67-year-old Ravindra Joshi, who lives in Bhopal, has been gardening on his terrace for the last nearly 15 years. Retired from State Bank of India, Joshi says that during his job, he has also lived in many rural areas and small towns. Where the residential premises used to be quite large and there was also a good place for gardening in the house. From there, he grew fond of planting trees and plants in the house and then continued to grow. Today after retirement, he is doing wonderful gardening on the 1200 sq ft terrace of his house in Bhopal.
Joshi Told Businesslend, “Earlier in gardening, I did not have much inclination towards vegetables. I used to plant flowering plants then, and have started planting vegetables for the last one-and-a-half years. Now seasonal vegetables grow a lot here and besides that, I keep experimenting by planting some different types of plants. ”
There are about 150 trees and plants on their roof, which keep on growing according to the weather. He also gifts people by making new plants from the cuttings of some of his plants. They say that they spend good time doing gardening and exercise also makes them good.
Do not buy anything other than potatoes:
Joshi says that he does gardening in organic ways. They plant vegetables like gilki, pumpkin, gourd, kundru, spinach, fenugreek, beans, peas, tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumber, bitter gourd, cucumber, drumstick. Several kilos of beans, tomatoes and 13-14 gourd etc. are available at one time from his kitchen garden. He told, “Vegetables are supplied from our garden only for the house. From outside we only buy potatoes. The rest of the vegetables are in such a quantity that we are able to distribute to the people of our neighborhood as well. ”
Apart from vegetables, his garden also has fruit trees like Guava, Pomegranate, Chiku, Chakotara, Karaunda, Star Fruit, Pudding, Apple Plum and Lemon. He says that along with fruits and vegetables, he also tries to grow plants which are not very visible in the houses. This is the reason why on their terrace you will see plants of dragon fruit, insulin plant (Rhizome costus ignarius), coffee, mulathi, lentil sugar, bay leaf, rudraksh, cardamom and camphor.
He said, “Whenever I come to know about a new plant, I take a plant from nursery and plant it in my house. Then I make more plants with the same cutting. From Dragon Fruit, I have made 20 more plants and distributed them to people. I have also made many new plants from the insulin plant. ”
Summer Gardening Tips: Keep your garden green in summer with these methods
Joshi himself makes organic manure for his garden. He uses his home organic waste for composting. In all plants, fertilizer is applied at least twice a month. Apart from household manure, he also uses cow dung manure, mustard cake, neem cake and bone meal. The plants are watered regularly in the morning and evening. He is also fond of planting bonsai in his home. He has a 30-year-old banyan banyan and several bonsai of Adenium (Desert Rose). They have planted saplings on their roofs in pots of 12 to 18 inches in size. For vegetables, he uses slightly darker pots so that the roots spread well.
Some Gardening Tips:
For those who are fond of gardening or fresh gardeners, Joshi recommends that you can start with the seeds of vegetables brought to your home. He says that to plant tomatoes, you take tomatoes from the kitchen and dry it. After drying, remove seeds from it and apply it in pots. In the same way, you can use green chillies, gilki, capsicum, vegetables etc. by drying them.
He told, “First you prepare a plant from seeds and then plant them in different pots. If you are not able to do this too, then find a reliable nursery or gardener around you, who prepares vegetable plants. You can also bring plants from them and plant them here. There are many places in Bhopal from where I get ready plants many times and I just have to bring them here and put them in pots. ”
Joshi says, “Always plant vegetables according to your place and requirement. Many times, due to lack of knowledge, people bring seeds and plant them. Then, as there are too many plants, there is no place to plant other plants. Because, if you also plant two-three plants and take good care, then it gives a lot of yield. Like – we get many kilos of star fruit from the star fruit plant in the season. Once we brought barbati, we got several kilograms from some plants only. Therefore, try to apply everything in small amounts. ”
In the end, he advises that it is better to buy several saplings at the same time, that you take each plant and plant new plants by cutting from it. With this, you also understand the behavior of that plant and you are able to take good care of it. Patience is very important for gardening. Therefore, do not give up by trying once, but keep going slowly and keep growing your garden. Gardening is very beneficial for people of all ages. Because this keeps your home environment clean and gives you organic food.
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