When I was a kid I used to eat lots of leafy greens, mostly in raw form. It was all grown in local fileds and were so fresh. Some were even used to be considered as weeds but were very nutritious. I can recall the fragrance and taste even today!
When I eventually shifted to urban cities I noticed that leafy greens were no longer greener! They didn't seem to be nutitious any more. Forget about nutrition. They were stinky, poisonous and what not! I stopped eating them raw and infact stopped eating many other veggies like cauliflower, cabbage, capsicum as I realized they were being poisoned, waxed etc .
However, I could not stop eating each and everything though I knew they were all contaminated with one or the other way!
Then I started thinking of growing my own vegetables. Well, I felt that was the only way left to keep myself and family members away from diseases. We used our balcony space to grow many of the veggies ourself using a very light weight medium called cocopeat and water soluble minerals. Soon we started harvesting very fresh and nutritious leafy greens and other few veggies in a very limited space. We then expanded our venture by growing on a roof top.
Since then we have been growing Tomatoes, Chillies, Capsicum, Tomatoes, Brinjal, Potatoes, Spinach, Corinder, Amaranthus, Lettuce, cabbage, Cauliflower, Onions, Cucumber and what not!
We also grow fruits like Guvava, Strawberries and some flowers too. The money we spend for two months to grow all this is equivalent to what we spent to buy veggies in a week! We also sell our produce if it's excess.
Thanks to a very simple technique called Soil-less Farming aka Hydroponics. It gives you flexibility to grow whatever you want in a very lesser space in an eco-friendly way, and saves lots of water too!
You want to replicate the same on your rooftop? Let us know. We will provide a complete guidance and handholding. We are based out of Bengaluru, transformed more than 2000 people to grow their own food. Message us on 8762162045 to learn more and grow with us...
Guruprasad Kurtkoti
Farmer @ Belesiri.in