Organic Vegetables and Healthy Lifestyle

749 Words3 Pages
No need to stock up on overpriced organic vegetables any more. Preeti Patil of Urban Leaves India shows you how to grow your very own kitchen garden With Mumbai's space constraints, cultivating a garden for pesticide-free vegetables and fruit may seem like a far-fetched idea. But growing and owning an organic kitchen garden is actually utterly achievable. Preeti Patil of Urban Leaves India — an NGO that promotes city farming — says it can be surprisingly simple. "The process is cost-effective, and low-maintenance. The only requirements are a lot of patience and perseverance," says she. Most people would think the terrace is their only option and too only if the housing society is forgiving. Try this for an idea. Use your windowsill to grow some vegetables. One of the biggest requirements to grow fruits and veggies is sunlight, something the city is amply blessed with. Patil has also cultivated a full-fledged kitchen garden at her home in Dockyard. She adds, "At least, you are certain that they are not growing along the railway tracks. Being able to smell fresh fruit and vegetables is an added incentive. It's a rarity in cities these days. Not to mention the asset home grown vegetables provide. We won't face dearth of vegetables like we do today if each home takes the onus of growing their own veggies to a partial extent." Recycle and reuse At the outset, you don't need to invest in fancy or earthen pots. You can even make use of plastic bottles, buckets and bathtubs to grow vegetables. Take a medium sized bathtub; fill it with soil and home compost to grow cabbages, cauliflowers, capsicums, radish and onions. Make your own soil The most important step in kitchen gardening is to make Amrut Mitti (nutrient-rich soil), which has abundant and diverse microbial life that support healthy plant growth. It is simple to prepare and the results are

More about Organic Vegetables and Healthy Lifestyle

Open Document