How to Preserve Tomatoes in The Most Delicious Way

Tomato is one plant which never disappoints in terms of produce, if basics are done right. In our organic terrace garden tomato is in fact one of the most highly producing plants (here is my earlier post on how to grow tomatoes). Generally we grow around eight to ten regular tomato and four to five cherry tomato plants every winter and we have never had to buy tomatoes from the market. In fact there is a lot of surplus and even after sharing some of it with our neighbors we are still left with lots and lots of fresh and juicy … Continue reading “How to Preserve Tomatoes in The Most Delicious Way”

Growing These Four Herbs in Your Garden is Super Easy

Sometime earlier I got a request from one of my readers to write a post on how to grow coriander from seeds. I was a little surprised that I had not made a post on it already. And when I checked I found out that I have not made any post on growing any herb whatsoever. Herbs are integral part of a terrace vegetable garden; not only they are easy to grow and pack loads of flavors for your food, but also because they act as pest repellents and thus help in pest management of your garden organically. So I … Continue reading “Growing These Four Herbs in Your Garden is Super Easy”

How to Grow Cluster Beans in Containers

Cluster beans is something that I never liked eating. It has a mild bitter taste which takes a little bit of getting used to. But when you acquire the taste it can become one of your favorites. For me the taste was never a problem. It was the texture which I disliked. The cluster beans that you typically get in market are a little hard in texture and the two sides of the bean has a string like hardness to it. Hence I never ate cluster beans though it is one of my sister’s favorite. It took me years of persuasion … Continue reading “How to Grow Cluster Beans in Containers”

Fani, Aftermath and Way Ahead

A terrace garden being on the terrace is most vulnerable to strong winds. And when the wind speed reaches 200 kmph, disaster strikes; quite literally. And that is what happened to our rooftop food garden when cyclone Fani struck on 3rd April 2019. Our garden was completely destroyed. No Preparation can be Enough Of late we have had the issue of monkeys in our garden. In the last six months or so the gardens raids by monkeys had become frequent and we had lost about 80% of our produce and young plants to them. Hence we decided to extend our shade … Continue reading “Fani, Aftermath and Way Ahead”

Garden Updates

Some good news first. Organic Terrace got featured in Oh Desi website this month. Oh Desi is run by Mumbaikar Sneha who writes about healthy living practices through Organic and Natural products. The website has some great content with a pleasant design. Here is the link to the article. which talking about my journey in Organic Terrace Gardening. Thanks to Oh Desi again for this feature. This year we have had an unexpected problem in our organic terrace garden; that of monkeys. The monkeys discovered our garden earlier this year and since then have been regular visitors to our terrace garden. Frustratingly we … Continue reading “Garden Updates”

Book Now Available in Full Color Print

Before I go into the post here is some good news. Organic Terrace has been selected as one of the top 10 Indian Gardening Blogs by Feedpost. A huge thanks to the panelists and to my readers for this. After I released my book ‘Organic Urban Farming, The Indian Way’ in e-book form I got a lot of requests to do a printed book as a lot of people are either not conversant or comfortable with an e-book. After weighing in a few options I decided to self publish the book. And with friends chipping in with cash and publishing … Continue reading “Book Now Available in Full Color Print”

How To Grow Bitter Gourd in a Pot

Bitter gourd is not exactly a favourite vegetable of most people. But there are also quite a few like me who love bitter tasting stuff like neem flowers, dark chocolate and of course bitter gourd. In fact in a complete Odia thali it is difficult not to find something bitter. Bitter tasting stuff is actually very good for the body. In fact if you did a search on internet you would find that Bitter gourd is an excellent source of Vitamin B, C, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, manganese and iron. It contains twice the beta-carotene than broccoli, twice the calcium of … Continue reading “How To Grow Bitter Gourd in a Pot”

How to Grow Cucumber at Home

Summers are here and the temperature this year seems to be rising faster than ever before. In a couple of months time there would be early signs of rains, but till then we need to hydrate ourselves with a lot of fluids throughout the day to beat the summer heat. And there is no better way to do it than with cucumbers. Cucumber has the highest water content for any solid food and is a great snack by itself with a little salt and chilli powder. It is popularly served as a salad and also makes a great summer soup with curd … Continue reading “How to Grow Cucumber at Home”

Announcing Summer Course on Urban Farming

High pesticide residues, lack of essential nutrients, use of growth hormones, lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, GMO contamination and rising food prices are some of the reasons why people all around the world are taking to growing their own food at their homes and communities. With a very high population, depleting resources and climate change food and nutrition gap in India is growing at an alarming rate. To deal with this issue and to be future ready Urban Farming is fast becoming a necessity rather than a hobby. In states like Kerala govt is giving subsidies and encouraging people … Continue reading “Announcing Summer Course on Urban Farming”

How to grow Ridge Gourd in Pots

Its summer time again. And its time to plant some cooling vegetables in your garden. While cucumber is a must have vegetable in your garden in summers ridge gourd is another vegetable that you can easily grow in containers. Ridge Gourd belongs to the cucumber family and contains a lot of water along with dietary fibers. It has very low amount of saturated fats. Hence its a great vegetable for weight loss. Ridge Gourd is also an excellent source of vitamin A. Ridge gourds need very little attention and hence are well suited for any garden. But with The help … Continue reading “How to grow Ridge Gourd in Pots”