Chennai: At a time when it is challenging to find healthy chemical free food, Sudhashini, a resident of Puzhuthivakkam is spreading hope and inspiration through her terrace garden.
In the thought of keeping her family as well as neighbourhood healthy and fresh, with encouragement from her husband and mother-in-law, Sudhashini is committed to terrace gardening for the past two years. Starting off with vegetables and flowers, she now focuses on saving scarce variety of herbs.
The terrace gardener says, ”I grow a lot of medicinal plants including periyanangai, pirandai, nocchi, pei mirati, karpuravalli, omavalli, vallaarai and Thandu Keerai. Apart from these medicinal plants, I also grow vegetables like green chilli, onion, coriander and mint and some flowers too. Every day, I allocate at least one hour to water my plants, clean the garden area. I also spray neem oil on the plants as it is the best and safest method of pest control.”
Organic manure
Like many other organic gardeners, Sudhashini also makes her home ‘zero-waste’ by preparing vermi-composted organic manure out of kitchen leftovers. Adding to that she says it takes nearly two to three months for composting process.
She also said that using kayar pith helps retain moisture in compost. She proposes to use an equal distribution of the manure and soil preferably red soil for planting. ”Buckets, grow bags, and water cans can be used for they are cost efficient” says Sudhashini.
Healthy alternatives
Sudhashini expresses her joy in growing food for her family. In addition, she rejoices in the physical and mental wellness obtained over ground-keeping.
On top of all, she offers a few substitutes over foodstuffs like she prefers palm jaggery and palm sugar instead of refined sugar. Sudhashini also recommends rock salt over iodized salts, kudhirai vaali and thinai arisi rather than regular white rice to balance sugar level in blood.
”Being a mother, my practice of natural terrace gardening, has positive impact on my children, since they too grow aware of the benefits in gardening, it brings in responsibility and care for nature which makes them lead a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle,” says Sudhashini.
(Inputs by S Nanthini)