Green Somethings: The Blog

Magic of Seeds

Concrete jungles, exploitation of underground water and pollution is making our planet a dangerous place. The only solution to change this situation is to plant more and more trees and increase the green cover.

The Youth Wing of CII - Confederation of Indian Industries, Young Indians (YI) have recently taken up project Seed Ball. True to its name, this project literally focuses on making balls of seeds used for increasing the green cover across the country. The YI organization has about 25 chapters with approximately 12000 members all over India.

Method

Take some seeds add soil and water and make balls. Throw them around and let the ‘green’ cover the land. This method of making seed balls is ancient but has been developed in its present form by a Japanese ecologist Fukuoka Masanobu, who is also a founder of ideas of 'natural farming'

These seed balls can be used in a barren lands, driveways, roadsides and country side. You can take the seed balls while you are traveling by road or train and throw in the country side. The clay covers the seed while protecting from harsh sunlight, wind and the animals. It also provides the required nutrients to the seed almost immediately while trapping the moisture. When the conditions are right the seeds can sprout.  It is an effective method to vegetate any area. This method is inexpensive simple and requires less time than other traditional methods of farming. It can be introduced in schools, colleges and social institutions. Individuals and groups working for environment can help propagate this seed ball method.

YI will be working on One Million Tree Plantation (OMTP) over the next year. 

Article inputs by Nupur Roopa

Plants that Help Reduce Room Temperatures

Finally, am able to get myself to back to my blog. Facebook (FB) predominance and slightly poor time management threw me off track (off blogging!) 

Many story requests are pending, and I promise I will deliver, very very soon but here's something, that infact is a request too. A friend on FB wanted to learn about plants that help reduce room temperatures. So as promised here is the information I have to share with y'all!

Some of the most commonly available plants (at least in India, and especially in New Delhi) can be very useful to reduce temperatures inside your homes and offices. These plants are known to be very effective in removing environmental contaminants like alcohol, Acetone, Benzene, and Formaldehyde from the air around us. Scientists have found that many indoor plants reduce volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, by up to 100 percent over 24 hours in a closed environment. VOCs include compounds such as benzene and hexane, and are known to be highly toxic to humans leading to asthma, liver cancer and other serious ailments. VOCs are present at low levels in many indoor environments. Some, like Benzene, make their way inside buildings through pollution from traffic outside. Others are present as a result of their use in paints, carpeting, and furniture fabric, especially in new homes or buildings. Paper products have Formaldehyde which is carcinogenic and can affect the liver seriously.  

Some of the easily available plants can help reduce the risk of air pollution, thereby reducing room temperatures as well:

Arrowhead Syngonium - Has upwards growing stems with arrow shaped leaves. Though the surface of the plant is dark green, it will have either while, silver or pink markings on the surface of the leaf. We have some beautiful Pink leaved Syngoniums which will grow about 1-2ft and can be easily potted and kept indoors.  Here are a few images - check out how beautiful this common houseplant can be made to look if potted and positioned smartly.

  

Boston Fern - another very common plant and most people fall in love with the wide spread this plant gives when potted in hanging baskets. The leaves are small but the branches are long from the base. It is light green to medium green in color. To care for your Boston Fern, keep it in indirect light while maintaining soil moisture at all times. The leaves will start to wither or turn yellow if light is not enough and you'll know when to bring them out in a semi-shaded area. 

Pothos - Emarlad green in color, this plant again looks great in hanging baskets. I have potted these in small cube shaped pots and maintained both the length and height with regular trimming. Studies show that if placed along with Spider plant and Chrysanthemums, the Pothos reduces significant pollutants from the air inside a room. 

English Ivy - These plants can vine and become up to 50ft tall if not pruned properly. They can grow in pots as well but are generally restricted in growth by the size of their pot. They are green with white or yellow on the small ivy looking leaves and do not require much direct sun light.

Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum is a basic green plant with dark green leaves. It flowers with tall white flowers repeatedly throughout the year, and will thrive best in the shade. It can grow upto 15 to 18 inches in height. Peace lily is very effective in removing environmental contaminants, like Alcohol, Acetone, Benzene, and Formaldehyde from our air. 

Pot Mum or Chrysanthemum Morifolium is a flowering plant that thrives in indirect sunlight and grows quickly. It does not even require a great deal of water. Keep it with the Pothos to make an excellent room air conditioner combo! 

