OPERATIONAL MANUAL - DO IT YOURSELF KIT

The Horticulture Department, Tamil Nadu Government issues Do it Yourself Kit to general public along with Operational Manual, which is in Tamil & English. Click here to view Operational Manual

New Terrace Gardeners, who do not want all the items in the Kit issued by the department, can purchase the required items mentioned in the manual from the open market and make the grow bags themself as per their requriement.

Happy Gardening!

My Green House

You all know that Chennai's climate is too harsh to grow cool climate plants like carrot, cabbage, cauliflower etc.  Therefore, I made green shade at my terrace to try out cool climate plants.

I covered 850 sq.ft. of my terrace space with green shade net.  To cover all the sides, I needed 1400 sq.ft. of net (appx. 75% sunlight reduction net.  There were 50% & 90% shade nets also available).  One bundle of standard size (3 mt. X 50 mt.) net costed me Rs.2.16 per sq.ft.

To support the shade net, I erected bamboo structure first.  The cost of one medium size bamboo pole(around 16 feet long) was Rs.65. There were various sizes bamboo poles available ranging @ Rs.65-130.

It costed me around Rs.8000/- for covering 850 sq.ft. terrace space. The requried material were bamboo poles, shade net, ropes, stay wire, clamps, nails etc. Since I did the labour work myself, there was no labour cost added.

Hope I can now able to grow my dream vegetables.  Wait and see for my next update. Bye.

Gardening Tools

Basic Gardening Tools

Hand Gloves -  Gardening gloves are used to protect hands from dirt and,sticks, rocks that could cause cuts or scratches.

Watering Can - For watering plants

Shears/Hand Pruners - a type of scissors,to prune hard branches of trees & shrubs 

Garden hoe - small & big (Man Vetti) - hoes are useful to slice into the soil around weeds

 

Hand Trowel - It is used for breaking up earth, digging small holes, especially for  planting and weeding, mixing compost, and transferring plants to pots

Weeding / Digging Fork -  is ideal for planting, aerating and loosening, lifting & turning over soil, without making damages in compact planted areas. Also used for removing weeds.

Hand Cultivator - is used to turn the soil where plants and vegetables are planted, remove weeds from soil. For small flower or vegetable gardens, a hand cultivator can be used like a small plow to turn the earth and dig the planting rows.

Hand Weeder - is used to remove weeds and small roots.