Grow the Greens Yourself

Greens are an essential component of our daily diet. Especially for kids, they need at least one green vegetable a day. Greens are rich in iron and calcium and loaded with gut-friendly fiber. They also have lots of vitamins, minerals and micro-nutrients.

The greens we get in the market are not grown the proper way. The water and soil used to grow them are not hygienic and lot of chemical fertilizers like urea are used to make the harvest look elegant. The soil may not be replenished well with essential nutrients and in fact many greens don't have adequate iron and calcium content in them due to inadequacies in the soil they are grown.

Greens are delicate and cannot be washed well to remove dirt, chemicals from fertilizers, bad bacteria and spores of worms. Hence, we must all grow our greens.

Some greens which can be grown easily in small balcony or roof gardens are lettuce, spinach, purslane, kenaf or roselle (gongura), coriander, fenugreek, basil, amaranth, mint, ajwain, colocasia leaf and basella alba (bachhali kura). These can be grown easily in conditions where at least one hour of sunlight is available.

The soil required to grow greens can be prepared using is 30 percent red soil, 30 percent cocopeat, 30 percent compost and 10 percent neem cake. Compost can be made at home which will be described in the next blog.

Now grow your own greens and enjoy them clean and healthy. Teach your children this so that they pass on to the next generation.

Always, grow your greens!