I think the post has become a little longer than I expected so am going to quit here with the promise (another one :P) to add more soon after...

How to Take Care of Houseplants

I have a tough time educating my customers on how to take care of the plants they purchase from me. Although pretty hardy, these plants need special care as they come in small pots and are meant for the indoors - the indoor conditions vary from house to house and thus there is no standardised instructions or tips that I can provide to my customers (God knows I have tried!)

 

Here are some great tips from eHow.com on how to take care of house plants. I found them very relevant and simple to follow for the Green Somethings' containerised plants.
 

* Bring New Houseplants Home

* How to Water and Provide The Right Sunlight for Houseplants

* How to Look After Houseplants
 

There's a lot more linked further from each of these articles above but I found these to be most relevant for my pots and plants. Hope you find them useful as well!

A Greener Mall

Do you like to shop? Well, I do and I am sure many of you readers out there enjoy the shopping experience too. And for all of us shopoholics, the mall invasion in India has been truly welcome. It’s so much fun to walk into the many malls that have come to dot our cities and pick up our favorite brands and then even go on to grab a bite or take in a movie too. 

Well, while we do all that and have a blast doing so, have you ever stopped to wonder about the mammoth quantities of waste that we are contributing to? Oops! Did I just manage to take out the pleasure in shopping? 

A popular hangout for many of us city bred lot, the malls are our outlet for recreation. Children, teenagers and the rest, all enjoy an outing to the mall. However, the waste we generate as thousands wind their way to the mall is appalling. And so to make things better, we have a green initiative in a Mumbai mall. 

For all those who live in this bustling city of Mumbai, Vashi is a well-known place. And Inorbit Mall here is definitely a much-favored meeting point for all the local residents and many others too! It’s a really well laid out mall with the best of brands within.

So what is it that Inorbit Mall has done towards a greener environment and a guilt free shopping experience? Well, they have an organic waste converter plant in the compound that produces manure from all the waste collection from the mall. 

The mall has collaborated with an organization called Stree Mukti Sangathan and they segregate the waste. The dry and inorganic waste material goes to the municipality and the rest is treated in their OWC plant and converted to manure using vermiculture. This manure is then used in their gardens. 

The next time I go there on a shopping binge, I am going to look at their beautiful plants in an entirely new light. I am sure they are healthier and happier too. Let’s hope more malls across the India take on this initiative. It’s a great way to go.

Do It Yourself (DIY) Drip Irrigation

The last time I got busy and missed watering my plants for two days, the scorching sun nearly killed them. The poor things just lay there wilting and hanging, pleading to be plugged out of their misery. Although I managed to revive a few of my little darlings, I pledged I will never again push them into this sudden death.

That's how I discovered do-it-yourself drip irrigation - a techie term for a very simple concept. It is one of the best ways to provide a steady water supply to your plants without worrying about giving them constant attention. Through this method a device is employed directly into the soil (of your potted plant) that slowly delivers water directly around the roots. And the best part is, by using recycled materials like waste beer or plastic bottles you can make your own drip irrigation system for free.

What I used, rather reused is an old pet (plastic) bottle and cut-off its bottom using a sharp knife. Then I drilled some 6-7 holes into the cap (which was tightly screwed on to the mouth of the bottle). 

With my drip-irrigant ready I dug a small pit into the soil of the pot next to the plant and inserted the bottle with cap side down. I dug the pit deep enough so that it allowed me to bury almost one-third of the bottle into the soil. 

And that's it - now every time I feel I do not have the time to water the plants, I simply fill my drip-irrigant with water which gradually trickles into the soil keeping it moist all the time. 

Few helpful tips in case you plan to follow DIY drip irrigation:

- If you want your drip irrigation system to work slower, drill fewer holes, and if faster, drill more holes. 

- Don't make the holes too small, the debris will clog them in no time. It is best to keep checking the cap from time to time to ensure the holes are free enough for the water to seep through.

- Tie an old cloth piece or a nylon sock over the the open end to avoid mosquitoes. 

- If you're a sucker for appearances, position the bottle in amongst a grouping of plants so it is hidden from view.

- You can add fertilizer to the bottle every few weeks so that your plants are fertilized right at the roots.

Hopefully this process will help some of you amateur plant-keepers who travel or keep too busy. Let me know if you ever need more helpful tips. Its a great way to learn more from these challenges.