Human body needs 6 major vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) and 14 minerals (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, sulfur, magnesium, manganese, sodium, chlorine, iodine, zinc, copper, fluorine etc) which are essential for its proper maintenance, growth and development and most of these vitamins and minerals can be obtained from the vegetables. Such vegetable can easily be cultivated even in urban centers where people have a terraced roof area or ground area of 30 x 20 ft. These vegetable can also be cultivated in pots or in specially prepared beds and importantly the manure required for the cultivation can be generated from the home and kitchen waste itself.
Types of Terrace Garden
The terrace garden can be roofed or open. In open terraced garden the pots and beds remain exposed to sunlight, heat, wind, cold, rain means different weather conditions. In the roofed terrace garden, there will be transparent roof over the pots and beds so it is like a green house. Therefore in the open terraced garden growing vegetables is more difficult than in the roofed terraced garden. In the same way, disease incidence in the open terraced garden will be less compared to the open terraced garden.
We can also have roofed terraced garden without really enclosing the growing area completely and controlling the temperature and humidity completely. By roofing with transparent sheets, sufficient light will be allowed to come in and also certain amount of control will be exercised on the temperature and humidity.
Materials Required for Terrace Garden
Terrace cultivation of vegetables should be undertaken as a long term programme rather than a sporadic and erratic attempt. For the cultivation of vegetables on the terraced roof, we have to set up certain infrastructural facilities on permanent basis which can generate regular income in the form of various vegetables required for the family. These essential materials required are enumerated below :
Terraced space : The minimum terraced area of 30 x 20 ft should be available for a family of 5 to 6 persons in order to grow sufficient vegetables. Growing vegetable in order to meet partial required is also a good option. For the cultivation of vegetables, the terrace should also be properly water proofed.
Pots & beds : Though pots of any size and shape can be used for growing vegetables but generally pots of 45, 60 and 75 cms diameter and 20 to 30 cm depth are most suitable. For greater stability and durability of the pots, it is advisable to wind ropes around the pot. For better management of the vegetable in the pots, it is better to have the pots of same size and shape. Each pot should have a small hole at its bottom to drain out excess of water due to rain or irrigation.
The ideal size of the beds used for terrace vegetable garden is 6x3 or 9x3 feet in length and breadth. The height of the beds should be 1.0 – 1.5 feet. These beds can be made one after the other closely in rows or separately depending on the space available. Leave few small holes at the bottom of each bed to drain out the excess water from the bed during the rain or irrigation.
Nursery beds or pots : As the name indicates, these are pots or beds used for preparing seedlings of different vegetables to be transplanted into the pots or beds. The nursery pots or beds should be shallow and recommended depth is up to 6 inches. The seedlings will develop deep roots in this depth and will remain in the nursery only 3 to 4 weeks. Like other pots and beds, the nursery beds or pots also should have drainage holes at the bottom.
The nursery bed should have very fine sandy loam soil up to a depth of 6 inches. The bed is partioned into small sections with a stick of bamboo split or a wooden reaper. A section may be as small as one square foot. In each section, we can raise seedlings of different vegetables and get them ready for transplanting.
Nursery bed or pots should be well prepared, protected and well placed so that good quality seedlings can be raised. In order to reduce the time period between planting and harvesting, it is better to grow seedlings in bigger polythene bags or smaller pots till the flowering time (1-2 month) and then transplant them into the actual vegetable growing pots or bed along with the mud and without giving the transplanting shock to the plants.
Pot mixture : It is well prepared mixture of soil and compost. Generally, the top soil of loamy nature from a cultivated land mixed with equal amount of good compost will be sufficient to be used as pot mixture. In case the soil is clayey mix sand, clay and compost in 1:1:1 proportion. Another propotion of the pot mixture will be to mix the lay and sand in equal amount first and then to this mxture mix equal amount of compost (mix clay, sand and compost in the ration of 1:1:2). The more the compost the better for the mixture. The pot mixture may be enriched with blue green algae, bone meal, leaf mould or decomposed wood or barks or well decomposed animal dung. Try to incorporate as much organic matter as possible into the pot mixture.
Implements : Certain essentials implements should be procured and kept at a convenient place. These should be available at any time or whenever needed. Baskets for carrying soil, compost, composting materials etc are the essential items. A small shovel to gather the soil, compost and composting material into the basket is the second item. The third item is one or two buckets for mainly carrying water for irrigation. The fourth item is Khurpi or similar implement to loosen the soil, to prepare the soil, to remove the weeds, to dig a small hole to plant the seeds and seedlings, to level the soil, etc. As fifth item, one should have a sieve for sieving the soil and compost before they are placed in the pots and beds.
Shading material : Since the vegetables are grown on terrace, the plants will be exposed to high rate of radiation and scorching. In order to protect plants from such hazards, shades should be arranged. Shading material can be made of sack clothes, rough cotton clothes, sheets made of plastic threads, thin plastic or fibre glass material etc.
Compost boxes : These are sufficiently big containers of plastic or such non-degradable materials or bricks made small tanks of the size 3 x 3 x 3 feet. There should be two tanks or containers so that composting materials can be deposited as and when they are collected. The waste is deposited into one box first and when it is full , start depositing in the other. By the time the second box is full, the deposited waste in the first box will be composted. Thus compost making goes on in rotation and the waste is recycled very hygienically and usefully.
Immediate Preparation
After the beds are constructed, the pots are made ready. Pot mixture is prepared immediately and used to fill the beds and pots.
Filling the pots and beds : After the pot mixture is prepared all the pots or beds are filled up with pot mixture. Before filling each pot, place a piece of flat stone or a piece of broken clay ware covering the drainage holes at the bottom of the pots. Fill the pots or beds with the pot mixture in uniform compactness. It should neither be too compact nor too loose. Leave few inches space from the top of the pots or the beds while filling. After filling the pots or bed, irrigate them nearly up to the saturation point. This will help in forming proper soil pore space distribution in the pot mixture so that proper soil water movement can take place within the soil mass inside the bed or pot.
Arrangements of the pots : In the case of beds, they are already arranged in the proper way at the time of construction. Whereas in the case of pots, they are arranged before filling with pot mixture. Arrange a certain number of pots in clusters. Each cluster may be consisting of few lines of pots placed closely together. The best is to have four lines up to any convenient length. In this arrangement, we can look after the pots, of two lines from one side and pots of other two lines from the other side. The arrangements of pots in each cluster should be such that each plant will have sufficient space for its proper growth and development. Arrangements of pots and beds should be such that all the works can be done easily and in short time.
Seeds & Seedlings : Identify a good and reliable source for the procurement of seeds. Some vegetables are sown directly into the soil while some are raised in nursery beds and their seedlings from nursery planted into the beds or pots.
Manures and fertilizers : In most cases, use of organic manures alone is enough. The minimum amount of at least one kg of organic manure it to be applied each time while planting new vegetables. In the case of pots, it is better to take out the soil and spread it on tray, break the clouds, remove the roots and other plant residues, mix it with fresh organic manure and refill the pots. All the micro-nutrients requirements can be met by the addition of the organic manures.