How I made my indoor compost bin - in 6 easy steps (with pictures)

Fig 1 - Start with 3 tubs which fit-in (top one has a lid)

Fig 2 - Drill 1/4" holes at 2" distance on top two bins
(both sides) and bottom of top two bins as well

Fig 3 - Tear up newspaper and make the first layer. Make
wet  by sprinkling some water. Adding worms (red) is optional,
but these lovely creatures make things happen faster.

Fig 4 - Add shredded kitchen waste. Avoid meat,
dairy or pungent vegetables (garlic, onion etc).

Fig 5  - Add a layer of leaves/hay and some earth on top.
Green to brown ratio should be 1:3.
Give it a weekly mix. 

Fig 6 - Drill a 16mm hole and fit a tap for draining
nutrient rich compost tea to use in plants. Keep in a dark,
dry and cool space like under the kitchen sink. 

My two-level food growing experiment

5 plant vertical growing unit

When you say the word 'city,' it automatically implies space constraint. But plants need space to grow and we must find ways to meet this challenge of maximizing growth area per sq. ft. floor area. World over many innovative ways have been tried for the maximum number of plants per sq. ft. floor area and I have also learnt from these experiments.  To grow well plants need enough nutrition (and therefore less growing competition near their root), enough sunlight (and therefore must not be shaded by other plants) and enough water.

To meet all these needs, one such design is what you see to above  where 5 plants are growing in in a 5inch x 5inch floor area. I already have 2 more growing units ready for this wall and another 3 for the opposite wall giving me 30 plants in all just on the walls (I am growing tomatoes, basil and lettuce in them, so I call them 'salad sticks').

I am also trying another experiment to give a two level planter system using bottles. Since the bottles have their own earth and nutrition, my logic is that the lower level and the bottle level will both grow well. For sunlight, I am ensuring that that the ground plant is already well grown so that the bottled plant will not block the sun of the other ground plant. I am also growing the shorter plants like herbs in the bottles for this reason and also to maintain the balance of the bottle (they are placed inverted in the earth so too much weight may move their center-of-gravity).

Inverted bottle planters interspersed between plants

In the picture to the left there are spinach seeds planted in two bottles  and there's a third bottle in the direction of the caption growing methi or fenugreek (it may seem like the bottles are broken, but the glass has been specially cut and smoothened  to give it that jagged look on purpose). The tall plant you see next to the furthest bottle is of baby potatoes. To the right of this plant (see picture) is  a white name tag which has scarlet radish written on it. I expect to grow about 15 of them interspersed around this small area because they don't seem to need too much ground space.

If all goes well, in this small 2ft x 2ft floor space I would have 2 bunches of spinach, one bunch of fenugreek, 2 baby potato plants (which should give me about 15 potatoes each) and about 15 scarlet radishes. Not bad, huh. That's not all, the wall above it (to the left) will carry 30 plants in 5 plant growing units which are going to be put up this weekend.

Don't gasp just yet. Look to the left of this picture and you'll the trunk my fragrant chameli (jasmine) creeper which is now in full bloom and makes my living room come alive every evening. Now perhaps, you can say not bad!

Will keep this space posted on the progress of the growing food.

Starting steps to grow your food

Its the start of a wonderful Saturday morning and in case you're wondering what you ought to be doing this weekend, I suggest you try your hand at beginning to grow your food. No better day than today and all it takes is some seed/plant, water, earth and sunshine. However, though we are almost always eager to start off, we sometimes stop because we don't know where to get the seed or the earth/mud or how/what to grow plants. This blog-piece will try to show you easy ways to start off.

It may surprise you to know that every city has more than enough seed-shops/nurseries where you can all kinds of seeds, plant growing aids and other implements. The best place to start searching is obviously on the internet and you'll find plenty of places to choose from ( one simple search pulled up over 100 places for me http://www.asklaila.com/search/Mumbai/-/plant%20seeds/10?searchNearby=false&v=listing).

What you may see in a seed shop

Visiting the shortlisted seed-shop/nursery can be an exciting start as you will be able to see the variety and possibilities of your food growing journey. The minimum you need for starting is a few seed varieties and some soil-compost mix, The rest of what you buy depends on how much you yield in to temptation.



What to plant: If you're on the first attempt on the GYF journey, then I recommend you start with the easy-to-grow variety of plants. Herbs are a good pick as they many of them grow easily and within just a couple of weeks of tending you'll be able to relish the 'fruits' of your food project. Basil is great to start of as it is easy to grow, sturdy and can be used in a wide variety of salads, continental dishes and dips. The other advantage of Basil is that with every pluck, it grows prolifically giving you the opportunity to gift cupfuls of fresh basil to your family or friends (this act of gifting homegrown food is a wonderful way to spread interest in growing food at home). The other vegetable that grows really easily at home are radishes. Of this, there are over 200 varieties so you can take your pick - white, scarlet, red, red-long among many others. You can easily have your first harvest within just 25 days of seed planting. The radish is also a great vegetable to grow at home since you can use every part of it as food (the leaves can be had cooked and are a great salad accompaniment). Both of them need plenty of sunshine and good moist, fertile soil to grow.


How to plant: For germinating the basil seeds take a shallow pot or plastic cup with about 3 to 4 inches of soil-compost mix. For the radishes, use a deeper container/pot they need the depth to grow long - a typical 10-12 inch deep dish should do fine.

For both, dip holes approximately half inch deep and about 4-5 inches apart, drop one seed per hole and cover with soil.Wet this with water and be careful not to drown the seeds. Spray or sprinkle water twice a day till the seeds germinate. Keep in a warm and dark place till the seeds germinate (the top of the fridge works perfectly).

