Our Big-Little Kitchen Garden

Think of it this way: With just some pots, mulch and plants you can knock together a kitchen garden on your balcony or rooftop—ideal for anyone who wants some household greenery in a world created out of bricks and mortar, but lacks a green thumb. Not quite exciting or striking, but still a garden that produces a tomato or two, eggplants and chilies maybe, a sprig of mint or a clump of chives. But when a group of neighbours, colleagues or friends shares a common grain for gardening, the experience flowers into a trend sweeping cities the world over: a delightful community garden. Not a new trend, though. Even the most cram-full Chinese city blocks have shared gardens in sidewalk nooks that allow residents to grow bok choy and other greens. A “grow your food” counterculture has been around in Western cities. The green cult is bouncing back strongly now, keeping with the locavores and those ploughing the depths to keep off industrial farm produce laced with pesticides and grown from genetically modified seeds. Many in Indian cities are caught up in the whirl too—but sometimes the contrast cannot be starker. In some cases it’s “rent a farm”, a business concept that allows renters, mostly those with money to spare, enjoy the fruits of labour without soiling their hands.  

Gairatpur Bas, on the outskirts of Gurgaon, offers little for the eyes unless you look closely. Here’s where Kiranjeet Chaturvedi and her friend joined a community farm project in November 2017. It all happened when a group of citizens and a district horticulture officer gathered to discuss sustainable practices in urban living. And then someone suggested renting farmland plots together for organic community kitchen gardens, much like those abroad. The idea clicked. “A friend asked me if I would be interested in renting a farmlet, since I was already into organic kitchen gardening on my little terrace balcony. I said yes, and asked another friend, a paediatric doctor, to join me. Like me, she too is passionate about a sustainable, earth-friendly lifestyle,” Chaturvedi says.

Spread over three acres, the Gairatpur Bas farm has about 40 plots of around 1,000 square feet each for every member—enough to produce vegetables for two small families. A line of marigold separates individual plots. Hired labour does the bulk of the work—preparing the soil, planting, weeding, mulching and watering—while “the members like us are active during the harvest, which is usually once or twice a week”, says Chaturvedi. “Most of the seeds and seedlings are sourced collectively. Members can plant whatever they choose to grow.” Everything’s grown organic on cow manure and plant compost. The harvests are plentiful. Mustard, spinach, turnip, radish, carrots, fenugreek, onion, brinjal, cauliflower, bok choy, potato, broccoli, chili, capsicum, tomato, coriander, cucumber, pumpkin, water melon, bhindi, bottle gourds… you name it. Some of the produce are frozen or dehydrated for later use. “We are waiting for parsley and celery and native beans to grow more.” Fruit trees like pomegranate, lemon, guava and amla are planted too. For two winters, the farm had a mushroom hut and the produce was plentiful. The corn was doing well this year until Nilgais and wild boars got to them. Same goes for sweet potatoes.

It’s more than a garden producing vegetables. The farm provides an organic escape from the monotonous humdrum of city life, promotes bonding over WhatsApp group chats and troubleshooting farming issues. And what better place can be had for a picnic, sharing meals like one giant family. Last summer, the members installed a sprinkler irrigation system and built a toilet. For Chaturvedi, there’s nothing more rel­axing than a walk in the farm at the break of dawn on summer weekends and soaking up the afternoon sun in winter.

In Mumbai, Ansoo Gupta takes the simple, earthy pleasures of life seriously. A passionate community gardener, she says it’s all about being practical in a city where real estate is almost off-limits—so expensive and limited that hardly any space is expendable for farming. In a community garden setup, people pool in—X has the space, Y has time and commitment, Z has the expertise. All three are united by a love of growing plants. “It’s the easiest to share it with people who live close by, neighbours in an apartment complex. If your office has space, you can start a community kitchen garden with colleagues. I share it with my gardening group members and a few friends who lives close by.” A common pool of experience and wisdom is helpful for city slickers with practically no hands-on knowledge about growing food, organically in more ways than one. Homemade compost from vegetable and banana peels, egg shells etc; homemade pesticides like chili powder and neem sprays. People bring back seeds from their trips.

These gardens are like little paradises for people starved of green spaces. People like Reny Varghese, a hospital administrator in Thane, got drawn to the concept as it offered a productive social activity—something no social media can imitate. “A flash flood in my building in 2017 deposited a blanket of fertile slurry on the parking lot. We had around 200 empty paint cans after the building was painted a while before the floods. We got these filled with the soil and shifted them to the terrace. A month later, seeds, water, manure went in. And a satisfying harvest followed.” Varghese and his friends—all of them professionals—meet on the terrace at 6.30 am every day to stretch their limbs, catch the morning sun, the breeze and bond over broccoli.

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Vines That Bind

Two or more like-minded people from a neighbourhood or an apartment complex or even an office get together to grow vegetables on a common open space. One can rent a farm or use a terrace/backyard or any other available public space to set up an organic farm. The produce is shared, normally. Such gardens help members unwind and socialise—a big plus at a time when families are becoming smaller and people hardly get to meet other in the rat race.