Resources

I hv been a part of the Organic Terrace Gardening community for over 2 years and one  of the most common question that I come across is "Where do I get this item and that item". These are sources I have come across over a period of time and will help you find products/items to start off with a garden. 

DISCLAIMERS

• I DO NOT endorse these products or stores or parks nor do I vouch for them.
• Most of the websites have a "Contact Us" page with address and contact details. 
• Information changes quickly and I may have been wrong with some inputs, so would advise you to call them before hand instead of being disappointed later.
• The following listing is NOT in any particular order or favoritism.
• Please use your own judgement in buying/sharing/using the same. 

Quite a number of commercial online stores have come up in the recent past, practically selling anything and everything and some of them can be at quite unbelievable prices. I am personally not in favour of them, except maybe for branded tools / gloves etc. But for seeds and other core garden ingredients, I would anytime prefer buying them from a known source or an OTGian. Most of the OTGians mentioned below have their online stores and are more approachable than an online vendor. They deliver across Bangalore and some across India as well. 

1. Lalbagh – enter from the Double Road / KH Road side. After about 100 meters on the left side is the nursery. Timings are approx 10AM to 5PM.

• Seeds, Cocopeat, Manure, Saplings, Tools.

2. GKVK : This part of University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal.

• Vegetable/herb saplings.

3. Department of Horticulture. On Banerghatta Road, next to Meenakshi Temple and Coir Board. Bang opposite Meenakshi Mall.

• Seeds, vegetable/herb/fruting/flowering saplings. vermi compost, bio mix, bio-manure additives

4. Nitya Jaivika, OTGian Anu Radha.

• Cocopeat, VC, PG, Jeevamrut, seeds, saplings, planters. neem/honge/castor cake/powder. Stall @ OFYT.

5. GreenMyLife, OTGian Gitanjali

• Seeds, cocopeat, PG, tools, planters, landscaping, gardening services. Stall @  OFYT.

6. Nimai Garden, OTGian Vishwanath Yadav – He has a farm near Electronic city and stays in HSR. Good quality seeds. Stall @ OFYT.

• Seeds, saplings, VC, PG.

7. Organic Garten, OTGian Badri. Rajarajeshwari Nagar. Good quality seeds. Setups a stall during OFYT events.

• Seeds, saplings. Conducts OTG training sessions quite often. Stall @ OFYT.

8. Garden Guru, OTGian Geekgardener Gardener, Vijaya Bank Layout, behind IIMB, off Banerghatta Road.

• Seeds, Cocopeat,  Manure, Saplings, Tools, Hydroponics setup,  grow bags.

9. Association of People with Disabilities (APD).

• Herbs/flowering/fruiting saplings, VC, potting mix, red soil mixed with dried cow dung.

10. Indo American

• Seeds

11. Varsha Enterprises, Jayanagar 7th Block

• Cocopeat, Seeds, Tools, grow bags.

12. Purna Organics

• Seeds / Tools

13. Red Sanders - Arun. 26610528 / 94480 62909

• Cocopeat.

14. MM Floritech – Varthur. Excellent for ornamental. Since its quite far from the city, visit them if you plan to do bulk purchases.

• Seeds / Ornamental Saplings / Tools

15. Swami Nursery, Hosur

• Fruiting saplings

16. Teja Nursery

• Fruiting saplings, decorative plants.

17. Nurseries in Siddapura. One of the Lalbagh gates is called Lalbagh-Siddapura Gate. This gate is relatively very small compared to the double Road /KH Road gate. On the opposite side of this road, there are several nurseries, selling pots/planters, sapling.

18. Minerva Naturals. Quite a good one-stop-shop.
19. Kora3b leaf compost @ kora3bcompost.strikingly.com. Details in the website.
20. My3Leaves : OTGian Sumathy Sreekumar. FB Page ... https://www.facebook.com/pages/My3leaves/837961542917865

21. Swamy Nursery : http://www.swamynursery.in

22. https://www.facebook.com/Seed2harvest.in

23. http://www.bioorgo.in/page/Home.html

24. Garden Elves store for gardening accessories like trellis and containers, by OTGian Bharath Rajashekar.

25. https://www.facebook.com/enquiry.greenorganicstore.blr

26. Quantum Leaf : OTGian Krishna Kumar. seeds, drip containers, accessories, potting mixes.

Online stores

1. http://trustbasket.com/

Last but not the least, soil ! I have not come across any store selling soil yet ! So you will have to scout around your locality for the friend neighborhood nursery-wala. On an average a cement bag full costs about Rs. 50 (based on your negotiation skills !). Not sure how much it would weigh, but it can get very heavy.

