The dream of community vegetable gardening was in the air by a couple of residents of the apartment. It was put into action this year with the strong support of the present Management committee of the apartment. Read more..
It's harvesting time at Gopalan Grandeur apartment. Residents are happy to see green grow by them which are now ready to be harvested.
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| Residents enjoying the harvest |
Gopalan Grandeur is a vibrant apartment community located at Hoodi circle near ITPL, Bangalore. It is a campus spread across 6.5 acre land with lush green environment.
The dream of community vegetable gardening was in the air by a couple of residents of the apartment. It was put into action this year with the strong support of the present Management committee of the apartment.
It was decided to utilize the open space available inside the campus for community vegetable gardening. As a result, 12 plots of size 7*4 each were planned and guidelines were formulated by the management commitee along with the volunteers taking up the Initiative. The plots were allotted on first come first serve basis to the residents who wanted to start vegetable gardening.
This initiative was mainly aimed at kids in order to educate them about growing foods and sustainable living. Also, this was to bring the joy of unity, the respect for the farmer who beats all odds like climate, water supply, pests etc to grow food and serve us and connect with the soil which is slowly vanishing with gadgets possessing today's world.
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| Fresh palak |
The plots were prepared mixing a good quality red soil, cowdung and inhouse community compost. On popular demand from residents crates were also introduced for this activity for farming. Under the expertise of the campus gardener, it was started as bi-weekly activity. It started with the loosening of soil and later followed by seeds embedding and watering.
"We decided on sowing greens as first lot. They were Palak, Amaranthus, methi and Coriander.
Coriander harvest was not great but others were excellent. People around the apartment were wow seeing pesticide free veggies grown in front of their eyes", says Lakshmi, a resident of the apartment.
In 3 weeks it was the harvest time. Kids and residents were all superexcited and happy. In the common area the harvested greens were sold and residents did share that these greens definitely tasted better than the market bought. The next set of residents are already for next round of farming.
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| Greens grown at complex |
Eco - Friendly apartment...
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| People engaged in farming |
This apartment campus is all set be the rolemodel for neighboring communities in the vicinity.
A simple yet excellent Rainwater harvesting method has been implemented in the campus. The leaf composter is installed to manage the in-house garden leaf and flower waste, this generates good quality compost which is used for the gardening purpose.
With a good volunteer base of around 10 people in 2014, residents started the waste segregation awareness for 560 housed complex and now they have achieved 98% segregation.
Community gardens provide access to fresh, traditional produce and nutritionally rich foods. Its good to see people adopting community gardening in cities like Bengaluru.
This story is published under "Humans Who Grow Food" category. Humans Who Grow Food is an initiative to encourage people to grow their own food.Main objective of this initiative is to connect the community of gardeners and inspire others to grow their own food.
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If you want your story to be shared , please email us at edit@thegreenmag.in with pictures of your vegetable Garden / farm along with your story.
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