http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp? Ref=VE9JTS8yMD !"# !"#E$%&'yMD &MDE=(Mode=)TM"("ocale=en*lish+ s,in+c-stom Date: -*.1&2. Publication:Times.of.%ndia.M-m/ai0. 3&&80. Page Section:Times.4ity0. Number:!

Going green on the terrace

Joeanna Rebello I TNN Mumbai: Who knew the Garden of Eden had been relocated to the Mumbai Port Trust? On the terrace of one of its canteens, no less. The fruits of this kingdom swallow the e e!gua"as hang like cannonballs, the lemons are #ert and the #omegranates #olished. $ragonflies, butterflies and birds are this emerald cit %s fl ing s&uadron and slothful cater#illars and other cree#s, its ground #olice. Mistress of these sights is catering manager of MPT Preeti Patil. The #atch of green started with looking for a wa to dis#ose of kitchen waste #roduced from cooking for ',((( em#lo ees a da , Patil recounts. )t onl took a worksho# with seasoned urban farmer $r * T $oshi for Patil to return with the lessons to turn waste to com#ost. +he started with four sa#lings on her ,,((( s&-ft terrace!two of chickoo and two of gua"a. .i"e ears later, //0 others fruits, "egetables and ornamentals mo"ed in. Plastic laundr baskets, half-sawn drums and low brick rings 1that can be widened as the #lant grows2 are now the tenements occu#ied b coconut, betelnut, #inea##le, lad finger, tomatoes, custard a##le, ginger, #a#a a, bananas, cherr , mango, amla, red gua"a, #e##ermint, strawberr , alls#ice, tamarind!the whole #lant kingdom it seems. The har"est, she sa s, weighs , kg ginger, /(-/3 kg bananas and 0-4 kg cucumber #er #lant. 5ow, Patil has miniature greenhouses and a com#ost #it that con"erts #eels, #ul# and other digestibles into high-nutrition feed for the farm. This once barren terrace has not 6ust transformed into a coo#erati"e farm with the canteen hel# eager to return to their roots, but it is also their 7famers market% where the take home fresh organic #roduce in e8change for their labour. 9it fruits and "egetables are "irtuall insi#id, Patil sa s, and with high doses of chemical in#uts, their nutritional "alue is "er low. :We cit -breds are so out of s nc with nature, we cannot e"en identif what grows around us, let alone what we eat. The first time ) tried to grow corn on m balcon , ) mistook the silk for wheat.%% On .rida , Patil was in"ited to a dialogue on urban agriculture, where she, along with two others, narrated their e8#eriences and research on rec cling waste and growing food. )t was a discussion initiated b the 9entre for Education and $ocumentation and ;)+9 1;nowledge in 9i"il +ociet 2. .or Pune%s +nehlata +rikhhande it was garbage that #reci#itated action. The ;achra Manthan, which she started with the local women, segregated waste, ga"e the inorganic rec clable de#osit to rag#ickers to ease their work and turned the rest into com#ost for terrace gardens. :+#ace should not be a contraint,%% she sa s, #roducing the slide of a #a#a a tree growing on a narrow balcon . :The roots don%t break into the floor, like #eo#le belie"e. )n fact, onl when roots need to

anchor, the dig dee#,%% sa s Patil. :)f su##ort is #ro"ided e8ternall , like a wall, for e8am#le, the feeder roots, which nourish the #lant, onl need nine inches of soil. <nd cit #lants should be #runed so the don%t grow too tall or ou ma not be able to #luck the fruit easil .%% What an idea to be able to #luck a mango from a tree on our terrace= En"ironmentalist >harat Mansata #ro##ed 9uba as a macro s#ecimen of urban agriculture. Mansata, who 6ust launched a book, Organic *e"olution, on the sub6ect, referred to 9uba%s dire straits in the earl /??(s, when it had to resort to growing its own food on account of the <merican trade embargoes and the colla#se of its erstwhile su##lier, the +o"iet @nion. )n '((0 Aa"ana grew , million tonnes of foodB the cit has ,((,((( small gardens. 5o "acant land went unculti"ated, he said. 9iting 9uba, Mansata showed how urban farms are a unif ing communit tool, outside their tangible benefits of nutritional ield and green co"er. :Cet%s not wait to reach the brink, like 9uba did, but start growing our own food now,D he e8horted. :With food #rices alread high, we are not far from a stage when we ha"e no food at all.D +rikhande ended with some #ractical ad"ice!the ne8t time ou want to go on a tree-#lanting dri"e, begin at home. 6oeanna.rebelloEtimesgrou#.com

.*@)T+ O. C<>O@*: The garden started with four sa#lings of gua"a and chickoo but now, from coconut, betelnut and #inea##le to strawberr , it has almost the entire #lant kingdom