Composting options confusion !!!

Confused on how and with what to start off with composting ? 

There are a LOT of posts on the OTG group asking how to start with the composting process and with what. There are quite a number of blogs by experienced folks. So I will not get into the technical part of it. This is a quick and short blog post to help you decide on the factors to be considered for getting started with the composting process.

First of all congratulations to decide to start off with composting and reducing the burden on the garbage crisis that surrounds us.

One factor is to consider which type of composting process to implement for your specific requirement.
- Aerobic - Daily Dump khamba, plastic pot/bucket/drum, DIY
- Anaerobic - Bokashi (products available EcoBin or SmartBin or DIY)
- Vermi Composting (with earthworms)
- Ground
- DIY

Following HAVE to be considered as well ...
- amount of kitchen waste generated per day ?
- want to compost left over cooked food ? vegetarian / non vegetarian ?
- availability of dry matter (carbon). Dry leaves, cardboard, shredded newspaper, left over coffee grounds.
- ease of use ? (in other words laziness levels :) )
- investment factor ? Daily Dump khamba's are in the range of Rs. 1000 - Rs. 2000. EcoBin and SmartBin are around 1500-2500. Plastic blue drum cost around Rs 200-400.
- physical limitations or health constraints to lift, turn and maintain the unit.
- location. kitchen ? balcony ? terrace ?
- stink concerns ?
- are you a DIY kind of person ?
- rodent problems ?

There is NO one right method. EACH method has its own merits and demerits. Read up ! Google up ! Visit someone with an existing composting setup to get a clear practical understanding. Go for the one that suits YOUR personal requirement.

I wanted something with less investment, so I opted for DIY  with the plastic 80-100 liter blue bin based aerobic composting. Costed around Rs. 300 for each bin and drilled a few holes all around for aeration. Since I have it on the terrace, I don't worry much about stink issues.

This is how I setup my DIY blue bin.

Happy shopping and choosing !

Strawberrrrrrry !!!

'Yummmm’ is probably the first thing that hits everyone’s mind whenever any discussion, post or picture of strawberries comes up in the FB OTG group. Common responses/questions are ...

• Does it grow in Bangalore ?
• Can I have seeds ?
• and ofcourse ... Awesome !

On an average, a box of strawberries in the market costs around Rs.50 and above. And of course, the top layered ones look juicy, scrumptious and mouth watering. But once you get back home and open the pack, voila; the bottom layered berries are usually small, pale, dull and squished.

Don’t you wish you could pluck a fresh strawberry right off your very own garden, give it a quick wash, pop it into your mouth and experience heaven for a few seconds?

Here are some tips 

- Take a close look at a SB and you see the small teenie-weenie brownish things on the outer red layer; yes, those are the seeds. But, dont even think or attempt to grow SBs from seeds. They wont grow. Period !

- SB plants produce runners. Refer Pic1 and Pic2 from the internet to get an idea about runners.

- You can source a runner from a friend or a nursery. SBs are not very commonly grown and are quite rare to find in a garden.

- Make sure the runner is not growing in the same pot as the mother plant.

- Prepare a small container, about 4-6 inch in size, enough to hold about 3 handfuls of cocopeat and 3 handfuls of compost.

- While the runners are connected to the mother plant and they have about 5+ leaves, you can gently push it (this is called rooting) into the small container.

- Once the runner is established in the temporary pot and it’s growing its own leaves and looks like it can live without the mother plant, its time to cut off the runner. Similar to cutting off the umbilical cord. Many folks are scared to do it ! But it has to be done. So don't worry and just go ahead cutting off. You can cut off anywhere. (I am saying this as I have been asked about it :-) )

- As long as the runner is connected to the mother plant, it will get its nutrition from the mother plant and the soil as well. The more the runners on a single mother plant, the more resource/nutrition will drain off from the mother plant. 

- During this time, you might see the mother plant is kind of dying or the leaves may turn reddish – brownish. So do provide more nutrition in the form of compost or panchgavya or compost tea. The runner can be connected to the mother plant for 2-3 weeks after rooting.

- Transplant the runner from the small container to a permanent larger container of size 6-8 inches. Potting mix should be drainy, meaning less soil, more of cocopeat and vermicompost. Add a handful of filtered river/construction sand, if available.

- After transplant, place the new container in a shady spot for a week or 2. And then move to a sunnier spot. 1-2 hours of direct sunlight is good enough. Do not expose to sunlight for long durations especially in summers. Do not over water.

