Our urban surrounding is filled with man-made objects which creates a dull and dreary environment. A hint of greenery can surely enliven our homes as well as offices. Obviously, we are delighted to see some greenery in the countryside which welcomes us when we step out. Most of us cannot afford to have spacious landscaped garden around our house. At most we can have a few pots of flowering and vegetable plants in our kitchen garden. However, these plants require adequate amount of sunlight, water and fresh air. For those who feel a hint of greenery can be added to our interiors, there are some sensible options. Indoor plants or house plants can be kept in confined interiors with little sunlight and minimal maintenance. Here is a list of indoor plants which not only beautify our interiors, but also purify the air by sucking out CO2 and other indoor pollutants.

Common Name: Devil’s Ivy / Money plant / Golden Pothos

Scientific name: Epipremnum aureum, Native: South Africa, Plant Care: Minimal Care Speciality: Attractively leafy hardy plant 

Description: This is a popular houseplant with evergreen leaves which are alternate and heart-shaped. This leafy climber grows to 2-20 m height, with stems up to 4 cm diameter, which climbs by hooking its aerial roots onto tree branches. Numerous cultivars of this plant have been selected with white, yellow, or light green variegation. It is also efficient in removing indoor pollutants such as CO2, formaldehyde, xylene and benzene. Since it requires medium indirect light, it can be kept indoors for long. Although it tolerates bright sunlight, lengthy spells of direct sun will scorch

Common Name: Spider Plant

Scientific Name: Chlorophytum comosum, Native: South Africa, Plant Care: Regular care, Speciality: Indoor air pollution reducer

Description: Spider plant is well known for its ability to reduce indoor air pollution. The plant has long narrow leaves that are 20–40 cm long and 1-2 cm broad, growing from a central rosette. They produce branched stolons with small white flowers and baby plantlets. At the leaf node, these plants will produce adventitious roots down into the soil. It is an especially popular houseplant with beginners, as it is easy to propagate and is tolerant of neglect. The most widely grown variety is the ‘Variegatum’, with one or two broad yellowish-white bands running along the length of each leaf.

Common Name: Jade Plant / Friendship Tree

Scientific Name: Crassula ovata, Native: South Africa, Plant Care: Zero maintenance, Speciality: Indoor bonsai

Description: Jade plant is popular known as ‘indoor bonsai’ due to its minimal growth and low maintenance. It is a succulent plant with thick branches and smooth, rounded, fleshy leaves that grow in opposing pairs along the branches. Leaves are a jade green in colour; some varieties may develop a red tinge on the edges of leaves when exposed to direct sunlight. Under the right conditions, they may produce small white or pink star like flowers in early spring. They require a normal watering when the soil is dry in the summer, and very little watering in winter and rainy season.

Common Name: Peace Lily / White Anthurium

Scientific Name: Spathiphyllum, Native: South-eastern Asia, Plant Care: Minimal care, Speciality: Bright white flowers

Description: Peace Lilies are evergreen flowering perennial plants with large leaves 12-65 cm long and 3-25 cm broad. The flowers are produced in a spadix, surrounded by a 10-30 cm long, white, yellowish, or greenish spathe. The plant does not need excessive light or water to survive. It lives best in shade and needs little sunlight to thrive. Often it is placed in an angled window where sun will slightly be guided towards it and at night it will live off the daily intake. It can be watered once in a week.

Common Name: Syngonium / Arrowhead Vine

Scientific Name: Syngonium podophyllum, Native: South America, Plant Care: Zero maintenance, Speciality: Bright white flowers

Description: Syngonium is a rapid-growing tropical climber. Interestingly, the plant’s leaf structure changes as it grows, going from a simple arrow shape to a deeply lobed or divided mature leaf. Many varieties have variegated leaves to one degree or another and there are nearly 30 species of Syngonium vines. Breeders have created different plants with striking variegation along leaf veins. They are the easiest to grow, requiring minimal water and sunlight.

Common Name: Caladium / Elephant’s ear / Angel wings

Scientific Name: Caladium bicolor, Native: South America, Plant Care: Proper care, Speciality: Colorful leaves

Description: With large, brilliantly-colored, heart-shaped leaves, Caladiums add form and texture to bright-shade gardens. Many named varieties come in bold color combinations of red, rose, pink, green, silver and white, often with dark veins in the leaves. A tropical native, it likes plenty of water, heat and high humidity. Excellent in pots and well grown as house plants year-round. Need to protect from strong winds.

Common Name: Pinwheel, Lotus Cactus

Scientific Name: Aeonium arboreum, Native: North Africa, Plant Care: Minimal care, Speciality: Zero maintenance

Description: These plants may be stem-less or shrub-like, but are rapid growing, small to medium-sized succulents that form rosettes of waxy leaves. They tend to form rosettes of leaves at the end of the leafless stem which takes on the appearance of a branch. From the center of the rosettes arise a stem with clusters of flowers that may be golden yellow, pale yellow. After flowering, the rosette, and in some varieties the whole plant dies. They are good for window gardens, though some prefer shade.

Common name: Powdery Dudleya

Scientific name: Dudleya farinosa, Native: California, Plant Care: Minimal care, Speciality: Zero maintenance

Description: Dudleya is commonly found on rocky cliffs and coastal hillsides. This succulent plant is variable in appearance from drab to spectacular. It grows from a branching caudex and forms a basal rosette of wide, pointed, spade-shaped leaves, each up to about 6 centimeters across. The leaves are generally pale green but they often have edges or tips of bright colors, particularly bright reds. The plant erects a tall stem which is pale green with pink or red tinting, atop which it bears a branching inflorescence with many pale to bright yellow flowers.

