For some it is a wish to have a small garden at home, with nutritious greens, colourful bougainvilleas and roses, fresh tomatoes, drumstick and radish.
For many others, setting up such a garden had not been a successful venture.
Coimbatore region is seeing more people raising organic kitchen gardens with resources and guidance now available even online.
Lakshmi Sriram, who is promoting kitchen gardens in Chennai for the last two-and-a-half decades, was in Coimbatore recently at Subiksha Organics.
Shobana Arjun Mohan of Subiksha Organics started with organic cultivation of vegetables at home and for the last five years, she is helping others do so by providing green grow bags, natural manure and pesticides, seeds and saplings.
Coco peat, neem cake, red soil and vermi-compost are mixed in the right proportion and put into green grow bags of different sizes. These are easy to handle and maintain, says Ms. Sriram. Banana and drumstick can also be grown in these bags.
Even with minimum area, the space available on balcony or terrace, a small kitchen garden can be set up at home. Every one who has an interest in gardening can grow at least brinjal, chilli, greens, tomatoes and okra, adds Ms. Mohan.
“We promote organic cultivation. Some buy well-grown plants. We not only supply the materials required but also explain what to do after setting up the garden,” she says. Customers usually come back asking when the plants would flower or how to handle insects. All the natural manure and pesticides are available in Coimbatore.
During summer, green shades can be used on the balcony or terrace to cover the garden.
For those who have very little space, there are small metal baskets that can be hung on the grills and the grow bags can be placed on these.
There are problems of peacocks or squirrel. If some grains can be put on a small plate or bowl and left in the garden, these would not damage the plants, she says.
Every home can have a small kitchen garden. “Once we start raising vegetables at home and cook the fresh vegetables, we will know the difference in taste, the benefits on health, etc,” says Ms. Sriram.
