: Bengaluru Family Converts Terrace Into Lush Organic Farm, Cut Household Expenses by 60% #IndiaNEWS #Karnataka Every morning, 84-year-old Hema Rao climbs up one floor of her house in Bengaluru with

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Bengaluru Family Converts Terrace Into Lush Organic Farm, Cut Household Expenses by 60% #IndiaNEWS #Karnataka
Every morning, 84-year-old Hema Rao climbs up one floor of her house in Bengaluru with a small basket in hand. Once she reaches the terrace of her apartment complex, she walks around, carefully inspecting the blue coloured drums of lush vegetable plants, spread across 12,000 sq ft.
She picks the ripest vegetables, pulls out a pair of scissors, snips the branches and collects what she needs in her basket. Then, she brings the harvest back home.
The octogenarian has followed this routine for the past few years, providing fresh vegetables for her family every day.
Her son Aditya says, “The other day, my mother brought five eggplants and three bitter gourds. Knowing that these would be insufficient to feed our family of five, she innovated a unique recipe combining the two with jaggery and kitchen spices. It turned out to be delicious. �
Aditya says that these are the small joys of having an organic terrace garden. “Call it a hobby or whatever you want, having a garden with chemical-free vegetables has brought multiple benefits for us,� he tells The Better India.
Adityas terrace garden.
On the terrace of Ittina Anai Apartments in Bellandur, a few residents, inspired by the Rao family, have come together to grow a variety of vegetables to reduce their dependence on market produce, in a bid to move towards organic farming. While the Raos began with 6,000 sqft of space, a few others joined in later.
The Raos harvest around 12 kilos of vegetables in a week, and say that their costs of groceries and such household expenses have reduced by 60 per cent.
An immensely rewarding activity
Aditya (47) says, “My family belongs to Hyderabad, and we moved to Bengaluru in 1999. We had a 2-acre bungalow back then, where my mother grew all the vegetables in her kitchen garden. Around 2012, we moved here in an apartment complex, and she started missing how she grew her own food, something she loved the most back in Hyderabad. �
This, he says, inspired the family to convert their terrace into an edible garden that not only gives them sweet solace, but also immense health benefits.
Hema and her daughter-in-law Chitralekha began growing food as a daily activity. “The apartment structure restricted my mother, and she missed the open space to roam around during morning and evening hours. So I brought home a few recycled drums, in which she started growing vegetables. These have now become a full-fledged garden with green leafy vegetables such as coriander, basil, mint, spinach, and gourds, as well as tubers like beetroot, radish, carrot and potato,� he says.
Aditya says the terrace also has tomatoes, peanuts, yams, amaranthus, chilli, capsicum, peas, different types of beans, and fruits such as papaya.

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