: Delhi Family Sets Up Terrace Garden With Rs 500, Grows Gem Corn 35 Rare Plants #IndiaNEWS #Organic Farming Corn in regal blue, round bottle gourd, a not-so-spicy chilly, Italian basil with an exotic

Delhi Family Sets Up Terrace Garden With Rs 500, Grows Gem Corn 35 Rare Plants #IndiaNEWS #Organic Farming
Corn in regal blue, round bottle gourd, a not-so-spicy chilly, Italian basil with an exotic fragrance, an off-season but naturally sweet watermelon, and more — welcome to Indra and Malvika Singh’s colourful terrace garden in Delhi.
With 35 rare and exotic varieties of organic vegetables and fruits, this garden grown by the mother-son duo is a feast for the senses — the air around it redolent with a mix of delicious smells. The two-people team set up their urban garden with less than Rs 500 and more importantly, they spend zero money on its maintenance!
And the cherry on top is that this resilient garden thrives even in the scorching heat of Delhi. They recycle discarded waste like fruit crates and use wastewater and home-made compost.
Exotic corns
Setting up A Colourful Terrace Garden
“My professional life involves a lot of travelling both in India and abroad. I come from an agrarian family and by that virtue, seeds are my souvenirs. I covered over 1,200 villages and even got some seeds from friends living overseas,??? Indra, who is presently the Writer and Director of Policy and Outreach, National Seed Association of India, tells The Better India.
Indra has an avid interest in collecting and preserving rare and endangered plant species like spinach seeds from Uttarakhand, Naga chillies, five varieties of tamarind and three of tomatoes.
It’s no wonder that Singh family’s terrace garden boasts of 14 crates and over 25 pots.
The duo began by planting easy-to-grow seeds like chillies, tomatoes, tamarinds in crates and then branched out to pumpkin, brinjals, bottle gourd. Indra recommends planting not more than two seeds in one crate/pot.
Do not plant more than 2 seeds in one crate
And the fertiliser?
“I build the soil’s fertility by adding dry leaves, cow dung and compost. A few months later, I saw earthworms thriving naturally. In no time, I saw the garden was home to biodiverse residents such as butterflies, ants, and healthy microbes. To prevent the soil from spilling over, I covered all the crates with a garden cloth and placed old plastic bags on the ground,??? he informs.
When it came to the exotic corn, Indra planted the seeds in 15 inches of soil and it flourished in the dried tomato leaves used as manure
“In a couple of months, the corn was acclimatised to India’s climate and gave blue and bubble gem corn, “It was a miracle as corn usually grows in Kharif season but we got it in Rabi,??? he adds.
The joys of plucking vegetables straight from your terrace garden.
Not shying away from a challenge, he took the risk of planting watermelon in offseason in April and the gamble paid off as the hot temperatures supported its growth.