4 Ways To Start Green At Home

As a person who tries to switch to more and more to organic and healthier living choices, these are a simple ways you can start off

1. Switch to cloth bags - Reduces plastic getting piled up at home, rewashing is a piece of cake and you encourage the shopkeeper and other customers to switch as well! I love the ones from Clean Planet check them out you get some really trendy ones.

My garden which has tomato, capsicum, chillies and basil

2. Grow some green and veggies at home, even indoor plants like aloe vera and snake plant keep the air well purified and clear chemicals like formaldehyde and benzene. Grow veggies like tomato and chillies in pots and grow bags.  Organic Garten is great for seeds, Smart Gardens in Bangalore can set up gardens for busy bees out there

Cucumber in a grow bag

3. Segregate, recycle and compost - Take that extra 15 minutes in the day and segregate your dry and wet waste get dry waste picked up by recycling centres. Compost your kitchen peels and greens in a large pot or kambha. Easy peasy once you start. For segregation get started with 2bins1bag with comes with a complete instruction manual.

4. Switch to eco-friendly non toxic washing powders, detergents, floor cleaners wash and clean with an awesome aroma and its all chemical free! Ever put your nose into your detergent powder box?   Harmful and toxic chemicals are added to powders so your wearables look pristine and shiny. Notice after a few washes they start looking faded and out shape? Try out these eco-friendly options and make the switch, The shelf life of your clothes improves dramatically.

More coming up soon, hope these tips help! 

Life takes a happy turn

Its been a hectic few months, with getting married and moving home. 3 months later, me and Govind are finally settling into our new lives and lifestyle. After quite a few post party scenes and an amazing barbeque party the house is getting used to us and my front yard look nothing like its green lush self a week back!

No matter, I hope to have some lovely creepers and climbers growing very soon with pots of veggies and who know's even a coconut tree if I can manage and turn my front lawn into a green haven for the early morning yoga (always hoping to exercise!)

Moving home especially when you have a partner takes a lot more work than just finding an apartment and running along to malls and filling it up with the basics. It dawned on me (despite working in the sustainability field) this time around that second hand furniture is the most economical and sensible decision especially when its two professionals setting up home for the first time! Thank you Olx for the fabulous deals :)

Now its time for some DIY activities and composting time at the house, lets hope for the best!

My front lawn

Me and Gov

Escape to BR Hills

Gorukana

Sometimes you get this urge to just take off, and I did that post Christmas last year. I started working in December and with the extended break thought why not, once you work taking off has to be planned so caught the first bus out and left. Much to my mother's shock, I hopped onto a bus the next morning and took off to BR Hills, 75 km outside Bangalore.

On reaching I found myself in front of the hotel surrounded by forest area, fresh air and awesome weather. Just what I was looking for, some peace and quiet, time to think and be alone. After lunch on the roof top and a cup of chai, I was off on the road for a wildlife tour around the place.

Female elephant

BR Hills is where the Eastern and Western ghats meet, located about 1500 m above sea level, it is a complete haven of natural resources and wildlife. I caught my first wildlife sighting - a pair of wild elephants! A male and female foraging off the main road. The tusker promptly ran into the forest trumpeting on seeing us and the female just watched us peacefully. Taking a few snaps and feeling great we went further into the forest to see what the forest had in store.

Life stands still when you are in the wild, you stop and listen to the amazing bird calls, the bark of a deer, the trees and the best part - silence. It clears your mind and you stop thinking for that time and look around drinking in the green view and landscape, using all your senses. How relaxing, and the good weather always helps.

Giant wood spider

Some of the tribal settlements called Kalehali and Modegahalli located in forest periphery were seen with tribals busy harvesting and processing coffee beans, one of their livelihood means, they also harvest honey, pepper and medicinal plants. Their vast knowledge about the forest and its uses is the most sustainable form of using resources, always knowing exactly how much to take, time for regrowth and leaving for other creatures. Influences from the urban centre infiltrates even these remote corners - I observed television in many houses and yet open fires are still used for cooking along with inadequate sanitary and drainage conditions.

