The maddening pace of cities have the potential to drive one up the wall.  But, there are options - to unwind and to mend the disconnect. Tending to plants is a popular hobby and it is a fact that a sizeable number of city dwellers have taken to gardening in the past, finding solace in twines and tendrils.

So, how does one get started ? What are the options ? In addition to answering these questions, a lot more was discussed during the course of the 3 days of the 3rd edition of the national conference on urban gardening organized by reStore Gardens between January 25 and 27, 2013.

Day  1: 'Lets get down and dirty': Children and gardening in schools

Priya Gopalan, a volunteer with reStore's school programme introduced their work with children. reStore works with two different groups of kids – one has children from upper middle class families while the other has children from a local fishing hamlet.

(Left) The open space available at the after-school drop-off  centre, run by Pudhiyadhor; (Right) The small patch on which plants are grown at the moment

One set of children go to schools run by the City Corporation while the other set is from 'Kids Central', a private school in Kotturpuram. The children didn't respond too enthusiastically at first. But when the seedlings popped out from the soil bed, the excitement and interest came alive. 

Children from Kids Central had come over to describe what they do in their school garden, while we took a short walk across the street to see the small garden at the after-school centre tended to by the kids from a nearby hamlet.

Children from 'Kids Central' share their gardening experience

Did you know that 5 cents of land is enough to support the vegetable needs of a family of four for the entire year ? Usha from Thanal in Trivandrum expressed concern that not many think of farming as a dignified employment option and spoke about the disconnect that prevails in the society today. From their work in schools what is evident is that the disconnect was mainly in parents and Thanal works with children to get through to the parents. The organization has been actively involved from the start in the Kerala Government's initiative to encourage home and kitchen gardening in towns and cities.

Ritu from Upavan, Gurgaon shared her experience of working with children at the Umeed Aman Ghar where a small patch of land was initially used to explore the idea of gardening at the home. They employed the process of double digging and used 'amrit mitti' for preparing the soil prior to sowing. Now the home harvests the vegetable for its kitchen and they have successfully managed to keep the interest of children in gardening alive !

Visit to reStore’s Kottivakkam community garden

The reStore team meets frequently at the garden which they have been developing for the past few months at Kottivakkam in south Chennai.

Work in progress at the Kottivakkam garden (Courtesy: reStore gardens)

They have tried to incorporate the basic principles of permaculture into the design with respect to the layout, the plants they have chosen as well as the functionality of the garden. To know more about permaculture, check  Permaculture Principles.

The garden has a small herb spiral which has pudhina (Mentha/Mint), tulasi (Basil), various local flowering plants including sembaruthi (Hibiscus), arali (Nerium oleander), malli (Jasmine) – all of which are commonly used at homes for cooking as well as for ornamental purposes. A small fish pond is also in the plan, but is yet to become functional. Efficiency and maximisation of benefits drive the use of leaf and other litter from the trees and shrubs for composting and mulching.

If you're from Chennai and are interested in being a part of the community gardening intiative, do get in touch with the reStore team for more details and updates.

Open-tech sessions at Kottivakkam

Short demos of related activities like mushroom cultivation, bee-keeping and making Kombucha was organized at venue.

Sekhar from the Good Governance Guards in Chennai briefly explained how to start the cultivation and maintenance of mushrooms at homes. To keep alive the interest generated on the subject, he had brought along few pouches of mushroom spawn (seed).

Bee-keeping demo on how to handle the bees and the box

The bee-keeper succeeded in garnering the maximum attention. Curious eyes remained glued to the bee-box as he explained how bees start building cells on the template frames, how to remove the collected honey and gave tips on where to place the bee-box for maximum safety as well as honey harvest.

Adiya Mathai livened up the evening with his ‘Kombucha’ talk. Most of us in the audience had not even heard of Kombucha tea before he explained to us about SCOBY (another new vocab entry!) - the symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, which gives the tea its characteristic flavour.

The Kombucha culture may have more than one strain of yeast and bacteria. The yeast produce alcohol which in turn triggers acetic acid and cellulose production by the bacterial strains. The high concentrations of acid and alcohol helps the Kombucha from getting contaminated. If you wish to have unending supplies of Kombucha tea, it is advisable to get 'Kombucha mothers' from those who already maintain them and grow your very own SCOBY!

Day 2: Visit to Auroville

Participants (minus those from Chennai) were treated to the sights and smells of farms in Auroville in Viluppuram district of Tamilnadu. The entire day was dedicated to visit and understand the work done at Pebble Garden, Solitude and Matrikunj Farms in Auroville.

More on the Auroville farm visit

Day 3: Experiences from around India and expert talk on wastewater reuse

The third day was kick started with gardeners from around the country sharing their experience, explaining about the difficulties they had to face and the moments of peace and tranquility they felt while carrying out what they had in mind. We had a representative from Garden City Farmers talk to us about their work and their experience in urban farming in the city of Bangalore.

