Have a penchant for gardening, but lack of space around your home is worrying you? Go for a terrace garden. A little space on your roof is enough to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers, and literally turn it into a nature lover’s paradise.
“I used to raise plants in the open plot, when this house was not there. I was living in the house adjacent to my plot (Sector-1, MVP Colony) and used to enjoy nurturing the plants before going to office in the mornings and after returning home in the evenings,” says D. Naresh Kumar, vice president – HR and Administration, Visakha Container Terminal.
About two decades ago, he was forced to remove the plants on his plot for construction of his house. He, however, ensured that a huge neem tree, which was growing on the plot was not axed. The basement of one of the main walls of the house was slightly moved backwards for this purpose, and it looks as though the tree has surfaced from the base of the wall.
Mr. Naresh could not contain his enthusiasm for long. He thought of alternatives to raise plants and soon decided on terrace gardening. He joined the Organic Terrace Gardening (OTG) on Facebook and started gathering scientific information on it. He cut plastic drums vertically and filled them with coco peat, red soil, natural manure and neem powder to prevent pests. A metal structure was run around the terrace to allow creepers to support themselves.
“I use the soil to grow flowering plants from August to February-end. After which I use the drums to grow leafy vegetables, and vegetables like brinjal, ladies finger and tomatoes for the remaining six months,” he says. Radish, purple turnip, broccoli, cauliflower, violet cabbage, pudina (mint), long beans, snake gourd, ivy gourd are some of the vegetables which adorn his terrace.
A guava plant, bearing big fruits, pomegranate and a drumstick plant in drums are some of the trees on his terrace. He has procured an Alphonso mango sapling and is growing it in his terrace garden. Mr. Naresh Kumar bagged the first prize in the ‘individual home garden/terrace garden’ category in the AP Green Awards 2017 given by the AP Greening and Beautification Corporation. The creepers, vines and flowering plants have transformed his terrace into a flower garden.
“One can work wonders by growing plants on their terrace,” says Mr. Naresh, who has retired as a secretary in Visakhapatnam Port Trust(VPT), before taking up his new assignment.