I decided to extend my trip for another day and spent most of the day reading, attended a tribal performance at Gorukana run by the same management at the inn I was staying at and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Convinced that this is my next accomodation when I am here next, it has a spa that sits on a lake and even has its own organic garden filled with radish and potatoes which I see myself helping out with. They also support a tribal school run by VGKK (Vivekananda Girijiana Kalyana Kendra) and help the locals earn through honey, pepper, gooseberry juice manufacturing inside school premises.

I would recommend Akasa BR hills to anyone with a budget, no plan and a backpack to take off and spend a few days birding, sightseeing and good self-rejuvenation.

BR Hills

Cheers!

Positive Changes Everywhere

Biofach India is coming to Bangalore this weekend and the organic crowd are gearing up to showcase, talk, network and host a spectacle for the interested public in town. With more and more green mela's and events picking up pace on organic food and sustainability, this year is going to see a healthy mix of families, experts, entrepreneurs at the event. I for one am waiting to meet, network and get some good gyan about the greener side of life.

The other day walking down levelle road, I walked into 'The Glasshouse' one of Bangalore's newest lounge bar's- snazzy restaurants and was pleasantly surprised to find empty racks at the entrance which will be used for Hydroponic vegetables. "That will start very soon!", said the eager manager to me, their breads are yum by the way I tried out the pumpkin seed and sun dried tomatoes ones and going back for more soon. Hydroponic farming is growing plants/ veggies/ ornamental in sustainable water requirements without soil. The entire concept of merging a cosmopolitan atmosphere, food and being environmental friendly was so nice! This is one place I am definitely checking out in a couple of week's.

Next couple of days are going to be exciting with fun activities and talks like 'Nature on My Plate' presented at Biofach India in Bangalore. There are going to be interactive sessions, talks, activities and session between Bangalore's Kitchen Gardeners, organic enthusiasts of the city, educational activities for kids and an entire pool of organic brands, consumers, produces, supply chains telling is who is doing what and what the benefits are. Yes I am definitely looking forward to this one!

Celebrating the Growth of Organic Goodness

The Bhoomi Utsav programme held in Bangalore

Bhoomi College held its first Bhoomi Utsav this October celebrating sustainability, organic food & health, education and awareness on social activities in Bangalore. The world of sustainability and going green is emerging into a profit making enterprise which has picked up lot of steam over the last 1-2 years. Being brand conscious in the organic world is emerging as a trend and people can be seen visiting their favourite stalls showing brand and product loyalty.

A Hundred Hands - NIMHANS initiative

Writing about kitchen gardening and urban farmers in Bangalore gives me a feeling of the green good that is being done out there and having started my own terrace garden made me realise how natural it is to have one. An expert told me sometime ago, "We take away green to build homes and buildings so it only makes sense to give back by growing it on and around our terraces. We come to realise how much we benefit". All these years of seeing my mother getting indoor plants in the house and growing ornamental flowers, it never quite hit me back then.  

After speaking to many people who love their gardens, have hectic lifestyles and observe the positive benefits of gardening - It is indeed therapeutic and popularly defined as  'stress-buster, patience, calming and happy". Being an impatient  person myself gardening is a great way of spending time with the environment, we pay more attention to the weather, check on our plants and veggies and start observing the butterflies and squirrels that come visiting.

Zentangle - A meditative art form

I also read recently about the Organic Revolution coming to the city in November this year - Biofach - An International Organic Trade Fair which brings together everyone from organic fields - farmers, investors, experts, business and over 35 speakers addressing the forum. Farmers and buyers will have an opportunity to meet and interact directly this year will see buyers fro overseas. The farm2fork concept will be re-emphasized at the forum which I am looking forward to hear at various educational activities and events planned on the 14th and 15th of November at Palace Ground in the namma Bangalore.

The world of organic, heirloom seeds and bringing back what was always ours which got lost but making its way back into our minds are opportunities and opening the world of understanding the harmonious balance between the environment and ourselves. Even an  online organic information directory  presents education and understanding of the need for organic consumerism for enthusiast's like me.

Looking forward to hearing, learning more of the green world.  

Take on Life

Post composting and gardening life is a lot greener than before. I harvest basil, mint and beans on a regular basis and await a tomato to be plucked from my terrace garden. Composting turned out to be a lot more tedious than I thought but once I started I just could not stop. You see garbage turning into black compost in no time at all and with the help of some de'grade compost and dry leaves the process is a lot faster. Nature makes you learn how everything goes back to the soil and with a little push from our end pollution and waste is generated into far richer elements.

