JOIN USShades of green, red, pink and yellow dot the backyard of any Malnad house in winter. Patches of greens, gourds and other vegetables spread in the surroundings serve as a nutrition storehouse for the families. Passion for growing vegetables is integral to women of this region, where agriculture is the mainstay of economy.
By growing vegetables in the backyard, one can ensure good health as it involves physical exercise and also provides healthy food. Most of the time, these vegetables are grown free of chemicals. Not only does it cut down expenses of purchasing vegetables, but also offers the pleasure of observing different stages of plant growth and fruiting; it de-stresses you and makes you forget the mundane problems of life. Though vegetables are cultivated in available space throughout the year, winter sees the best collection in
everyone’s backyard.
Natural & wholesomeShortage of land didn’t stop Sharada Poojari from developing a vegetable garden near her house in Hutgar in Sirsi taluk. She grows amaranthus, brinjal and Indian spinach in a hundred square feet area. She regularly gets good harvest and thereby meet her family’s vegetable requirement.
She spends about half an hour a day, grooming her plants. Greywater is directed towards the plants; since her family uses locally available soap-nut powder instead of bathing soap, it doesn’t harm the plants. She spreads cowdung on the soil bed where the crop is grown. In the event of any pest attack, she fumigates warm wood ash over the leaves. “This will take care of many leaf eating pests,” she explains.
Eco-friendly
Subhadra Hegde, of the same village grows vegetables wherever she finds space around her house. Her family has a small areca plantation and two milking cows.
Her small kitchen garden beside her home is usually in full swing during winter. She grows about thirty types of vegetables, including native varieties in this season. She harvests at least three cuttings from leafy vegetables.
“If you have black, loose soil, enough water and good sunlight, you can grow any vegetable,” she says. One of her secrets is that she mixes burnt soil with the normal soil while preparing the land bed. She gets enough cow dung slurry as fertiliser, from the gobar gas plant at her home.
Pests rarely pose danger to her plants, for a spray of cow urine diluted by adding water in a ratio of 1:5 is her pesticide. For leaf-eating pests of ladies finger, she finds a spray of wood ash useful.
“If the pests eat my plants, despite these treatments, I let it go. Nature will take its own course,” she maintains. She makes it a rule never to use any kind of chemical fertilisers or pesticides.
She spends more than two hours everyday in her vegetable garden. ‘Plants need daily attention. You can’t be complacent,’ she says, matter-of-factly. Though she grows vegetables mainly for her family, she does not forget to offer them to her friends and relatives; exchanging plants and collecting new varieties have helped her expand her
garden consistently.
At a time when market vegetables have become popular in the rural areas too, hobbies like this have a greater ecological significance that must be encouraged.