Factfile –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseplant
http://greenandhealthy.info
http://www.care2.com
http://pune.metromela.com
http://houseplantz.net
http://houseplants.about.com

Gone are those days when you could afford to have a nice independent house with enough space around for a lush green kitchen garden. In the good old days, some of our parents were blessed with fresh vegetables plucked right from own their kitchen gardens!

Today, if we have a pot of Tulsi or money plant (devil’s ivy) at our cranked apartments, that’s considered a luxury! In our hectic daily lives today, can we afford to have a tiny little kitchen garden in our balcony and grow some vegetables?

Does gardening mean to you toiling in the hot sun to till the soil, manuring and watering it, planting the seeds, then weeding the soil and then regular watering and then finally cutting the harvest? No, relax, sometimes life does provide an easy way out!

Surprisingly, kitchen gardening in an urban setting is quite easy. There are people who not only have grown vegetables, but also successfully maintained a lush green terrace garden or even grown Ragi! The images below tell better tales than words do!

Anusuya Sharma and her husband are pioneers in roof top kitchen garden in Bangalore. Due to their regular activities and articles published in the media, their tiny kitchen garden on top of their 30×40 feet sized house is now a demonstration site for agriculture students!

Abhinav Gangumalla, the founder of Hyderabad Goes Green is another pioneer in our own city. He has innovated a water-proof garden known as ‘Square Foot Garden”. In his small plot around his shop in Banjara Hills, he has cultivated many ornamental plants and vegetables.

Siddartha Sikdar, an IT consultant has created a terrace garden haven in Pune! He has been self-learning Permaculture and practicing it in his suburban building, which is a row house in a gated community.

What are the different plants that can be grown at home? Mostly they would be flowering plants and ornamental shrubs, right?

Wrong! A lot many plants including many types of vegetables can be grown at home in pots and in limited space. There are people who not only have grown and harvested vegetables, but also successfully maintained a lush green terrace garden!

Plants can be categorized based on climatic type, seasonal and their commercial value. For our purpose of urban farming, we can broadly divide them into two types –

• Perennial plants – these plants have long span of life usually lasting more than a one year and are not affected by seasons. Typically, most ornamental plants are perennial.

• Seasonal plants – these plants have a short span of life typically lasting only one season. Typically, most food bearing plants are seasonal.

Eligibility criteria for kitchen gardeners

A housewife, an IT consultant and a retail entrepreneur – these examples prove that there is no typical kitchen gardener. Although any tom, dick and harish can aspire to become a good kitchen gardener, only a few can really attain the professional status due to some eligibility criteria –

• Patience – a must have criteria since potting, planting, watering, and then ripening all are slow processes. A green gram seed germinates in a day, while coriander takes 28 days! |
• Muddy hands – as they say you can enjoy the fruits without muddying your hands, kitchen gardeners should not mind a little mess of handling wet soil and compost once in a while!
• Sunlit space – you should have a balcony or a washing space where direct sunlight comes in at least in the morning.
• Spare time – you should be able to spare 20 minutes every day in the morning to check your plant’s growth and one hour’s time every weekend to tend the plants.
• Stomach for failures – no task in this world can be failure free, but gardening can be disheartening sometimes due to nature’s vagaries.
• Chemical resistance – you must resist the temptation to buy any kind of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones which are promoted as stimulators for your plant’s growth.
  

Step 1 – Ground preparation

Since there is no real ground to prepare in an apartment or a terrace, this task implies the work to be done to create a layout for your plants. You can begin with a just a single pot of plant and slowly add more later, or you could buy a bunch of pots and begin simultaneously. If you are worried about earthen pots breaking up, you can prefer cement or plastic pots. The ideal ones are large flat cement panes and plastic containers.

Step 2 – Soil mixture and potting process

Ideally you should have a 1:1:1 mixture of red sand, soil and compost. Place the 1 portion sand at the bottom of the pot, the next level is 1 portion soil and final portion is the compost or manure. It can be decayed cow dung, vermicompost from earthworms or plain compost. In the beginning you can buy compost to fill your pots, but the next time, you should be preparing it yourself!

Step 3 – Planting and gardening

You should be selecting the right plants that are suitable to your kitchen garden. Ideally, regular vegetables such as tomato, chillies, potato, mint, coriander, brinjal, lady’s finger, methi can all be grown in pots. However, it is better to experiment with just two in the beginning. Seeds of these plants can be bought in any agricultural shop or horticultural nursery where they sell flowering plants.

Step 4 – Pest care and harvesting

Pests and diseases such as leaf rot, aphid infection are rare for hardy vegetable plants. However, if they occur, they can be controlled by bio-pesticide spray made of neem, turmeric ash, etc. The last step is to pluck and enjoy the harvest!

Finally, if you have already begun your journey of urban farming, please await our expert guidance to move on to the advanced level.

Meanwhile did you know that World Kitchen Garden Day is celebrated on the last Sunday of every August by the Kitchen Gardeners International! So it’s high time for our Aloo Pyaaz from our humble kitchen to go international!

This article is a synopsis of a lecture presented at the ‘LearnSocial’ training workshop in Hyderabad.

– Factfile –
Pinterest.com/kitchengarden
http://geekgardener.in
Wiki Perennial Plant
flickr.com/sikdar