Gardening is getting greener and easier, thanks to innovations and a slew of new tools that enable urbanites to practice the art in their driveways, roof gardens or in the backyard. Technology has come to lend a helping hand in several areas like transplantation and firm establishment of saplings, regulation of supply of water and manure to the plants and even pruning of bushes, fence hedges and maintenance of lawns. With introduction of new mediums for propagation of plants, gardening — or for that matter horticulture and floriculture — leaves little scope for muddying the hands.
Transplantation of saplings is certainly a crucial issue when it comes to gardening. The city folk with limited space and time at their disposal, have often found the process cumbersome. Saplings adapting to the new environment and perhaps new soil is always uncertain. Gardening enthusiasts have to look up to the nurseries around the city peripheries to source their supplies of saplings and know-how. One has to keep the fingers crossed until the tiny plants embedded in the pots send out new shoots, the firm signal that the new surrounding has found acceptance.
HydroponyHydropony or growing of plants in non-soil mediums has become the buzzword among the urban suppliers of saplings nowadays. Greenhouses in urban nurseries grow the saplings in mediums like coco-peat (powdered husk obtained from dehusking of coconuts), or saw dust, rotten leaves or Perlites. These mediums have enough moisture and nutrients to help nurturing of the saplings. The earlier practice of growing saplings in polythene bags is being fast replaced by compostable pots that disintegrate and get mixed up with soil as the roots of the saplings grow out of them. The polythene bags posed problems as they had to be removed at some stage and the process of removal unsettled the plants to a certain degree.
Compostable potsCompostable pots are an environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic pots. Made of corn starch, they are designed to break down into carbon dioxide, moisture and humus which in turn work as soil nutrients. They do no harm to the soil, worms or micro-organisms that help flourishing the plants. They begin to break down between two to six months.
Says Athula Fernando, Regional Sales Manager, Jiffy Products, a Norway-based company, the organic substrates are conducive for propagation of all kinds of saplings be they vegetable, flowers, perennial or greenhouse crops. Besides providing an ideal medium (technically termed ‘substrates’), Jiffy has also come up with binding agents called ‘plant plug’ which are shaped like perforated paper sleeves. Filled with the coco-peat or saw dust, these can now be supplied in trays containing cavities. These ready-to-carry-home saplings can even be purchased off shelves and racks in gardening sections of modern shopping malls.
Biodegradable potsJiffy has also developed what it terms ‘CarbonLite Pots’ made primarily from plant starches. A 1,000 pots can supply 17 kg of carbon benefit, the same as removing almost 1.5 cars off the road a day. To boot, industries can even customize them for their commercial use as they are suitable for four-colour printing, if needed. The ‘medium and the biodegradable pot in one’ concept is said to save 27 per cent in labour for professional nurseries.
The Jiffy pots have found replication in India too. Vijay Shinde of Precision Agritech, a Pune-based company, and Indian Nurserymen Awardee for 2011, supplies saplings for flowers like pitonia, dianthus, dahlia, salvia, begonia, and vinca in trays with cavities ranging from 70 to 104 plant plugs. Shinde says machines like Fertijet now allow direct injection of fertilizers with user-friendly on-board or remote programming. They can be customised to irrigate plants too.
Vertical gardensThe vertical growth of cities has found a companion in vertically growing gardens. Nurseries and landscaping firms have now come up with vertical gardens. These need not be confused with green facades in that the plants grow along the wall on panels fitted into the wall. According to Pritam Chhajed of Sanjay Nursery, a firm that has created such gardens in several new colonies in and around Pune, these could be done indoor as well as outdoors. He says vertical gardens help reduce overall temperature of the buildings, enable reuse of water and help use vacant vertical space. Besides enhancing the aesthetic value of the building, they cause less evaporation of water compared to horizontal gardens. These are even used as a remedy against sick building syndrome. Even vegetables like chili, tomato and onion could be grown in such an arrangement but plants need to be carefully selected for colour as well as their growth pattern.
Vacuum leaf removersA variety of tools also enable gardens to be maintained in great shape. Bosch has developed lightweight handheld Hedgecutters for effortless and versatile pruning of bushes and even topiary, the art of cutting foliage into shapes of animals or fanciful designs. The Bosch Grass Trimmer enables every blade of grass to be cut to the exact size. The ‘Garden Vacuum’ can remove and suck leaves and help impart a tidy look to green spaces.
