Yes. The urge and the passion to grow our own veggies and flowers, having our own garden is always there in all of us. There can be no human being whose eyes won't turn soft or whose heart doesn't sing whenever he or she looks at a beautifully grown garden.
The major deterrent for having our own garden, especially in cities, is the absence or the lack of adequate space. However where there is a will, there's a garden. With some smart alternative methods, we can grow our own veggies and flowers even in a very small place with bare minimum expenses and with limited time and energy.
I have given organic gardening tips about easy methods of growing varieties of healthy vegetables and flowers here in my blog :
1. Organic gardening method - How to grow veggies in a very very small place
2. Organic gardening medium - How to grow easily without soil and with less water
3. Organic gardening plants - What all the vegetables we can grow in 10x10 area
Please go through the above tips about the organic medium, where you will get tips about where to purchase the big paint boxes and the organic manure and how to plan your garden.
Now I would share with you how to grow healthy plants with kitchen waste as manure.
I have been growing variety of flowers and vegetables through organic method since last two years and I haven't spent a single rupee on manure but my plants are growing as if they are on steroids.
When we are growing the plants in organic manure without using soil, adding the kitchen waste is very easy as the growing medium is extremely light and very easy to maintain.
People generally compost the kitchen waste to prepare the compost manure. No doubt it's very useful for our plants, but the method involved can be tedious and time consuming. Then there are problems of having separate space, the menace of flies, mosquitoes and other insects and also the time required to keep monitoring the process.
Instead what I do is whatever kitchen waste like peels of flowers and vegetables, tea and coffee decoction powder, egg shells and other kitchen waste is available at home, I go on putting it in a covered bucket near kitchen which gets filled up within three to four days.
The organic manure I use to grow plants is very light, easily separable and the biggest advantage is no weed grows on it so it's always very neat and clean.
So I separate the manure with my bare hands or using a garden tool and take out half of the manure outside from the pot. Then pour all the kitchen waste in the pot and spread it evenly. And I put back the manure I have taken out from the pot and press it lightly. Lo and behold, the process of making healthy organic manure has started!
I have more than 50 pots at home and generally I fill the pots with kitchen waste once a week. So by the time the turn comes for the first pot to get the kitchen waste, whatever waste I have filled previously would have turned into black gold - pure organic manure. The happiness of the plants on receiving the healthy manure is seen to be believed. Within a week they would be well nurtured and the growth of the plants, flowers and vegetables is more than doubled!
The biggest advantage here is since the kitchen waste in the pot is fully covered with my growing mix and lightly pressed, there is absolutely no problem of insects or bad odour. Only thing we have to take care of is never add the onions and garlic into this kitchen waste. It's not that we can't use it absolutely, but there are certain dos and don'ts - pros and cons - of using the onion and garlic. That's for another class!
Suppose your kitchen doesn't generate as much waste for whatever reason, there is no need to worry. During the dry season, trees shed lots and lots of dry leaves which make ideal material for manure. I generally visit a park in the morning during this season. The sweepers would be more than happy to fill your bags with the dry leaves!
And then there are temples where priests would be taking out the flowers from the idols and would happily hand over them to you for your garden.
Or else the vegetable vendors would be left with many dry, rotten vegetables with them everyday and instead of throwing them, they would be more than willing to share them with you for a nominal price. Not just a smiling flower in your garden, you will see a smiling thanking face here too! See there is a solution for every problem. Otherwise it won't be called a problem!
I have shared here the video about how I go about adding the kitchen waste to my plants. Please watch the video to get a clear picture and you would find it very very easy to follow.
And please don't forget to share this post so that many more gardeners would be benefitted and they would be happy to learn and implement these tips. Not just growing our own veggies and flowers and fruits, let's make our mother Earth blissful!!!
