Beginner’s Guide to Home Gardening and it’s Benefits – What, Why and How?
A big shoutout to all the Nature Lovers!
To be with Nature, you don’t necessarily need to visit the Hill stations, forests, and beaches every time. I feel Home Gardening is one of the alternative where you can involve yourself with Nature and surround yourself with plants. Home Gardening allows you to closely have a look on how Nature grows and what all wonder it carries within itself.
What is Home Gardening?
Home Gardening – As the words suggest, it means building a garden at Home. Home gardening involves growing vegetables, flowers, Herbs, spices etc. at Home or in the vicinity of Home. Home Gardening can be practiced within individual’s land property like Backyard, Terrace or Balcony. Home Gardening varies from building a small garden to having few potted plants of your choice, that suits the amount of space you have and the climate conditions you live in.
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History of Home Gardening – A short tour
Home Gardening is not a modern practice. The concept of Gardening traces back in the pre-historic times. It started with Human practicing Agriculture by cultivating wild plants and saving the seeds for further cultivation. The traces of Gardening can be found in the Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greeks, Medieval European and American history.
Coming to the rich medicinal history of India, ‘The Ayurveda’ has deeply focused on having medicinal plants at Home that benefits a lot to the health of Humans. Ayurveda talks a lot about different medicinal herbs that can be used for prevention and treatment of different health and body conditions. Home Gardening provides an opportunity to grow and maintain plants like ‘Tulsi’ (Basil), Aloe vera, Neem, Ginger, Ashwagandha. These plants and herbs are mentioned as one of the most beneficial for Human Health as per Ayurveda.
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Why should one practice Home Gardening?
- The direct benefit of Home Gardening is, you can produce and consume pure, organic and fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs.
- Home Gardening is usually practiced as an Hobby by many. It connects an individual with the natural world, where an individual spend time outdoors nurturing the plants and understanding their growth requirements. It is observed that engaging in Home Gardening reduce stress level and helps in the betterment of Mental health. One feels calms and satisfactory when indulge in Home Gardening.
- Home Gardening requires physical movement as well, specially when planting new plants or shifting already grown plants to other place. Thus, you get a little to good amount of physical exercise thus improving physical health. Plus, you contribute in the betterment of Environment by promoting Biodiversity that develops around the Home Garden🙂
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How to start with Home Gardening?
Home Gardening is generally categorized into Outdoor Gardening (recommended if one have a yard), Indoor Gardening (Practiced when there’s not much space outdoor) and Containerized Gardening (The most followed gardening practiced wherein small containers, baskets and pots are used to plant and keep in small space outside).
You can start with Home Gardening by following below simple steps –
Choose the type of Home Gardening (Indoor / Outdoor / Containerized) based on the space you have at your home or in vicinity. Try to choose the spot that gets enough Sunlight and is not always wet / moist. When choosing Indoor spot you can target the space near window where plants can get exposed to enough sunlight.
Prepare the soil – Have a mix of sand such that when watered it should be able to soak it. Many times, when soil is not prepared properly it remains wet and moist that can damage the roots. Soil should be such that it soaks water. A lot of dryness in the soil can also damage the plants, hence a proper balance in soil is important. Experimenting a few times can help in this process. Plus, you can use organic compost, manure and balance amount of coco pit.
Buy the required tools – Actually gardening doesn’t require much tools. Instead I would phrase it as bough the containers if you have decided for containerized gardening or a rack if you want to organize indoor gardens. Apart from this, you can purchase Gloves if required and a small kit having Trowel, Hand rake / fork.
Decide the plants that you would want to grow. It is recommended to start with plants that grows easily as it helps us keep motivated. In my experience, the most easily grown plant is of ‘Sadabahar’ (Madagascar Periwinkle). You can generally find this plant at road side as this grows very easily and the specialty of this plant is it is always full of flowers as the name suggest. Aloe vera is another such plant that is full of health benefits and grows easily. It does not require much care and grows quickly. Green chilli, coriander and mint plants are also easily grown, plus coriander seeds are easily found in kitchen.
Planting – Plant the seeds or sapling and water it. I prefer planting from seeds. Dig the soil, place the seeds, cover it with thin layer of soil and water it. It’s an amazing experience to witness the first sapling coming out of the seed 🌱
Provide the care – Water the plants. Watering it too frequently can damage the plant. Check for the dryness of the soil and water the plants accordingly. During the initial phase, after sowing the seed let the soil dry and then water it. Water usually in the morning or late afternoon. Avoid watering at night as it can over moist the soil. When the plant has grown enough, there are times when the leaves start turning yellow or start getting dry. It’s important to remove such leaves from the plants. Along with that remove unnecessary grass that surrounds the plant as it can take the soil nutrients that are required for the growth of plant. Provide stand support to plants than need it, mostly vines and climbing plants.
Observe your plants and learn – Observe your plants to check that it is not impacted with any pests and diseases. Observe, experiment and learn the ways to maintain your Garden.
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Happy Gardening!
Nice it’s a very good information 👍
THANK YOU SIR,