Soul, Soil and Sustainable Living...

Hello!

I'm always trying to make small changes to my lifestyle to live healthier and in a more sustainable manner for the planet. I don't get too excited and make big changes because, let's face it, it's too much to do overnight and no one hardly ever can stick to it.

I've been reading and trying to follow a few things from Doreen Virtue's book called 'Angel Detox' (yes, I'm into Angel therapy). Clubbed with my reignited vigour for gardening, I found a simple yet significant change to living healthier.

In her book, Doreen talks about Bisphenol A, or BPA, which is a chemical used to make plastics stronger. This BPA is responsible for a long, long list of health issues. This material makes our water toxic especially in the heat, including leaving your bottle in the car. The bad effects of using plastic to us and the environment has only been talked about too much already.

So, the first change I made was to get stainless steel water bottles to replace all the plastic ones in my house (just in time for summer too). Then I came up with a way to make the best possible use of the bottles instead of putting them in trash.

Luckily, I used a new technique I learned at a gardening workshop by Green Souls, Mumbai. I cut off the mouths of all the bottles to use them as pots. Here's how!

To cut off the bottle-mouth, I heated a knife and used it to make the process easier. Then to make holes in the bottle for aeration (learn about it in my previous post), I used one of tools/cutlery/what's-its'name. Once again, I heated it on the stove to make the holes in the plastic easily.

Make a set of holes between the length of the bottle, or a little closer to the top to attach it to the grill. Cut the plastic ropes and put them through a set of holes. Next, fill in the bottle with mulch, cow dung, compost, soil using the 'sandwich technique' I spoke about in my previous post and plant a seed/plant in it. I simply used small bamboo branch from a huge bamboo plant my dad maintains. I'm planning to get creepers for these soon though. 

But that's all! Just tie the strings to the grill and beautify your windows and view it offers! :D 

Holes made close to the base for aeration. 

Look how well the chawli plant has grown in just a few days since my last post! 

I've recently also added Mint and Curry plants to my garden. The fragrance both these plants offer is heavenly to cure a headache. 

Do tell me what you think of this and also if you try this technique out. Looking forward to some of those comments! 

I've found soul in the soil: Re-ignition...

Hola!

This one is coming after a long, long time, isn't it? But I can't be blamed. After the shift from a terrace garden to a grill-garden, I felt like I was bumped down from first class to economy. I felt so restricted in trying new things due to a space and weight crunch. Hell, I had to leave behind some of my too-big-to-put-on-the-grill sized pots.

Yet, nature has no ego and it found its way to connect with me again. And the attraction of nature is hard to resist. Even Facebook was material to this reigniting relationship. It introduced me to a community called 'Green Souls', a group of people who are enthusiastic about organic urban farming, practice it, and preach it too.

After months of not being able to go for any of their workshops, I finally attended one on the 2nd of March 2014 on 'Kitchen Gardening'. This event made a lot of changes to my life. The first (and embarrassing) one was that I traveled by a  local train after a few years. My day was quite adventurous in my attempt to travel to and fro Koparkhairane and Chembur. And the second, and good, one was that I learned about new ways of taking care of my plants.

Turns out, our 'regular' way of gardening is WRONG. There's this Japanese urban farmer and author called Masanobu Fukuoka who says that we should simply pick tips and techniques for taking care of our plants from nature itself. There is NO forest which is made up of just soil. It has a lot more elements in it.

Although, I could not implement everything I learned at the workshop because I'd have to redo the entire garden all over. However, I've decided to slowly and steadily implement changes to my garden and live a nature-blessed life.

Here's how I'm (re)working on my garden....

One of the troubles I've faced for years is that some plants get burned due to overexposure in the sun. The way to tackle this is to cover the top layer of your pot with dried leaves. Isn't it just too simple? Well, yes! Even in forests, dried leaves simply fall down around the tree. No one picks it up to 'clean' the area. It's just there and the forests live happily ever after... until humans go and murder them.

So that's the first thing I made sure I'd do. 

I started reworking the pots by removing the dried leaves from the plants (and saving them to use as a 'shield'). 

Now, coming to the most important lesson I learned...

Just putting soil in a pot isn't going to work for the life you are putting in it. It needs an ecosystem to survive. It NEEDS some types of insects and materials other than soil. God only knows how many of my plants caught some bug or infection that ruined it, which then made me consider packaged manure or even insecticides. Keeping the garden organic just seemed impossible to do.

Once again, nature provides us with answers. The best way to pot plants is to use a 'sandwich' technique. You shouldn't just shove soil in the pot. Instead, put layers of dried leaves (mulch), cow dung, goat dung and soil. Ideally you should put mulch at the base, top it up with soil and cow-dung, followed by a little more mulch, soil and goat dung(or cow dung if you don't find goat poop :P). Then cover the top layer with dried leaves again for protection like I mentioned above.

This works wonders, just as nature should. :)

Last but not least, the hole in the pot should NOT be at the bottom. Nope. Not at all. For the soil and the organisms to exist healthily, the pot needs proper aeration. Putting a hole at the bottom just drains away all the water and nutrients from the pots.

Therefore, I heated a knife and made holes at the sides of the base for the bottom of the layer to get proper air supply, and to ensure there is no soil erosion. I also added some smaller holes a little below the top rim of the pot.

An analogy of this method to nature is that, some amount of water is always stored in the earth. There will always be a cavity in the hills and mountains that provides the trees with annual water supply. Similarly, any extra water that you may have put in the pot, gets stored at the bottom without getting drained out.

Brilliant, eh?

So, that's all for today, folks. There is a LOT more coming your way as I try to reinvent my gardening skills and try to make sustainable and natural changes to my lifestyle. Watch out for more!

Adios!

P.S.- If you can, do read the book 'One-straw revolution' by Masanoby Hakuoka. I'm reading an e-book version because I couldn't find the hard copy. (I hate reading e-books :( ) Anyway, this book is about he quit his job to promote urban farming, and how he worked out new ways of cultivating farms. The best part about the book is that it's not just about that, it speaks a lot of humans with respect to nature. It's quite thought provoking.