Tag: gardenlife

Learning at the school garden

India Requires All Schools to Have Kitchen Gardens
  • A one of its kind initiative, Edible Schools has been launched by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Kalpetta, Kerala in association with Botanical Garden Conservation International (BGCI) to familiarize school children with food crops and family farming. 
  • The aim of this program is to engage the children in food production and farming activities under the guidance of trained and caring leaders, who lead the children into discovery and exploration of soil, water, biodiversity and the science of agriculture production and consumption.

Teaching gardening in schools

  • This project was launched in 2 schools of Waynad – Hill Blooms School, Mananthavady and Government High School, Thrikaipetta, in January, 2021 and it is a huge success till date. The programme was initiated by developing a nutrition garden and fruit garden at both schools following COVID 19 protocols. 
  • These gardens were designed on approximately 870Sq.ft land and fruit trees were planted as part of the campus greening. The nutrition garden has been cultivated with mostly leafy greens such as Amaranthus, Spinach, Curry leaves and Moringa and the commonly consumed vegetables such as Brinjal, Okra, Beans and Cow peas as well as medicinal plants , fruit trees, wild food plants and larval hosts have also been planted. 
  • The first harvesting from the nutrition gardens at the edible schools was done by the students and they were guided by their leaders. They were very excited to see their produce as well as fruit garden saplings of Guava, Custard Apple and Mango seeds growing into healthy trees. 

Although during pandemic the students couldn’t visit the school campuses much, the nutrition gardens have been extended to their homesteads. Training was given to the students for the collection and multiplication of the seeds of wild native trees like Venga, Njaval, Athi etc.  The seedlings planted by the students will be handed over to MSSRF and hence, the students will be a part of the reforestation programme

reference-https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/teaching-from-the-garden-creating-transformative-learning-landscapes-at-schools

https://rodaleinstitute.org/education/school-gardening-curriculum/

Descriptive Writing

My Dreamhouse

Those big architectural windows blow me out with the air whenever I think about it. The sunshine touching the hair in the early morning descends to the feet as the day grows off. My dreamhouse is quite big and beautiful with a garden marking its boundaries. The adorable flowers at the entrance gate elate my visitors. The fragrance they shower off in that small place complements their colourful petals. Some trees are tall and thick while some are newly planted. The biggest of them all holds a small treehouse apt to keep my secret things. Moving on, there’s a pavement on the doorstep of the house with a welcome board.

The tour of the house now starts inside that door. Wooden furniture are the main highlight of my dreamhouse besides the open, airy windows. The hall bears a bouncy couch and table with a glass flower pot along with a dining set for six at the front of the kitchen. The kitchen has a well-settled chimney as a centre of attraction. There is always some extra space in the kitchen for new items. The walls are beautifully designed along with fascinating sculptures on the roof boundary.

Photo by Marta Dzedyshko on Pexels.com

Next comes the staircase which leads to the bedroom and guest room area. The stairs are covered with red carpets to make them look traditional and classy. The width is not much since they are attached at the corner of the hall. The hall is big but to keep it spacious and relaxing to look, everything is arranged at its minimum.

The staircase takes a turn to make us reach the first floor having a bedroom, a guest room and a servant quarter at the corner. The bedroom is the biggest, of-course. It is majorly pink coloured with beautiful prints representing nature. There’s a piano-set besides a bed and a wooden almirah in the room. The lamp aside the bed belongs to antique items. It is muddy yellow in colour and gives a pleasant look to the room at night. There’s a round carpet on the floor between the bed and the piano-set. There are a total of 3 windows among which one is the biggest and right beside the piano- set. It gives immense peace to play it there with open window. There is a study table too at the corner of the room- small and stuffed with books and magazines. The lamp at the study table is small and a modern type. The bathroom attached with the bedroom has also been kept modern style having blue walls with pictures of whales and ships.

The accompanying is the guest room, little smaller than the bedroom but remarkably spacious. It consists only a bed , an almirah, a sofa set and glass table. It too has a big window allowing abundant of sunlight to pass through in the morning. The speciality lies in the location of the house too, every window fetches the most of the sunlight to the house making it irrelevant to turn on lights during the day. The curtains need to be heavy since it becomes too hot in the summer. The servant quarter is comparatively small; approximately the size as of store room attached to the hall on the ground floor. It is however, convenient to stay there. It too includes a bed but relatively small, a table, a sofa, an almirah and attached with it is the washroom.

