Everyone loves to have fresh vegetables from their backyard, but, with rampant construction leading to a reduction in cultivable land, owning a kitchen garden of your own is a dream come.
Dharani Kumar Dey, a businessman who hails from Odisha, is one of those who has managed to build an innovative organic farming garden on his rooftop with vegetables, fruits and flowers. He has set an example in Baripada in the Mayurbhanj district for gardening on the housetop.
Belonging to a farmer's family, Dharani was always interested in plants and farming since childhood. He has been growing a kitchen garden for the last 12 years on his rooftop. His rooftop garden houses nearly 40 types of plants including medicinal plants, herbs, flowers, trees and vegetables. A 4 to 5 feet tall coconut tree, full of fruits is the cynosure of all eyes.
"I started rooftop farming in 2010. Initially, I started with planting flowers. Then I expanded it to other fruits and vegetables. There is a wide variety now," he told ANI.
Potatoes, onion, garlic, bitter gourd, brinjal, bottle gourd, tomato, radish and coriander leaves are all produced in his green patch. He has successfully grown mango, lemon, papaya, sapodilla (chikoo) and plum plants on the roof.
He has used discarded plastic buckets, plastics, and broken water tanks to grow plants on his roof.
Interestingly, Dharani has never used chemical fertilizers or pesticides for his garden. He has created his own herbal medicine, a mix of fresh cow dung, cow urine, jaggery and water, to increase the fertility of his soil and prevent diseases.
Moreover, Dharani said that it meets his family's daily requirement of vegetables. "I do not sell it. Sometimes our guests take it," he said.
With a wide variety readily available at home, Dharani does not need to shop for vegetables. He avails everything from his rooftop garden all throughout the year.
Being a businessman, Dharani tends to his plants in the morning and goes to his furniture showroom at Baripada Gandhi Market in the evening. He is popularly known as a nature lover in his neighbourhood.
