How to create your own terrace vegetable garden

Have you wanted a terrace veggie garden of your own? Its in fact a great idea to grow ones own spices and herbs, so that you have fresh, organic produce at hand. But if you are amongst the huge number who doesn’t know how to go about setting up this garden, read on...

Select the right space
have a good look at your terrace. Determine how the Sun plays in the entire day, and then select a space that is shady but still gets sunlight at least five to 6 hours in a day. Just keep in mind that in case you are planting herbs the sunlight falling them is not harsh enough to destroy them as they are quite delicate.

Prepare the soil

Get some soil and natural manure from any nursery, and mix it well. You can keep it organic by adding cow dung or goat dung manure to the mix. Leave this mix aside for a few days. Meanwhile, when you peel veggies, etc, do not throw away the skin. Instead, create your own compost with these vegetable skins and waste veggies in another pot in the terrace, and add them to this mix. After about a week, this mix is ready for plantation. Get the seeds of whatever you want to grow (tomatoes, chilies, coriander, basil and herbs are good choices). Sprinkle a few seeds over the mix, slightly dab them in with your hand, and leave it be for a couple of days. Watch them grow.

Pick the right veggies

In the begging you can opt for just one or two vegetables, and then go in for more veggies as you gain more experience. Tomatoes, chilies and spinach are easy to grow, so start with them. Sometimes you might need to net out the seeds and the saplings as they grow, to keep pesky sparrows and other birds from feasting on them.

Watering is the key factor

Water the plants regularly, as and when needed. Excess water often causes damage and decay to plant roots, and it also washes away the nutrients of the soil. Also, post every heavy rainfall, remember to add manure to the soil.