- The variety of SB plant that I have flowers and fruits during the cooler months, around November to February.

- During the remaining months, they will be idle and produce runners. That’s a good time to just keep them healthy.

- As with most other veggie plants, provide nutrition in the form of compost, panchgavya, compost tea etc., to the plant. Once a week, adding a fistful of used left over coffee grounds (just coffee, there should be no sugar in it) from the filter coffee machine at home or at your office, will help too. I have seen excellent growth, especially during fruiting/flowering time) when I use compost tea on these plants.

- The flowers are tiny and white in color, which will later turn into strawberries.

What is all this OFYT about ?

OFYT

This blog post is to brief you up and give you an idea of what this event is all about and what to (or not to) expect / do during the event and most importantly to avoid redundant questions about OFYT. A newbie or an inactive member gets confused about all the excitement around OFYT and generally their first question is ... what is this OFYT and what is it all about ? 

Above pic taken during the Aug 2015 JP Nagar event.

The main motive of the OFYT event is to make everything related to gardening accessible to a gardener at one place and to help new comers start off with their gardening careers. Some key points (in no specific order) about this event ...

1. There is no fixed schedule. On an average held once in 3 months.
2. The next OFYT (21st edition) is scheduled for 2/April @ Uttarahalli.
3. Refer "Past OFYT Events" section below.
4. Usually a 1-day event conducted during the weekend.
5. Venue location is spread across Bangalore to help folks take advantage of the same.
6. Stalls selling everything related to gardening are setup ... accessories, tools, cocopeat, compost and vermi compost, manure, soil mixes, bio mixes, neem oil, neem / honge / castor cakes and powders, pots and containers, watering equipment, organic produce (like millets, pulses, jaggery, honey, vegetables, etc) and decorative accessories. And of course seeds and saplings as well. A few OTGians who have started off with their own commercial ventures put up their stalls too. I think the only gardening resource not sold here is red soil. Quite a few eatery stalls (including organic) are present to re-energise you as well.
7. A LOT of planning and unseen activity goes behind the curtains for organising an event of this scale. Most of the organisers are working professionals and take their personal time out to organise the event. So request folks, not to question about the event and rather provide assistance in anyway they can towards making the event a success.
8. So far all the editions of OFYT have been a FREE entry event.
9. Workshops : 1-2 sessions on OTG for kids and 1-2 sessions on composting are conducted during the event. These are usually free. However registration (before the event or at the event) is required. Keep an eye out for the FB OFYT page for details. The OFYT posters has all the information.
10. I usually request folks to wear a tag to the event, so that its easy to identify one another. Most of us meet in person in events like this only or other OTG meets.
11. And sorry to disappoint some of you, as of now this is conducted in Bangalore only. Though we have had folks visiting from nearby cities and towns. So I would suggest that there is no point in asking when this event will be conducted in your town/city, unless you yourself are willing to take up the initiative to conduct a gardening event in your town/city.
12. Please do take necessary steps to make the venue litter / plastic free. Do get cloth bags/covers, newspapers, small envelopes or similar to collect your seeds and saplings. Do use the dry/wet waste bins (usually kept near the food counters) to dispose off waste.

Past OFYT events 

1. 12/June 2016 at Doanakala Grounds, Banashankari : https://www.facebook.com/events/1704668616439330
2. 26/27 Feb 2016 at St.Joseph's College near Richmond Circle : https://www.facebook.com/events/1059047704140565
3. 29/Nov/2015 : Vyasa International School : https://www.facebook.com/events/1641005489496569
4. 30/Aug/2015 : JP Nagar : https://www.facebook.com/events/113933615619817/
5. 7/Jun/2015 : Rajarajeshwari Nagar :
   https://www.facebook.com/events/352750154926567
6. 1/Feb/2015 : Hebbal : https://www.facebook.com/events/1400864630209918
7. 31/August/2014 (World Kitchen Gardeners Day) : JP Nagar : https://www.facebook.com/events/1452354075036256
8. 15/June/2014 : WhiteField : https://www.facebook.com/events/256252187911994
9. 16/Feb/2014 : Girinagar : https://www.facebook.com/events/618946221494228

To see the above links, you need to be a member of the FB Organic Terrace Gardening group.

And yes ... before I forget, OFYT is the acronym for 'Oota From Your Thota' :) ... loosely translated as "Food from your Garden"!

Link for OFYT FB page

See you there !

Poster for the 18th edition of OFYT scheduled for 28/Aug ...