"Farming on my rooftop to be self sustainable" says, Jagadish Shri from Bangalore

Mr. Jagadish Shri in Banashankari set up his own terrace garden where he grows organic vegetables like beans and carrots.  "Healthy food locally produced without incurring any transportation carbon miles was the primary reason to get started on this journey", says Shri, who works as a technical manager at Wipro Technologies in Madiwala.In August 2009 he set up his 40 sq ft organic vegetable terrace garden, where he now grows beans, ladiesfinger, carrot, knolkhol (Kohlrabi) and brinjal. He uses these vegetables in his own kitchen.One of the many interesting aspects of this garden is the use of two different types of containers. Initially, being unable to use the boxes Shri purchased, from the company near Bannerghatta Road, due to their interference with his RWH system, he began with 22 regular earthen pots that he placed in a sunny patch on the terrace.

And then, earlier this year, at a workshop by Dr B N Vishwanath (a pioneer in promoting urban agriculture, who regularly conducts workshops on organic terrace gardening), Shri got further impetus to expand his terrace garden experiment! He learnt to make his own terrace garden containers with deal wood (recycled packing material) and a metal frame, that he now uses on his terrace.

The initial investment he made for the pots, boxes, compost and said was around Rs 5000. Now he spends anywhere between Rs 100-200 every three months.

Shri is next looking to make his garden as self-sustaining as possible and minimise the inputs needed from outside such as soil and fertiliser. He also does not want to increase the water consumption significantly for the garden. He has just started experiementing with growing fruits like guava, pomegranate and sapota.