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”

How to Grow Lettuce at Home in India

My first introduction to lettuce was through a burger. When I got the burger with green leaves protruding out from it, I was like….. ‘Oh I think they forgot to cook the greens’! But with the first apprehensive bite of the burger I fell in love with the crunchy green thing which I later found out was known as lettuce. So naturally when I started growing veggies on my terrace, one of the first things I wanted to grow was lettuce. But the seeds were not available locally and the local gardening store guys were blissfully unaware of it. After … Continue reading “How to Grow Lettuce at Home in India”

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”

Help to Publish book on Organic Urban Farming

Access to safe and nutritious food is a major challenge that the world is facing today. The problem is more pronounced in urban areas as the urban population has been disconnected from their food for a very long time. Food grown commercially with heavy doses of fertilizer and pesticide are transported across long distance to reach supermarket shelves in urban areas. This in turn makes fresh vegetables and fruits lost their essential nutrients. Consumption of food low on nutrients which are laced with poisonous pesticides has led to an increase in occurrence of various diseases in urban population even among … Continue reading “Help to Publish book on Organic Urban Farming”

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”

‘Organic Urban Farming, The Indian Way’ Book Out Now

Hello everyone. When I started this blog, my aim was to document and share my experiences of growing vegetables in containers on rooftop. One thing led to the other and soon I started training people in and around Bhubaneswar on growing their own. And soon enough I started getting a lot of request for training and guidance from all over India. As it was not possible to go everywhere and train people I considered doing it through video conferencing. But that did not seem to work out well. The next suggestion from some quarters was to create a video course, but after working … Continue reading “‘Organic Urban Farming, The Indian Way’ Book Out Now”

How to Grow Mushrooms at Home

Terrace gardening is all about using unused space at your home to grow vegetables and greens. No matter what space you use, be it balcony or terrace or windowsill, sunlight availability is a basic requirement for growing any plant. But mushrooms are something that you grow without sunlight in indoor spaces. They are also very easy to grow and score very high on nutrition scale. They have high iron and protein content and zero cholesterol and low calorific value. Mushrooms are grown on organic waste and the water requirement is very low. In this post on How to grow mushrooms at … Continue reading “How to Grow Mushrooms at Home”

New Year Detox Salad from your Garden

Its new year time again and party has already begun. Its going to go on till the next year. Or may be into the next year. When the party is over you suddenly realize that you have let a lot of toxins into your body. You need to get them out of your system. You need to eat something comforting that detoxes you. But you are so tired you don’t really want to do anything let alone cook. I am sure this situation sounds just too familiar. As you go into the new year again you just know that you are … Continue reading “New Year Detox Salad from your Garden”

Complete Guide to Growing Spinach at Home

On my facebook page recently one of our regular readers asked me if there is any tutorial on growing spinach on my website. That is when I realized I have not made even a single post on any leafy vegetable till date. Leafy vegetables are the easiest and well suited for container gardens. And I was surprised that I have not written about them. Moreover spinach is a popular super food which I think everybody can and should grow at their home organically. So without any further ado here goes the Complete Guide to Growing Spinach at Home. Quick Reference Table for … Continue reading “Complete Guide to Growing Spinach at Home”