I wanted to capture my experiences and thoughts while starting an urban organic vegetable garden. My activities started in middle of 2014... but I am starting this blog only in December 2015. So, some for the first few posts will just be capturing the events during this time.
More than a decade ago, we bought a land in Coimbatore for the purpose of building a house when we move back to India from overseas. Though this land is within the city limits, its a bit away from the main roads. The reason we ended up buying this property instead of an approved housing plot is an interesting incident. My father didn't want buy a small housing plot by spending a lot of money. When looking at a housing plot near this land, he just pointed in the general direction and asked a cousin to look for a larger plot in that area. That's how we ended up buying this land of approximately two acres.
We fenced the land when we bought it. But didn't do anything after that for several years since we preferred to live in a gated community when we eventually moved back. In the absence of any human activity, thorny bushes (சீமைக்கருவேலை - Prosopis Juliflora) thrived and overtime turned into large trees. Also some people made small opening in the fencing to enter the property to pick firewood and graze cattle. The small opening grew into large opening and then few stone pillars supporting the fence went down. I pass by the land occasionally to answer my dad's question of 'how is the land, when did you see it last, etc.'
Though I have been wanting to develop an organic garden in that place, my procrastination has resulted in nothing. At that time, it wasn't in the top of my priority list. My wife and dad, disappointed with my inaction, staged an "intervention" around September 2014. I agreed to get contractors to clean up the place and repair the fence. We also discussed how we can utilize the cleaned up place for something useful - ideas were floated to raise cows for fresh milk and to grow pesticides-free vegetables for the family. But those ideas sounded a bit further away in time. The immediate need was to clean up the place so that we can get workers to fix the fence.
After few more discussions on this topic on several weekend visits to my parents place, as usual, weeks have gone by and nothing has happened.
More than a decade ago, we bought a land in Coimbatore for the purpose of building a house when we move back to India from overseas. Though this land is within the city limits, its a bit away from the main roads. The reason we ended up buying this property instead of an approved housing plot is an interesting incident. My father didn't want buy a small housing plot by spending a lot of money. When looking at a housing plot near this land, he just pointed in the general direction and asked a cousin to look for a larger plot in that area. That's how we ended up buying this land of approximately two acres.
We fenced the land when we bought it. But didn't do anything after that for several years since we preferred to live in a gated community when we eventually moved back. In the absence of any human activity, thorny bushes (சீமைக்கருவேலை - Prosopis Juliflora) thrived and overtime turned into large trees. Also some people made small opening in the fencing to enter the property to pick firewood and graze cattle. The small opening grew into large opening and then few stone pillars supporting the fence went down. I pass by the land occasionally to answer my dad's question of 'how is the land, when did you see it last, etc.'
This is how the land looked or worse (indicative picture, not actual)
Though I have been wanting to develop an organic garden in that place, my procrastination has resulted in nothing. At that time, it wasn't in the top of my priority list. My wife and dad, disappointed with my inaction, staged an "intervention" around September 2014. I agreed to get contractors to clean up the place and repair the fence. We also discussed how we can utilize the cleaned up place for something useful - ideas were floated to raise cows for fresh milk and to grow pesticides-free vegetables for the family. But those ideas sounded a bit further away in time. The immediate need was to clean up the place so that we can get workers to fix the fence.
After few more discussions on this topic on several weekend visits to my parents place, as usual, weeks have gone by and nothing has happened.