On another topic in a city like Bangalore, different things taking place everywhere. People are becoming more and more accepted in the city and more willing to open their eyes to reality. Coming from a family that has been slightly ahead of the times and encouraged me to pursue what I want not not of what is expected you realise how different your upbringing can be to people around. With most Indians society dictates what they should do and stay within the realm of things taking most command of the situation which is unrealistic and unnecessary not to mention intrusive. Society fails to understand that change is constant and keeping up with this can be a challenge yet a success if they want the people they love within to succeed.

Whether it is accepting a person's choice to marry someone they love outside the community or pursuing higher studies in a foreign land or even premarital sex all three are common habits observed with the present generation. The last 20-30 years has seen so much change in its time that the last 100 years before covered in the same amount. This of course allowed societies to take their time and move ahead in a trickle. With the progress of technology, information and various external influences today the present generation can always be in a fast-forward mode but what about those who pause every now and then?

The most probably answer that I can think of is effective and persuasive communication which can help in many ways. Support systems in forms of people and most of all trust with one another. Honesty may never be the best policy to go forward hey this is the real world, but trust we must if we are to be together. 

Bangalore Celebrates World Kitchen Gardening

World Kitchen Day was celebrated with gusto which saw hoards of Bangaloreans flocking to JP Nagar to check out the organic side of life. From wannabe gardeners wandering around looking for seeds and soil, to crowds loving the purchase of healthy organic products. Lots of exclamations of “Ooh’s and Aah’s” and “How nice!” could be heard, followed by dozens of questions, quite overwhelming for the organic sellers.

Sunday indeed saw a happy crowd as they bounced from stall to stall buying, learning, listening and being
pro-green on this green day. OFYT brought its 6^th edition to the city with newer faces, products and fun-filled activities for families to enjoy.

What struck this time was it was not a crazy mad rush to buy organic products and seedlings, but families and young couples wanting to be clued on how they can eat, live, go to work and exist in a better, cleaner and environmentally inclined world. And they were getting all the answers right here. Stalls for every kind of audience possible, from buying compost pots from daily dump for the busy workaholic who doesn’t have the time, to getting the right nutrition from grains and Millet's for an older crowd.

A kids corner in one section was filled with board games and colourful pictures teaching the how’s and why’s of gardening along with crossword puzzles of knowing your veggies, painting spots and small displays of biodiversity know-have’s of gardening like worms and compost, display of organic vegetables and fruits was completed with a sapling given away to each child who participated. A wonderful educational workshop as a stepping stone teaching kids about the natural world and goodness of gardening. Other products included Mystic Hues beautiful pottery designs to funk up your balcony with colours and Muddy Waters which sells ceramic landscape gardening designs that gives terraces and balconies a beautiful earthy feel, lots of foodie products such as Vaathsalya, The Wheatgrass Farm and organic hand baked cupcakes coming in vegan style at OFYT called Taantraa filled with various khatta meetha flavours. The millet drive Earth360 was full power with a tasting of multi grain porridge which ran out quickly and in no time saw people purchasing their starter kit’s along with helpful recipes. 

Fun ways of reducing, reusing, and recycling at home was shared by Malleshwaram’s experts answering all questions and a small demo on composting held a good crowd  entertaining enthusiasts with “Wormi words of wisdom” had them listening intently and enjoying themselves.

Besides the compost, gardening equipment and various products, Bangalore organic kitchen gardeners enjoyed a salad party at the back, “We exchange seeds, knowledge and meet new people, bit of a get together with fresh greens from everyone’s home thrown in”,  said an enthusiastic city farmer.

An lovely moment was when a couple were showing their small son the worms used for composting, “We don’t compost but we would like to start, we want our son to learn about gardening and being healthy” his mom said. Gingerly trying to touch vermicomposting worms, he watched fascinatingly as they wriggled deeper into the soil.

OFYT is created by Dr. B.N. Vishwanath Bangalore’s organic agriculturalist and Bangalore's city farmers and saw one its biggest turnouts in JP Nagar on Sunday 25^th August, 2013.