Composting & Permaculture in Urban Spaces

During the recent Green Bazaar – Chennai, I attended the one-hour introductory session on ‘Composting, Organic Gardening and Permaculture in Urban localities’ hosted by reStore Gardens/Magic Bean, Chennai. Here, present some important points mentioned there along with a slideshow from their blog. 

Composting:

I have tried composting in plastic bottles earlier and it worked! Next up is my composting adventure using closed plastic buckets (with a few holes on the sides). Even though I am just an amateur OTG-er, I want to learn more and grow different types of vegetables in my house. If you are new to composting or looking for inspiration, go through the below slideshow (from reStore Gardens blog):

Composting kitchen waste at home from restoregardens

Compost gives nutrients for vegetable plants to grow in Organic Terrace Gardening (OTG). But one also needs other components. They told us that, in a pot/container, we need to first fill up the bottom layer with gravel, river sand, stones or other loose/porous material so that the water can be drained. On the top of this medium, we need to add a mixture of Soil + Compost + Cocopeat (1: 1: 1) where we can grow plants. The medium should be loose enough for seeds to germinate easily, and should not feel heavy.

Permaculture:

Permaculture is a way to grow soil from discarded organic materials around us! We can not only grow plants and veggies, but also the soil that holds them – howz that? 🙂 You can either do this in a small pot/bucket or do it on a larger scale (few feet) on the terrace. There are four layers to urban permaculture:

  1. Sticks/Branches/Discarded Green coconut shells. (Bottom layer.)
  2. Sugarcane waste, corn husk or banana leaves.
  3. Dry leaves/Green leaves/Flowers. (Soaked in Amrita karasal or Panchakavyam.)
  4. Compost. (Topmost layer.)

That’s it. If you leave this combination for a few days/weeks, your growing medium (soil) will be ready! Of course, soil is available in plenty in nursery, etc. but the idea here is to reduce organic material that will otherwise be wasted and add to our landfills.

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I may not do Permaculture immediately, but I intend to grow organic veggies in my terrace, in pots/containers. I have already grown and harvested groundnuts. Here it is:

photo Successful-OTG-Harvest-Groundnuts_zpsb04af524.jpg

More to come soon 🙂

Destination Infinity

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