Maheswar Khillar from Bhubaneswar took us through the work he is a part of in his city and also shared a trick or two about the power of ‘Yoganidra’ in shaping people’s mind when it comes to gardening.

Jignasha’s introduction of Ek Beej and the principles on which they base their work caught the audience’s attention and silent respect. She spoke of the core values that guide their work of helping setting up gardens in the city of Baroda. Believing in the resourcefulness of people and the now, she said, can be vital in pushing a movement forward. All activities taken up by Ek Beej are on a completely voluntary basis where they work across the social spectrum from upper middle class families to involving individuals dwelling in shanties and slums.

Rajkumar from Madurai shared his experience in working with college students as part of the NSS programme and establishing kitchen gardens in rural areas. The ladies from Gurgaon shared interesting stories of antagonisms they had to face while developing the garden in their society.

Amanjyot from Kheti Viraasat Mission, Punjab sharing her experience

Amanjyot from Kheti Viraasat Mission, Punjab described how the women in the villages came together to start kitchen gardens in their backyards and how this served as a bait to get the men in the villages interested as well.

Expert talk: From waste to wealth

Four individuals with immense experience on the subject of waste reuse spoke on how, what we consider as waste, could be put to better use.

T.K.Ramkumar from Exnora took us through the various laws that have been in place to govern municipal waste management in the country and highlighted the importance of segregation. He pointed out that unsegregated waste does not lend itself to meaningful recycling and also floated the idea that managing organic waste would be much easier and less time consuming if it were processed within the wards itself instead of taking it to a central processing point.

Lucas Dengel from EcoPro, Auroville spoke about the quality of food produced, public health and hygiene and the aesthetic aspects of urban gardening while touching upon the all-important question of sanitation in the country.

Subburaman from SCOPE in Trichy spoke about ecological sanitation and the possibility of manouvering people’s mindset to install eco-san toilets in cities.

Lucas and Indukanth answering participants' questions

Dr. Indukanth Ragade’s advice on wastewater reuse and composting for home use got amateur gardeners interested. His useful tips on recycling greywater from kitchens and bathrooms got many hands scribbling quick notes.

Poverty, livelihoods and urban gardening

Can gardening and farming in cities be a viable livelihood option ? Can it only be a supplementary activity ? Or is it just an elitist hobby ? Participants were split into groups to mull over these questions.

While some felt that it was possible to make some kind of money out of gardening ventures, the overall view was that, at this current climate, gardening could not be considered as a viable livelihood option in the cities. It was also agreed that when gardening in urban spaces is viewed as a 'livelihood option', a narrow definition of the term livelihood should not be adopted. It should not be looked at a purely monetary standpoint. The nutritional security it brings into the picture should be given due recognition.

The conference was an excellent platform for meeting people from different regions who work in different climate with different plants and to exchange information and tips to make gardening more delightful, one leaf at a time !

Get started with gardening !

Vounteer with reStore

If you are interested in being a part of reStore's community gardening initiative and happen to stay in and around Chennai, get in touch with the team through  Sangeetha Sriram at sriram.sangeetha@gmail.com. You can also call her at 94440-07649.

If working with children is your forte, contact Priya Gopalen at pgopalen@gmail.com to be a part of the project at the Urur Kuppam Pudiyador Children's Space in Besant Nagar, Chennai

Here's a short write-up from reStore about the conference

Useful resources

Urban Leaves' quick steps series:

• 5 baby steps to start off your kitchen garden
• 5 seeds to sow from your kitchen cupboard
• 5 types of containers to start with
• 5 herbs on your windowsill
• 5 tips on daily care

Rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling:

One of the best methods to recycle greywater from kitchens and bathrooms is to route it to your kitchen gardens. Dr. Indukanth Ragade's book 'Self reliance in water' is an excellent starters' guide to all matters relating to rainwater harvesting, water recyling and reuse and water conservation.

Permaculture:

For more on this, check Permaculture Principles.

Videos that might be of interest:

• Grow food on your rooftops - Here's the link to a video interview with Dr Vishwanath Kadur on how to get started with terrace and home gardening
• Mumbai’s green islands - This video reveals how Mumbaikars managed to reconnect with nature through their community gardens

Organizations

• ‘Grow what you eat and Eat what you grow’ - Garden City Farmers 
• Organic farming movement of Punjab - Kheti Virasat Mission
• A seed conservation and sharing initiative in Auroville  - Pebble Garden, Aurobrindavan
• Mumbai's own - Urban Leaves
• 'Gather for all beings' - Thanal, Trivandrum
• 'Towards ecological prosperity' - EcoPro, Auroville
• ExNoRa International