Experiments with farming on the terrace in suburban Pune

[sid]

Hello All

I have been farming on my terrace - veggies, herbs, spices, fruit
trees...for
more than a year in my row house in Wakad. No soil is used for farming
- only
composted organic material like garden waste, kitchen waste,
cardboard, clothes,
gunny bags, wood, paper etc.

Here are the pictures: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwbP23N

Before you click away
- I haven't labelled all pics, but some have notes (some lengthy
ones!)
- Not in any particular order
- some are pics of my early experiments with fruit boxes
- some pics are of the perimeter of my house where fruit trees have
been planted

Happy to take questions.

With respect
Siddartha

[Moresh Kokane]

Congratulations Sid, very impressive!

Have you considered Hydroponics? I see you are not using any soil already.

I recently visited an interesting site here which uses something called Aeroponics. They use climate control, artificial lighting and stacked plants. Right now concentrating on salad greens. Instead of soil or even water they use a fins spray of mist. Works fine too.

Regards
Moresh

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[Yusuf Turab]

This is really good stuff.

We in Coimbatore are getting into Green Roof and living walls
business. I have 2 questions

- What sort of plants do you think are ideal for green roof systems
with about 4 inch growing media. We want to minimise irrigation
requirement and we also want to allow some people movement on these
roofs?
- What is a better irrigation method for roofs? Would you suggest drip
irrigation or sprinkers?

Many Thanks

Yusuf

[Biome]

Excellent work Siddhartha.
Regards,
Chitra Vishwanath
=====================================
Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt Ltd,
No. 1022,  1st Floor, 6th Block
H.M.T. Layout, Vidyaranyapura,
Bangalore - 560 097.
Ph-  +91 80  41672790, +91 80 23644690
www.inika.com/chitra
www.rainwaterclub.org
http://biomesolutions.blogspot.com/
www.flickr.com/photos/biome/sets/

[sid]

Yusuf

4" is a little shallow but a lot of veggies can grow in that. Is your
"growing media" mud? If it is completely organic decomposed matter
then 4" is good enough. In my photos you can see papaya trees growing
- the substrate there is about 6-7". I also have lots of root yield
like radish, carrot, sweet potato, ginger, etc growing and I have
observed the vegetables tend to spread underground tilted at an angle
rather than go vertically down.

While the depth of your growing media is a factor to be considered in
what to plant, the other more important factor is how to protect and
retain the high quality of your growing media. You can do so by
trying out mixed cropping with a mix of perennials (like lemon),
herbaceous plants, shrubs, ground cover, root yield and climbers. If
you choose from these categories you will find that most veggies,
herbs, some fruits (banana, papaya, pommegranate, guava, cheeko...)
will grow well in the 4" substrate. You could create local mounds
higher than 4" around fruit trees for more root space.

People movement is best allowed by introducing walking paths as you
will find in my pictures. Beds accessed from both sides can be kept 4'
wide while beds accessed from one side could be kept 2.5' wide.

The first thing about irrigation I would recommend is to first mulch
your growing media - best cure for minimizing water needs. Try dry
grass or dry leaves. If the weather is very dry and causes high
evaporation put a thicker mulch.

Yes you can try drip though I haven't tried so. Sprinklers are good in
broadscale area - raised beds might not be best places for them.

Hope this helps.

Peace and happiness
Siddartha Sikdar

[sid]

Hello Moresh - I have not considered Hydroponics (or Aquaponics) - I
have been reading about them.

With respect
Siddartha Sikdar

[tee jay]

Dear mr yusuf,

I am glad that you are thinking of green roof.

I have been less ambitious and have been having a lawn on the roof for more than 5 years - at a cost less than that required for weathering course.

The soil depth is 50 mm .

In my experience, with 100 mm, you can grow all types of greens. with 200 mm (along the parapet walls)  you can grow many vegetable plants. with 400 mm, almost all types of creeper based plants (both vegetables and flowers can be grown)

Irrigation choice can be anything convenient.