But feel free to experiment and remember that everything you do will not be perfect at first. But as you go along, you'll get the hang of it and you, your friends and family will enjoy both the process and the product immensely. When you finish this article, I suggest you search for seed stores/nurseries around your area - its the first step necessary to start.

All the best!

The dreadful urban disease - apartmentitis

Lifeless urban buildings

City dwellers like you and me are afflicted by a silent brain-numbing disease called apartmentitis. It does not matter which city of the world you live in, how modern or how old, or even how high its cultural quotient. If you live in buildings which have 'houses' on top of the the other, then chances are you've already caught the dangerous bug and you're probably at a tertiary stage, gradually becoming brain-numb.

Symptoms of apartmentitis: lethargy on reaching home from work, feeling of emptiness, directionlessness, monophobia, TV kinship, insomnia in bed among others.

The taxonomy of the above mentioned disease is an invented one, however the symptoms are not. All urban dwellers face it in short or long stints. While work, play and all types of physical and mental activities give temporary relief from the symptoms, the cause is far deeper and one which can only be rid permanently by bringing the therapy into home - therapeutic home horticulture.

The sheer pleasure of seeing germinating radishes
(the base is the top of my fridge)

Growing plants at home is one of the best ways to cure the mind and body as also to rejuvenate the  spirit and mind. Caring, tending, growing, weeding for plants is proven to have therapeutic benefits (see link http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep145).

It works even better when what you grow plants that are useful for humans to survive, i.e. to eat, because then the horticultural activity naturally becomes much more important than just a recreational one. Further, when you see the plants germinate, grow, flower and finally fruit, the grower becomes a strong contributor in the process of creation compounding your joy and happiness.

Happiness and life generating
GYF buildings

If this small effort were made into a collective and community effort, it creates a much larger impact of the positive individual effect. It now does not only brings positivity for the people within the apartment, but also those who are outside it. It is through a collective action of Growing Your Food that you can throw the concrete out of the concrete-jungle. And through such a community exercise, the city then has the possibility to get a vertical green foliage with all the trappings of chirping birds and a happier citizenry.  

Grow Your Food - Lets start!

I have recently started the Grow Your Food project with an aim to help reduce the growing food burden through community participation, while recycling waste in a productive manner. We all seek opportunities to contribute in an meaningful way to the city, world, environment and its people, and GYF project is a project which improves all these at one go.  Each volunteer is an important contributor and every small action of ours has the potential to change the world.

What is the Grow Your Food project?

Garden Fresh curry leaves

The GYF project endeavours to create a open-platform green revolution with community involvement and community management. The project is an attempt to encourage urban dwellers to grow a part of their own food conveniently in city-settings overcoming constraints of space and time. GYF project makes an opportunity of the vertical concrete spaces of the urban world to use them as sunshine groves by planting vertical gardens in windows and other open spaces. Grow Your Food is initially a Do-it-Yourself initiative - by each one creating their your own growing kits (with free information provided by the GYF).

How does the Grow Your Food project help?

The 'Grow Your Food' project reduces your food burden (according to the UN about a billion people do not get enough food to be active and healthy) and also helps recycle non-biodegradable and biodegradable waste. The growing-kits are made out of recycled bottles (85% of which still  goes into landfills) and they use much of your home wet-waste as compost as well. Through the GYF project you will help create more oxygen for earth and also create a fresh and green ambience at your living/working space. If you use the growing kits at home, not only will you get freshly grown vegetables but your family will appreciate and know what they eat. Apart from this, the GYF project is a great initiative to encourage family involvement in a common social activity. In children, this helps create a greater consciousness about nature, food, agriculture, social contribution and community collaboration.

Immediate aims of the GYF project:

Fresh, home grown basil

The very first aim of this project is activation and mobilization. Each home usually has the capacity to grow about 50 plants vertically (and that also means that 50 bottles will no longer go to a landfill). Add a few planters & pots to it and you could easily have about 100 vegetable plants growing right inside your home itself.  Starting with yourselves, GYF aims to have at least 100 home growers in 30 days. After that, in the next 30 days we hope that the first 100 volunteers will convert 5 additional home growers each. If we add 5 each after that every 30 days, we could have about 3,00,000 home growers in Mumbai alone by April 2013.

But that's just math. And can be only be made a reality if you put your effort behind it.

What are the immediate drives GYF project is undertaking?

1. Volunteer drive: Starting with Mumbai, the GYF project is looking for adult volunteers (or children accompanied by an adult) who can give their time and skills in activity social media, online design, creative design, agriculture, volunteer coordination, growing-kit construction, volunteer mobilization, home mobilization, work mobilization, finance management, business management, including several other specializations. GYF only believes in action participants, therefore to qualify as a volunteer it is first necessary to be a food grower - someone who grow a part of their food at their home/work.

If you interested, write to me at volunteer@comniscient.in (if possible also suggest how you would like to volunteer).

2. Plastic bottle collection drive: GYF is conducting a drive to collect plastic bottles (each bottle will support a plant or two) in clean and good condition in the 2 litre, 1 litre and 1/2 litre sizes.  To donate, please ensure you remove the label on the bottle and that you give it a nice wash before you deliver it. The bottles need to be delivered at the common area in Comniscient Group, 4th Floor, Kamal Mansion, Colaba, Mumbai - 5, anytime between 9 am to 6 pm on weekdays.

In case your family/spouse/children/friends are interested to join this initiative, please feel free invite them to this group/blog.

Now you really can make a change - join the Grow Your Food project now.