" Waste It" or " Invest It " an interactive workshop on Green Living

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About the Organizers

Monisha Narke will be conducting the workshop. Monisha is an active 'Green' practitioner and mentor who has been working on zero waste issues since the last few years.

Urban Leaves:

Urban Leaves a volunteer based organization driven by the primary motive; to create green/clean food spaces within the city. For more information and ongoing projects please visit: www.urbanleavesinindia.com &

www.natuecocityfarming.blogspot.com

RUR ---- “Are you Reducing, Reusing, Recycling “----

A neighborhood environment forum Initiated by young mothers, --- for bringing people together to protect our planet.

Their vision is to create eco-friendly citizens, who make their waste worthwhile for the planet by adopting GOOD GREEN PRACTICES.For more Green Insights write to rur.share@gmail.com

Don't forget to carry your water bottles and a " green mind" to the workshop !

Share an Urban Farm

Article in MID DAY August 8th 2010

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Home composting

We all know how crucial it has become for all of us to compost our waste at Home. Amrut Mitti takes time and has to be made batch by batch. So does this mean we dont start composting our waste, till Amrut Mitti is ready?
No.Not really. Here is a very simple technique that we at Urban Leaves have adopted.

It's easy, maintenance free!

No need to buy any earthworms or any other stuff. Just keep sprinkling some red earth in the pots from time to time. Once in a way if you feel that the waste has become too wet, add newspaper, dry leaves, and soil to cover it completely.Keep stirring it from time to time.

These are magical pots which never fill! when one pot is full, shift to the other and rest the first one. Come back to it, when the second one looks full. As the compost matures, rate of decomposition increases.

One fine morning, after three months remove the compost, take a fist full and smell it's heavenly fragrance!

Once your Amrut Mitti is ready it can handle your kitchen waste at home. Till then this is a good way to begin.

All the best!

Growing Tomatoes, cabbage,Kohlrabi in a Balcony

For eight years I grew up with natueco knowledge and experience of growing food on a terrace.

Pl see http://natuecocityfarming.blogspot.com/2009/02/farm-on-terrace.html  for the details of  my background. However it was only when i came into contact with Monisha and started conducting workshops at MNP telling people they could do it at home that I started working on my small balcony at Dockyard road.

Monisha taught us to compost kitchen waste. I combined a bit of my natueco GYAN and devised a method for myself. My kitchen waste first goes into my basket, ( Aerated ) not covered, in my balcony, which gets good sunlight.After it dries, it goes in my earthen pot. A layer of red earth or Amrut mitti from the terrace is sprinkled every three- four days in it. I turn the material in the pot every Sunday. Sprinkle Amrut Jal in it if I feel it has gone dry. Not otherwise.

I have harvested some lovely compost from it once , in which I have planted tomatoes which are now flowering. In fact there are five tomatoes.... and I love to see their growth day by day!

Had planted some lettuce, spinach, chillies, lemon grass, kohlrabi and cauliflower  in Amrut Mitti.

Have documented the progress in photographs..

I harvest about a sprigful of spinach per week from a single tub. Today I used it in my favourite raw spinach salad. it was crispy and sweet! : )

Will keep up with the updates. Do post in your experiences too.

Love

Preeti Patil

16.2.2010

After a wait of three months at last I harvested my tomatoes and Kohlrabi today.

They were so beautiful and delicious. Worth all the waiting!

Love Preeti

Musk Melon and beans in the balcony

The rich compost made from the kitchen waste throws up all kinds of surprises!

One such surprise was a musk melon which I didn't expect to grow. The food that we purchase from the market and eat, is generally obtained from HYBRID produce and so their seeds dont really give a proper yield.

So I was in two minds whether to allow this plant which had sprouted in my pot housing Kadipatta to grow in it. It looked so happy and at home, I didn't have the heart to uproot it. So once it was sure that it was there to stay, it quickly took over the balcony grill and spread its canopy. The Kadipatta too was comfortable.

Soon the flowers came. And then one day I saw a tiny little round melon. The roots of the plant had not only flourished in the Amrut Mitti but had also wrapped themselves around my heart. This tiny melon kept growing and one fine day was found fallen off from the creeper, all sweet and ripe!

The beans creeper has not only covered my grill but has also gone up on the floor above! My friend living on floor above me is going to be soon surprised to find " This magical beanstalk" ! I am busy counting my chickens before they are hatch! : ) Counting my beans!

Practical Guide to setting up a Natueco City Farm

City Kids In A City Garden

A hefty bunch of children from Kid’s Domain (an after-school) woke up early morning on Sunday July 11, 2010. Some of them even as early as 4 a.m., too excited to start the day. They hopped in a bus at Borivali which took them to Mahim Nature Park in drizzling rain. It was time to see the Urban Leaves’ garden there and get a hands-on experience of farming!

Preeti, Julius and Purvita introduced children to the variety of plants at the garden. The children got to see Mint, Pumpkin vine, Chowli pods, Chickoo tree and even two small baby Guavas. During this stroll in the garden they also met some farmer’s friends such as Earthworms, Slugs and Millipedes. However, many kids did not perceive them to be very friendly going by the looks of these creatures. Slowly some kids started to touch them curiously when a brave little girl excitedly put an earthworm in her palm. Her amused look was so precious!

From the garden they all went in the MNPS building to do some group activities and learn some more about farming.

Here, Nisha told them their favorite pizza’s journey. Little by little by the way of small skits, they learnt that their pizza originates from a farmer who grows vegetables. From there the truckwallas take it to wholesale shops. People buy these vegetables from shops and then they are taken to the kitchen where they are cooked and served. All the garbage generated in the process is picked up by garbage collectors and taken to local dump. The idea of this exercise was to explain kids the complex process by which the food ends up in our plate every day. We do not know where it has been grown, what has been added to it and what removed. Rather than eating food this way, why not grow your own veggies and be a city farmer?

After this activity they all saw difference between normal soil and Amrut Mitti and what would be a better way to do that than stick your hands in mud and feel it! Later they all had a chance to see various butterfly and moth caterpillars growing on plants. By this time, with all the action, kids were hungry, so after a quick chow break the activities were resumed.

The kids were divided in groups again and each group was provided with mitti, sugarcane pulp, ash, netted containers and plants. Each group had an experienced person from Urban Leaves to show children how to do the planting. Soon, kids had plants like spinach and Bhindi to take away and grow. They were also given small containers with soil and a few seeds to plant at home.
The day ended on a beautiful note as the children got to see a Tailor bird in nest on a small tree. This was a perfect way to know that a single plant has so many other creatures connected to it, including humans. Kids went back home already waiting for the seeds to sprout and the Kid’s Domain teachers with a plan to grow a nice little garden in their premises.