eggplant-harvest.jpgIf you have a green thumb and have a penchant for gardening then this snippet would be of interest to you. As Kochi is struggling to accommodate more and more people, residents of this city are facing the pinch of space in every sphere of their life.

From crowded roads to fully booked apartments, kochiites are reeling under severe space constrain. The houses lack space for a patch of green or a vegetable garden as most of them live in towering skyscrapers, hundreds of feet from the ground level!

 However, true to the adage ‘if you have a will there is a way’ the terrace can be used to cultivate anything  from capsicum to pumpkins, drum sticks and coconut trees – provided you have the will and facilities to remove excess water. The terrace garden of the managing trustee of the Yasoram Charitable Trust, A.R.S. Vadhyar, has grabbed the headlines for being a full fledged terrace garden at his office-cum-residence at Convent Road.

Set against the dreary high- rises, this terrace garden has indeed become a feast to the eyes to many. Apart from an impressive line up of vegetables and fruits, this terrace garden also has a 10 feet coconut tree.

Mr. Vadhyar said that he has strengthened the roof with a 3 cm layer of cement, sand and baby metal mixture in the ratio 1:1.5:3 with sufficient slope to drain off the water. A plastic sheet should be used at the bottom to prevent seepage. Set up in the year 2000, this garden ensures fresh organic vegetables 24×7 for the household. 

The surging vegetable prices during festival seasons or transport strike leaves no impact on this family. The garden also makes use of the kitchen waste apart from refreshing  the air, making it an ideal place to relax and unwind. It goes without saying that the green canopy reduces the intensity of heat during summer and the interiors are cool and breezy thanks to the greenery atop this 20 year old building. Gardening is a good pastime and relaxes you after a hectic day’s work.

The trust is striving to popularize setting up of vegetable gardens in schools and homes of students. In the initial stage, students of 25 schools in Ernakulam district for the contest, so that there will be at least 25,000 new vegetable gardens in the district. If green is your color then join the green bandwagon to give Kochi a fresh new look!