Exnora website http://www.exnora.org/  has many different examples, including "vertical gardening"

teejay

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 12:48 AM, Yusuf Turab <yu...@ytenterprises.com> wrote:

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[Vinod Sharma]

Dear Mr. TJ

 

Do you have more information about various flower plants we can grow in this winter season.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Vinod

[Manu Sharma]

Hi Siddartha,

Thanks for sharing your pictures. The rooftop garden looks fantastic. Can you share what is the lining material you have used for waterproofing the roof?

Thanks,

Manu

[sid]

Nothing. The biomass is directly on the cemented floor of the ceiling.

The rule of thumb is that if your roof does not leak during monsoons
then you are ready to go with raised beds if you follow a couple of
things:
- There is no soil (as in mud) only composted biomass. This biomass is
more porous than mud allowing water to flow out.
- Provide optimum water to the beds according to season (basically
humidity & temp. conditions). You can conserve on watering further
(than optimum) by mulching the surface, dried grass has worked best
for me.
- design beds so that they don't block the the flow of water according
to the slope of ceiling to the drainage points
- not to use impervious material for lining the beds - bricks are
great for lining.

Hope this helps

With respect
Siddartha Sikdar

[Yusuf Turab]

Many Thanks Mr Sikdar

Actually we are not likely to provide food related plants for our
green roof systems. Our systems are more of an energy efficiency, rain
water control and aesthetic feature mainly for green building
projects. So I wanted to know instead of grass what sort planting can
be used that allows people to walk on it and does not require much
watering.

Thanks

Yusuf

[tee jay]

Hi all,

I have provided "in situ" FRP over bare concrete after giving required slope in one direction for the rain water harvesting.

The soil is normal sandy soil with minimal clay for water percolation.

You can find the details in the link

http://www.seco-india.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=57


Hope this helps

teejay

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[sid]

Dear Yusuf - I might as well point out that a terrace garden need not
have productive species - it could be very easily designed with
supportive species.

However, while designing for "energy efficiency" are you also
considering (1) less human effort to maintain (2) less energy inputs
per day (e.g. electricity consumed to pump, store and spray water)
(3) less water for the vegetation?

While a lot is possible through greywater recycling and other
supportive civil/mechanical measures, you can leverage a lot by
playing with nature. To give you one example: try designing a guild -
i.e. a mix of mutually supporting plants in different layers - root
tubors, ground cover, shrubs, small canopy, climbers, clumpers and
even palms. What this does is creates a near sustainable system that
(a) eliminates weeds, hence reducing labour for deweeding (b) creates
conditions for no pests, reducing any effort or material need to
tackle pests (c) mutually nourishing system reducing your frequency
and quantity of water and manure. Guild is a mimic from nature - the
natural forest grows in this cluster form. You can create a guild in a
large flower pot - few of photos show a bamboo guild.

In this design while mimicking nature you achieve multiple functions -
nutrition cycle, shade, moisture retention, weed management,
integrated pest management etc. And to this you can also add a
further function of aesthetics - that is possible by working with
plant lists according to function and form.

Manicured grass is probably the most expensive maintenance item of any
garden. It can never be a sustainable system. Also if after all the
effort one takes to create a soil/biomass substrate on the terrace,
using large parts of it for lawn is a sheer waste!

With respect
Siddartha Sikdar

[renukanand p]

Hi Mr.Siddhartha,

happy to see the fruits of your labour. lot of efforts have gone into making this garden, and i think you are being suitably rewarded. its an inspiration for me to see the result. i am planning to put up the same kind of kitchen garden on my terrace, which will be ready in about 4 months time. I have a few questions to you. kindly throw some light on these.

1.Do you have any pest problems, insects creeping into the house down below.problem of white ants etc.

2. does this kind of garden require more water than that on the natural ground.

3. have you planned for any techniques of water conservation/ reduction of usage of water.

4. how long do you spend each day for the garden upkeeping.

5. I think we need to go for water proofing of the terrace before laying the soil/manure for the plant base.

Put in more of your experiences if possible, apart from answering my questions.

Many thanks to you.

Anand.  

On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Rahul Yadav <yadavr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Siddhartha,

I am very much impressed with your garden.

I live in Pashan Area. We have a 800 Sq.Ft. roof-top terrace and we want to lay a organic garden. Could you please guide me with some starting points? As from where to obtain Bio-Mass. How to layout the garden etc.

