Building a community through kitchen gardens

Sameet’s family introduced him to gardening in 2008 when he was 12 years old. In his school library, he found gardening books and was astonished by the fact that he could grow vegetables on the terrace! He decided to start growing tomatoes, chili, beans, etc, with the guidance of his family.

After his undergraduate studies, he got involved in this process more. Currently, he has 70–80 pots on his terrace including herbs, ornamentals and vegetables. The biodiversity he witnesses in his garden has brought him closer to nature. As an eco-conscious person, Sameet uses discarded thermocol boxes and plastic containers to grow plants. Some of the bio formulations he uses in his garden are aloevera fertilizer, neem concotion, banana peel fertilizer and onion peel fertilizer in liquid form and then uses the residue as compost.

He has a small team named “Environment and Nature-Jhansi” which also represented Jhansi in Swachh Sarveskashan. He has a group on WhatsApp to which serves as a platform for knowledge sharing and build awareness on kitchen gardens. He also organises webinars in which people come forward to share their experiences in form of learnings. He has distributed 40–50 plants in his community. People thank him for introducing greenery in their residences, and that too, free of cost.

With past year experiences, he has learnt to save the plants from the scorching sun and now has a green terrace under the fiery temperatures. He recommends his fellow gardeners to choose the correct container and also cautions about over or under fertilization, as it harms the plants. He also saves a lot of seeds in air-tight bags for subsequent seasons and plants mustard to attract pollinators on its yellow flowers.

People keep approaching him for plant saplings and he has plans to distribute them across the community after the situation gets better to move out. He mentions that every house should have tulsi, giloy, lemongrass as they boost up our immune. A thought that was once provoked as a curiosity for gardening at a young age, is now resulting in many blooming gardens around Sameet.

Be a part of his evolving community.
Link to join his WhatsApp group-
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvSsS9yrbVCCSkFJ3TWrr8