Ginger Cultivation

Ginger Cultivation

• About 600kg -1000kg of seed Rhizomes(roots) are required to sow one acre of  land
• Sowing is done in April-May in South India and a little later in North India
• Ginger can be cultivated as a mixed or inter crop along with shade giving plants like banana, tomato, chilli and even coconut trees
• The irrigated ginger crop is watered immediately after sowing
• The ginger crop is ready for harvesting in about 8 - 10 months depending upon the maturity of the variety. When fully mature, the leaves turn yellow and the stem begins to dry

Small crops

Small crops that can be cultivated in Small spaces

1)Garlic
2)Onion
3)Ginger
4)Microgreens
5)Capsicum
6)Pepper
7)Chillies (special)
8)Mushroom
9)Beekeeping
10)Groundnuts
11)Potato
12)Brinjal
13)Curry leaves

Innovative Vertical gardening - small space farming

Vertical gardening

Limited space can still be put to great use with some clever design tricks like making the most of vertical space growing opportunities. Not only are these functionally effective, but tend to be more low maintenance and enhance your garden space visually.

Almost anything can, with a little imagination be turned into a place to grow something in your own backyard.

Examples of Container Gardening, Raised Bed Garden, Vertical Tower Garde...

Innovative small space - Farming/Gardening in Windows

Setting up your Dig In windowsill

Even if you've only got a windowsill, you can still grow some lovely grub.

Choose windowsills that get plenty of sun - five hours a day or more during summer preferably.

The wider the sill the better, as you'll be able to get bigger containers onto it. And if it catches the rain as well, that's even better - it'll save on watering later.

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Wonderful windowboxes

The deeper your windowbox, the greater the variety of veg you can grow. Make sure it's properly fixed and supported, as it'll be very heavy once it's full.

A 20cm deep windowbox is fine for salad leaves and 30cm for the Dig In carrots and beans. Very few windowboxes are big enough to suit a courgette plant - they need a lot of room.

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Innovative Small space Sack farming/gardening

Small Space, Big Promise: Sack Farming

Nakabaale apparently learnt sack farming from her parents who used to practice it at home on a small scale. In fact, growing up she was always told that every woman needs a garden, something that inspired her to set up a sack garden to fit in her small space.

The sacks are not ordinary, at least in regards to size. They are so gigantic with a radius of just over one meter. She has only four of them; exactly what her compound can hold.

Setting Up The Garden

“I started by collecting huge sacks that had been dumped around my neighbourhood. Given that I have always had a poultry house, I was able to compost chicken manure that had accumulated in the coop. This I mixed with black soil to enrich the soil. But I did not just fill the sacks with the soil, I had to place small pebble stones at the middle of the sack, right from bottom to top, then filled the sack with soil leaving the stones erect in the middle,” the mother of three says.

Harriet Nakabaale shows some crops in eggshells that she grows as part of her extended farming in her sack garden.

The stones ensure sufficient water distribution throughout the sacks during watering.
In one of the sacks she grows spinach, dodo and carrots. In another sack is a young guava tree right in its centre surrounded by green vegetables. In yet another there are spring onions, celery, tomatoes and spinach. True to her philosophy, size does not matter which is why even in egg shells there are thriving plants.

In order to ensure maximum usage of the sack, she grows some crops on the sides of the bag. “Usually the crops with big roots like carrots go on the top and the sides are reserved for those with small roots like ordinary vegetables. I water my sack garden almost on a daily basis so I have no such a thing as a crop growing season. My garden is ever green, even during the dry season,” she says.

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA - Very nice inspiring video on farming