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Garden, where you want it to be
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When it comes to having greenery in your flat, space need not be as much of a constraint as you imagine it to be — if you are given to thinking innovatively.
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If you have given up hope of ever seeing greenery in your apartment for want of space, here are some ideas to get you thinking positively again. Exnora, a non-governmental organisation in Chennai, has been encouraging city folks living in small apartments to grow plants and has come up with quite a few ideas to beat the space problem. Of course, some of these may not seem all that stylish, but once you get the hang of them, it should not be that difficult to come up with your own elegant solution to setting up a garden of sorts in limited space.
One idea is to think vertical, instead of horizontal, if you are cramped for space. This means growing plants in a tiered structure, instead of spreading them out all over.
This can be as simple as stacking a few soil-filled containers in a zigzag way and growing plants in the corners or even punching holes in a sack at several levels and getting plants to grow in vertical arrays.
M.B. Nirmal, who spearheads Exnora, vouches for the growth of plants this way.
Many plants can thus be grown in a place where normally only one plant can be accommodated, he says.
Pots can be stacked atop one another, filled with soil and holes can be drilled on the sides for planting the seeds.
If you like something more elaborate, then go for a framework made of metal to have your pots placed in vertical stacks. There are many ways this can be done. The pots can be arranged around a vertical pole or you can go for a rack-like structure, for instance.
Some methods of growing are more suited for some kinds of plants than others — those that do not grow too tall can only be accommodated in stacks.
And again, if the thought of picking up unwieldy pots from the market and having them carted all the way home puts you off, just go for any kind of handy container, such as plastic sacks of the kind in which rice is sold.
Even old tyres, bamboo stubs, drums, large pipes, hand railings and plastic tubs and trays can be used.
Only your imagination seems to be the limit here.
Larger campaign
Exnora has been promoting the greening of homes as part of a larger campaign of helping reduce civic waste generation. If homes go for the separation of organic and inorganic waste and have the organic waste composted, it makes sense to have a few plants at home.
And here space need not be as much of constraint as you imagine it to be if you think innovatively.
Exnora even presents the example of a ‘garden gate’, in which a gate has been used as the framework for holding rows of pots. Come to think of it, that is quite a weighty innovation!
T. RAMACHANDRAN
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Property Plus
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Thiruvananthapuram
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