Urban Leaves India: May 2011

Monday 30 May 2011

A Quick Re-cap on Our Success

Community City Farm at Nana Nani Park Chowpatty – 28th Nov 2010

Early morning  on 28th Nov 2010, saw enthusiastic members of the Park join Urban Leaves volunteers at the inaugural heap making day at Nana Nani Park.


   

(G) olden urban leaves :D make a start - 9th Jan 2011

Beautiful Sunday morning – 9th Jan 2011, Urban Leaves volunteers were ready to conduct their first round of workshop. A wonderful feeling took birth as the dream of creating a movement of Urban Farming in Mumbai was entering the next stage.

  

Once Again The Group Meets to Make Amrut Mitti - 20 Feb 2011

Jan – Feb – March April are the best months of the year when biomass is available in plenty.
So we planned a group activity once again to make heaps of Amrut Mitti. The temptation is to have as much AM for planting just before the rains. This is what we did on 20th Feb at NNP

  


Horray ! Amrut Mitti is ready at Nana Nani Park - 27th March 2011

This is 27th March 2011 – exactly four months from the day we inaugurated heap making. We made AM heaps regularly every week. Total of 20 heaps were achieved.

Want to share this divine moment with you all  The initial five beds of AM was ready for planting. The soil is awesome..... dark brown and fine texture..... We have combined these five beds to make a single long one.

The seeds were sowed in the AM at home. We selected all creepers which were to be our first plantation. The images of the saplings are 20 days old.

  


First Plantation at Nana Nani Park – 8th April, 2011

A small group of enthusiastic volunteers was present for this activity. We were all very excited as after all the pains we had taken to lovingly build Amrut Mitti for over a period of 4 months were finally going to plant something ! We had great fun planting saplings in the  Amrut Mitti raised bed. 

Situated right in the heart of South Mumbai, this truly is going to be an Urban Farm. Come have a look......

 Building a Trellis for the Creepers - till 17th April 2011
The small saplings planted last month have grown beautiful healthy leaves. Now the creepers are demanding a strong support to climb, so we shall build a trellis.

A wonderful engineering skill was applied by volunteers to build this strong and sturdy trellis. Pl note, no external help was hired. Do run through the images to believe that great hands were at work…. Also to be noted is, NNP is on the chowpatty beach, the wind that this trellis is going to be holding during monsoons…. This is going to a real test on our skills….

This took us 15days, two weeks working twice a week to get the trellis ready.

    
From mid may till date we are continuously enjoying the fruit of our hard work. Should admit, hard work leads only to joy and smile on our faces…..

I am choked to express any further, advice view the pictures that says all…..

Today is 29th May 2011….. Six months now? We are not satisfied and are asking for more to come….

    

Have planted Bhindi, Clusterbeans, Corn, Purple Yam, Suran, Ginger, Garlic, Chilles, Tomates, and more...

Cheers and smiles
Purvita
Volunteer Urban Leaves

Sunday 8 May 2011

Building a trellis for the Creepers

The small saplings planted last month have grown beautiful healthy leaves.

                                                   Work on trellis started.



                                        Senior Citizens are leading the way.
                                     Sunday mornings were hectic but enjoyable!




Oh Yes! Its done!
Himmat bhai keep leading.....

              After all the hard work, its time to relax, wait for Amrut Mitti to show its magic!
                                    The small saplings are raring to go.....

                                              Tiny cucumbers on their way.



                                     Getting their hands dirty on a Sunday Morning.
Now waiting for the harvest!

Bravo Purvita, Ubai , Joshi,Rai, and team.

You have done a marvelous job!

So , my dear fellow Mumbai citizens, after seeing them, aren't you tempted to have your own farm. Look out for all those sunny, wasted patches in your locality and on your terraces and choose to take the first step to improving your urban lifestyle. Join our Urban Leaves Family to make a better world.

View the Photo Gallery of the first harvest at NNP - May 11

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Urban Leaves Summer Camp in your Premises

Dear Friends

With all the inquiries we have received , it is clear that many parents are interested but find it difficult to drop and pick up their children at the Nature Park for the Camp for the whole week.

Well , so we thought about it and are keen to doing the same in your Society, Housing Colony provided we get a group of 10 children.

So yes, do REGISTER HERE.

The contents of the Camp and Fees remain the same. For batches larger than 10 children discounted rates apply.

Write to urbanleaves@gmail.com for inquiries.

Smiles and Cheers
Urban Leaves Team