantime. For one, there is no sign of all those saplings we planted at our Panchgani land. What with the legal procedure (boundary demarcation etc.) dragging on, we really haven't been able to do much there - so once the monsoon was gone last year, there was no source of water for those saplings. Besides the villagers got their cattle there to graze as there was no fencing - sitting in Pune, there was very little we could do. In 2009 March, we contemplated moving to Panchgani, living near the land and to start doing some planting, but again, things took a very different turn.

We have now bought a house (an apartment) in Pune. Yeah!Yeah! It does sound like we sold out....but hey, hear us out. We got this nice large terrace above the flat along with the house too. Besides the house has 3 large balconies. So our enthusiasm is back and we are looking forward to starting our little green patch, on which we will have our full control and attention. Already the number of plants in pots has tripled - and there is atleast 1 flower in bloom every other week. Wonder of wonders, our curry leaf plant seems to be reviving too - after being dormant for more than a year. Mulching is in full flow - none of our kitchen waste now goes out of the house. And we can already see it benefitting the plants. The plants get a lot of sunshine and breeze and we can see that's doing a lot of good to them - they are visibly happy. So are we :-)

Last week we visited 2 ladies - Mrs. Kaveri tai Dadhphale and Mrs. Jyoti Shah. Both of them have done work on terrace gardens, though following slightly different techniques - but the results are very encouraging to behold. Kaveritai had created a terrace garden on the terrace of her hospital - she has unfortunately had to take it off now due to construction activity there. However, she still has a nice flourishing garden at the ground level made of kitchen waste topped with some soil. Her veggies requirements come fully from her garden. She reuses and recycles almost everything - makes her own brooms from the 'kunja' plant she grows tying it up with used saline tube; makes detergent out of lime peel and tamarind, makes loofahs out of dried gourds......we need to still discover all the other things she does. 

Mrs. Jyoti, on the other hand, does not use any soil on her terrace and yet she has a full-fledged farm/ forest on her terrace visible from the busy Satara road. She has fully grown Mango, Chiku, Pomegranate, Papaya and Seedless Lemon trees besides loads of rose bushes, Tulasi, Ginger and other seasonal vegetables. All this grows on just half-an-inch of garbage - all food waste not only from her home but also from an Udipi hotel hearby besides dry leaves from trees. She also uses a bioculture (from Dr. Bhawalkar) to help the whole garbage decomposition process. Her farm has been up for the last 15 years and she is still a lady on a mission. She is out to urge as many people as she can to follow her path. 

Both these meetings have spurred us on to action. For the last month or so, we have been collecting straw and coconut fibers discarded by fruit-sellers and shop-keepers. Now, we have created our first bed on the terrace and are looking forward to transforming our terrace into a green haven too. We are also thinking of ways in which we can do this organically and without spending money on it. Have green garbage to throw away anyone? We'd love to have it - just give us a holler!