A green patch on your terrace
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You can have a decent terrace garden without treating the terrace.
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Eye-catching: A cool, green place to relax
How about some home grown watermelons? Some fresh spring onions? Perhaps a few pumpkins, and a basketful of vegetables like tomato, brinjal, lady’s finger, bitter gourd, and greens; fresh flowers for your daily puja; bamboo plants that thrive on carbon dioxide and wipe away your carbon footprint, or just some bright foliage plants to set a relaxing atmosphere for your yoga practice or newspaper time…
Well, a terrace garden does sound nice – a cool, green place to relax, a non energy-consuming air conditioner for the house, and maybe some vegetables and flowers by the side. But not all types of constructions lend themselves to a waterproof roof garden. And then, waterproofing the terrace can cost a modest sum too. Does this mean that a garden is not possible in such terraces? Not really, says Exnora International. EI has created a model, space-saving garden on the terrace, one that is easy to set up and maintain. This functional garden done up in bright colours proves that you can have a decent terrace garden without treating the terrace. In fact, even a balcony can be used to host a garden.
The key is to maximise space. So, in this terrace garden, besides plants on the floor level such as a pumpkin creeper trailing on the ground from its cane basket, you find a wire mesh leaning on a wall that hosts bitter gourd creepers, an overhead pandal for snake gourd, jute scaffolding for the avarai legumes, trays arranged on top of each other in zig-zag fashion from which different types of greens grow out into the sunlight, metal poles with holders in a spiral all around it, so that even a single post can play host to as many as ten or 20 plants… In fact, you see here clay pots that have been punctured at four to five places, with different plants growing out from each of these holes!
Pumpkin, brinjal, lady’s finger, chillies, gourds…whatever be the vegetable, two feet by two feet containers with drain holes can be used to grow them all; the trick is in arriving at appropriate placement. Painted pots and cane baskets look great and function really well as plant containers, but you could actually use anything - an old tyre cut into half, old jars, cane baskets left over from a bouquet of flowers…
Drought resistant
Some plants can be grown directly from seeds used in the kitchen like dhania, methi, etc. “But it is better to get seeds or seedlings from nurseries as these tend to be drought-resistant and fast-growing varieties especially bred for the purpose”, points out Vasumathi, EI.
To grow the plants use a soil mixture consisting of one part river sand, one part red earth and one part manure, mixing it well. The plants may be watered just once a day, ideally in the morning, and a handful of organic manure may be added after each harvest. Most of these plants yield two harvests – that is once every three or four months, after which a different plant may be grown in that soil. Greens, of course, can be harvested in a matter of days.
Piped water with a faucet, a hosepipe for watering the plants and a small composting unit right on the terrace makes the garden self contained, so that you can manufacture your own organic manure from the fallen leaves, withering flowers etc. For the composter, you can opt for readymade, ethnic looking terracotta composting units like the Daily Dump, marketed by landscapists like Navneeth Raghavan. Otherwise you could opt for the bigger composter developed by EI, both of which give you comfortable access to the manure that gets formed. As for the composting innoculum, get it from the market or just add some very sour curd to the organic garbage periodically.
Not just every square foot of space, this terrace garden goes on to use every cubic feet of space so that the garden spans not just horizontally, but into three dimensional space. “The idea is to use simple techniques to grow more greenery in less space,” says S. Sivakumaran, chairman, EI. Well, this could battle both global warming and the soaring inflation. Interested persons may also contact S.S. Kannan of EI (9840405557) who will help you set up such a space saving garden.
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