Office garden

RRI staff rolled up their sleeves, hitched up their sari's and divided into teams to turn the back yard of the office into a fertile vegetable garden. In only a few hours each group had marked out the beds, dug over the soil, added compost and come up with a variety of inventive ways to irrigate and shade the beds.

All the construction materials used were recycled from waste that has been taking up space behind the office. A broken wheelbarrow was turned into a raised bed, old tyres were transformed into plant pots, broken bricks defined the bed edges and coir netting was strung up to provide shade.

The beds are being watered in even more creative ways. On one bed, bamboo was laid across the centre with strategic holes cut into the side. The water can be poured into the centre and then drains out the holes to evenly spread through the bed. Other irrigation methods include making holes in the bottom of old clay pots and plastic bottles. When filled with water they slowly release moisture through the bottom where the holes are. And one bed just had a pot of water with string trailing out across the earth. The rope draws the water from the pot and releases it into the soil bit by bit.

We planted kangkung, radish, bitter gourd, tomatoes, chillies, okra, cabbage and spinach.

Pests are controlled organically by spraying the plants with a mixture of Neem oil, water and soap.

Now we need to water, weed, add compost every two weeks and wait for our first crop.