How to Create a  successful home garden: Tips

 Cost effective and women friendly Home/Terrace/Balcony Gardening

 I had always dreamt that one day I would have a garden of my own and would grow fresh produce of my own on this garden. I wanted to eat and cook meals made from this fresh-produce. After years of learning and unlearning, I finally developed my own small garden at home. This garden has many new techniques implemented that are both gender friendly as well as cost-effective. It was through self-learning from the internet that I built a small garden at my home Balcony and Terrace.  It took nearly six months to establish this self reliant  garden and today, I have established compost bins and drip irrigation systems to manage my garden.

Waste management 

 My kitchen waste is collected on a daily basis for worm composting. I have two compost  bins (made at home)  for managing the organic manure for garden plants. These bins have the capacity to produce almost 15-20 Kgs of organic compost every four months. Along with Kitchen waste, I also use dry leaves and paper for carbon requirement. Apart from using  the kitchen waste for  composting, I also regularly grind the kitchen waste and make a  concoction to feed plants. This would help the plants with magnesium, manganese, Zinc, Sodium, potassium etc..required for the plants overall growth.

Water conservation

 Watering is done through drip irrigation system.  All the drip irrigation items are bought

online and assembled at home. More than 250 plants are watered through the drip irrigation system and less than 10 percent of normal water is consumed. The same system is also used for watering plants while I am on vacation.

Additionally, I have also implemented a no soil or less soil strategy. Nearly 50% of Coco peat is used in place of normal soil for all the plants. Along with 50 percent coco peat( fine particles made from coconut wastes), I have also used 20 percent cow dung, 20 percent homemade worm compost and10 percent of other organic manures as a good soil mixture for all plants.

My garden has 4-5 varieties of leafy vegetables, 10-15 types of roses, 10-12 types of hibiscus, few medicinal plants( for controlling Diabetes, BP, Kidney stones, health drink) and indoor and outdoor plans to enhance the aesthetics of our home. Altogether, I have 250 plants in my Balcony and Terrace garden. Our house is located in a dry area and water is a necessity for all the plants everyday.

Therefore, keeping these plants in the balcony and terrace and implementing the less soil process has enabled air circulation for the soil thereby minimizing the usage of soil for planting. Along with good soil mixture the drip irrigation system has also helped conserve water.

Waste water bottles  to grow plants  : Hydroponic system

 Used water bottles can be stored and reused to grow plants from the stems. When plants have gotten fairly big, I cut the stems and use water bottles ( by cutting into two pieces as necessary) to grow roots before planting them on to different pots. Roots grow fast in a water medium. This technique is widely used for plant propagation. Roses, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, and garlic  have reciprocated very well for this method in my garden.

Organic Pesticides

 I use garlic, chilli, baking soda, ginger, vinegar, neem oil and  liquid detergent  often as plant pesticides. They are all sourced from my kitchen and are harmless.

Sun protection : 50% green shade net installation

 Since many plants do not require complete sunlight all day, I have created a green corridor for a few plants and kept some plants under a shade net. These green shade nets provide 50% sun to the plants and  reduce  water consumption by 5-10% percentage. These cost effective shade nets are available online and one can easily build the shade net corridors based on their plant requirements