Waiting for your reply.

Thanks,

Rahul

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[Azhar Mulla]

Hello Sir,

I stay at pimpri close to wakad . working at lnt infotech.

This is really amazing. I am very interested in this concept. I am not getting proper guidance support in Pune.

Please can you allow me to have a look at your terrace garden. I really want to c this amazing thing.

Regards,
Azhar

On Wednesday, 26 October 2011 13:04:57 UTC+5:30, sid wrote:

[meenakshi rane]

Hello Mr Azhar,

For your info I also stay in Wakad  in Omega Paradise and have a terrace garden of around 800 sq ft and around 1000 sq ft garden at ground floor and growing organing vegatables, fruits, herbs etc. You can contact me at 9763449055

Meenakshi Rane

--

[Najmuzzaman Mohammad]

Hi

I am a student of MBA, Innovation at SIBM Pune. I want to do some market research on rooftop, terrace and kitchen farmers in urban India, especially Pune, to develop a product. Can you please help me with that? My phone number is 7720020392 and email id is naj....@gmail.com

[Sapna Redkar]

Hello Mr.Siddartha

 

I like to grow few vegetables on my terrace,will you please suggest me how to grow veg.

[Shikhar Mohan]

This can also be done with empty paint buckets as pots. We did the same thing at our office terrace in Bangalore.

Shikhar Mohan

_________________________________________________________
Architect and Value Engineering Expert, ps Collective
t: +91 79 40035860  |  m: +91 97400 11273  |  e: shi...@collective.in  |  w: ps.collective.in

--

[Venkateshwara Sastry]

Hello Siddartga,

I saw your terrace gardening photos on flicker. I have few questions on waterproofing, and watering. Can I get your contact no. to talk to you? Or, are you available in google chat?

Thanks,
Sastry

[Lavannya Goradia]

That's a really lovely terrace of Siddartha's Shikar.

Thanks so much for sharing. I am inspired once again.

I had made some little attempt myself and in response to Sapna's mail had shared this with her:

<<Hey Sapna,

i have been growing food on my terrace for around 3 years now.

If you ask me specific questions I could help.

Here's a little about me. 

I am Lavannya Goradia. 

I have found that I have always been very passionate about everything nature and good design. 

Is the reason why we practice Sustainability as Architects. 

I personally believe in self sufficiency as well and feel very strongly about the Agrarian Crisis in India. 

Its a very sensitive topic to me and after much agitated discussions and reading with researchers like P. Sainath, I figured 

that starting with me is the best way forward. 

If you grow food, you love your food, If you love food in reality you find a new respect for the one who grows it and hence a new status to a farmer. 

I have huge respect for a farmer. I find myself not lucky enough because I wasnt born to a farmer family. 

I have been growing food for 3 years now, organically. Actually I endorse the Natural method of farming and not even organic now. 

I started with a 600 sqft roof top and then adopted a land next to the office so that we have more food and stop open land from abuse. 

I have been able to guide and help many in growing food since. 

Its been a long journey of learning and now it comes naturally to me. Its been a beautiful journey of exploration with nature. Its healed me! 

On the roof top alone we've grown more than 60 varieties of vegetables, some 35+ varieties of herbs and so many variety fruit. Its far easier than perceived. 

I began to write my blog and I proudly post the harvests I enjoy daily on facebook. :) 

I see many have found confidence in growing food organically since. That itself is such a blessing. 

I am touch with several passionate organic farmers and urban farmers in Bangalore and around the country. 

Do let me know if there's any way I can help. 

Some links to check out my mad excursion into this journey:

The Harvests 

The Roof top now

The Roof top later 

The Roof top garden initiated 

Micro Ecology 

Many regards, >>

Lavannya 

--

[Rajesh Pednekar]

Hello Ms Sapna Redkar,

My friend's wife , Ms Purva Joshi is an expert in growing plants on terrace in her Bungalow in Pune. She has also written a book on the same.

You can contact my friend Mr Shailesh Joshi locally on +919372404954 and speak to Ms Purva.

Regards,
Rajesh

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