Next floor is build with terrace which is wide, and cold during winters. It is fenced at two edges with strong grills made of stones. The other two edges are joined via walls to other two houses in the neighbour. The view is wide and serene from the terrace. The designer table and chairs are specially placed to have a cup of tea under the beautiful sky whenever it feels like. The garden too is visible to an extent from the terrace. The chimney installed in the kitchen opens up at the top on the terrace.

The larger windows of the hall and the bedroom hold a wing chain each with different sounds knocking softly at the ears during a pleasant weather. It is therefore a good place for writers and poets to put up. The house in itself is a glory and has a lot to write about. This dreamhouse can be the best to reside in- neither too big nor too congested. Its beauty lies in how spacious and a mixture of traditional and modern architect it is!

Mindful gardening

Have you ever had the flavor of fruits and vegetables cultivated in your garden? If you have not, just give a try at least once in your lifetime and then that would let you take up gardening eternally. Trust me, even the bitter gourd might sound sweet when you get it from your labor and that could be so heart warming and relishing. Some take up gardening in their leisure time and some really have a great passion towards it. It doesn’t matter about the size of your garden it is about the mindfulness, just gather few pot plants and little herbs and that tends leave a huge impact in your life. Cultivating plants aids in cultivating a healthy mind and grants serenity. A study found that ” every green environment improved self esteem”. When you feel distressed and anxious about your repetitive life just drop in to your garden and it will restore all your inner peace.

When you land up in the soil, its smell uplifts your mood and makes you feel elated!

When you clear up the weeds your mind also gets cleaned by giving up all the negativity!

When you dig deep into the soil your mind goes in deep and revives the positivity back!

When you sow the seeds, your heart is been sowed and scattered with cheerfulness and bright thoughts!

When you notice the tiny little branches you will find an intangible happiness sprouting within you and When you sprinkle the water, the mother earth sprinkles her blessings on you.

Spending some quality time in the garden would render many physical and mental benefits. The pulling, digging, reaching, twisting and bending of gardening amounts to light aerobic exercise, which improves heart and lung health, helps prevent obesity. The plants clean the air around us and makes us feel fresh. Currently, the food industry is responsible for emitting 26% of global CO2 waste by transporting food from suppliers to grocery stores. So it becomes apparent that when we grow food in our garden we are reducing our carbon footprint. Spending time in nature can promote the mental health and gardening has been used as therapy for depression for many years. A group of researches have come with findings after tracking over 3000 subjects for 16 years and it stated that gardening regularly reduces the risk of dementia by 35-46%. Gardening is a very big stress buster and watching the plants flourish is a huge stress relief. People who have raised a prosperous garden might know how great it feels to notice the flowers budding and blooming and that boosts a person’s self esteem because developing a garden could be a rewarding hobby. When we invest our diligent & earnest work, certainly the plants will nourish our body and mind in return. The inner happiness that you find when your dining is been filled with the food that you harvest could be so remarkable and rejoice at the fact that you are able to nurture your health with your own scrupulous work.

Besides the mental and physical benefits of gardening there many medicinal plants we can cultivate in our garden space that assures us a healthy lifestyle and those plants are also easily obtainable. Tulsi is believed to be a physical incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi on earth and regarded as the holiest of all. They are rich in adaptogens which help in reducing the stress levels in your body, cures common cold, promotes digestion etc. It is true that there is a science behind every activity and also there is a medicinal benefit behind each plant. Aloevera is extremely useful to speed up healing and reduce the risks of infections. Pepper mint regarded as the world’s oldest medicine is used to treat fevers, inhibit bacterial growth. Coleus amboinicus (Omavalli) can be used a remedy for cough, cold, indigestion. Coriander, curry leaves, mint are very simple to grow and they play a very major role in our daily diet. In addition there are several plants and trees that aids in our physical health.

There are many fascinating facts about plants and one such is, plants could really respond to sounds. Talking to plants to help them grow is a well know old wives’ tale but studies have shown that compared to a silent greenhouse to one where they piped in a voice soundtrack, the plants in the latter grew more. This could also make you to get rid of the loneliness at times. Gardening helps us to overcome our inhibitions and makes our life complete & alluring. I think that we should acquire the great quality from plants of how to grow in silence and letting your success make the noise. Garden is a grand teacher and gardening is enduring and never ceases. To grow a plant is to believe in tomorrow!