Terrace Garden Planting, Ideas and Tips

Terrace Garden Methods, Ideas, and Tips:

The following is all about Terrace Garden Planting.

Introduction To Terrace Gardening

In this hectic concrete living style, setting up a garden is really a dream. Many modern methods and techniques made everything easy and helpful in making our dreams come true. People who are planning to have the garden in homes but getting upset with an insufficient area. For them, terrace gardening is an amazing idea.

Participating in social activities to save trees can be tough in the busy schedule. But planting trees on your terrace and making a beautiful garden can more interesting that can be done only when you are free. A Terrance garden can be a great solution for people who are living in small flats or houses with no area to grow plants. Terraces are the best place where you get a good place and a good source of sunlight.

Garden is the best decorative idea with plants. The importance of plants is known by each and every one. The gardens not only a collection of plants they act as the best recreation, it’s the best way to get rid of physical and mental stress. The gardens are the best place to educate ourselves by the way of establishing a home garden or botanical gardens.

The art of creating the greenery in our roof of the terrace is known as roof gardening or terrace gardening. This roof or terrace gardening technique helps to utilize our rooftop effectively for growing flowers, fruits, vegetables, spices, herbal plants, or ornamental plants. The population explosion that occurs every day resulted in the migration of people from the village, town to cities and metropolitan cities for generating income. In this process of migration to the cities, cities are running short of residential areas. And for this, all the agricultural lands and open lands are converted to residential areas. This raised the importance of greenery and terrace gardening.

In cities, due to the huge population and all the lands brought under construction of houses, therefore we hardly get space to maintain gardens. In the case of multistoried buildings, terrace gardening is the only possible way to grow plants. In terrace gardening, we grow plants in different types of pots, containers, and treys. And this can also be known as container gardening. Many studies prove that gardening refreshes our mind and body for all the stress and tensions. And gardens become the part of the life the gives chemical-free fruits and vegetables.

Some best features of Roof or Terrace Gardening

Developing greenery can reduce pollutions and make air pure.
Working in a roof garden will relieve us from stress and gives us good body exercise.
Terrace gardening reduces the house temperature which is a great relief in summer.
We can grow chemical-free fruits and vegetables.
It is the best method to utilize our roof areas.

Terrace gardening can be established in the best manner with the availability of sunlight and water. Plants produce good quality fruits and vegetables with good water and sunlight. Since you won’t get sufficient place in apartments, these gardening methods help to grown plants in terraces or roofs. And in case if you don’t have a roof you can make the garden in your corridors or window sills where your sufficient sunlight.

Methods of Terrace Gardening

Terrace Gardening (Pic Source - Biological Research Innovation Centre And Solutions). — Terrace Gardening (Pic Source – Biological Research Innovation Centre And Solutions).

Trough/Benches for Terrace Garden: In the open area, based on the bearing load, cement benches of sufficient length and depth can be made, and the soil composition is 2 part of the red soil and 1 part of sand, and one part of compost-filled up and used for growing fruits and vegetable plants. Leave 1 inch at the rim to facilitate irrigation.
Trough(for new houses): To utilize the roof areas, an inward trough is formed in the unutilized area of the rooftop. The length and depth can be made as per requirement. The available is properly costed with water-proof materials to avoid the seepage of water into the roof. The inner side of the trough is made with a gradual slope to facilitate drainage. The drainage hole is covered with wire mesh and gravel for the required draining of water. And the entire is laid with geotextile material and filled up with the soil mixture for growing fruits, flowers, and vegetables.
Containers for Terrace Garden: Plants are grown in different types of pots and containers they are Cement pots, Earthen pots, plastic barres, wooden barrels, boxes, crates, paws, plastic jars, tin boxes, drums of different sizes, damages plastic buckets, plastic covers, cement or fertilizer bags, etc.
Seed pan and seedboxes for Terrace Garden: Seed pans are shallow earthen pots about 10cm high and 35 cm in diameter with the drain hole at the bottom. Seeds boxes are made of wood, porcelain, and earthen pots 40 cm wide and 60 cm long, and 10cm deep with 6 to 8 drainage holes at the bottom. Against each hole, a crock is placed with its concave side down. Some large pieces of crock are placed on it and by the side, this cock, some coarse sand 2 to 3 handful is sprinkles on the crock pieces forming a thin layer to prevent fine soil from clogging the drainage hole. And upon this, the required amount of soil mixture is added and kept in open sunlight for raising vegetable or fruit plants.
Earthen Pots: These pots are made of burnt porous clay in many sizes to hold a required quantity of soil and the terrace is filled with different types of plants. They have straight sides and are made wider at the top than at the bottom to hold the greatest bulk of compost and for easy removal of soil, intact in roots at the time of plants or repotting.
- Earthen pots are available in different sizes and shapes. Tube pots are used to raise the rootstocks of mango and sapodilla for grafting purposes. One-fourth of the pot is used for potting singly very small seedlings during first transplanting and for layering the plant cherries and guava. Half-sized pots are used for growing well-rooted plants land small plants of all kinds. Three fourth-size pots are used for planting Dahlia, cannas, Shrubs, and roses, etc. Earthen pots were filled with soil mixture and used for raising vegetable crops. And even soil mixture is filled in a polythene cover and used for cultivation of veggies like tomato, chili, brinjal, coriander, etc.
Polythene Bags for Terrace Garden: Small polythene bags with punched holes at the bottom for drainage and filled with the porous rooting medium are used for propagation of cuttings like jasmine, duranta, crotons, etc in the mist chamber. And even nursery raised seedlings are transplanted in polythene covers and are kept there till they attain the required growth for transplanting them to the main field.
Plastic Pots for Terrace Garden: Plastic pots are available in round and square shapes these are used to keep indoor plants. They are reusable, lightweight, and non-porous and they occupy very little space.
Fiber pots for terrace Garden: These pots are available in small sizes from 5 to 10 cm in width and in both round and square shapes. They are bio non-degradable and last longer periods with soil and plants inside.
Paraffined paper or Styrofoam cups for Terrace Garden: This container looks like ice cream cups with a single drainage hole at the bottom. They are server satisfactory as temporary containers for growing and transferring young plants on a large seedbed. These containers are light and cheap and require very little space.

Equipment required for Terrace Garden

For terrace gardening, you need equipment for regular use. So you can buy these on your own.

Hand Hoe.
Shovel or spade.
Rose can.
Hand Sprayer.
Jute strings or jute strings.
Hose with the sprinkler.

Material Required for Terrace Garden

Find a good source like agricultural universities that supply good quality seeds.
You should get fertile soil free from stones, weeds, and undecomposable materials.
Get well-decomposed organic manure.
Get riverbed sand.
Get good chemical fertilizers, Pesticides, Insecticides, and fungicides.
Get organic manures like neem oil, neem seeds extract, etc.

Step by Step process to setup Terrace Garden

The first step is to clean all containers thoroughly and make proper drainage holes at the bottom.
Mix soil, compost, and sand with the help of a hand hoe and shovel.
Fill the containers loosely with a gentle tap. The soil should settle, bearing one-inch headspace at the top for irrigation.
For the transplanted vegetables, where the nursery must be raised, shallow pans and troughs can be filled with a fine mixture of soil, sand, and compost and the seed should be sown. The containers should be irrigated immediately after sowing. A layer of dry grass or straw is spread on top of the soil till the seedlings start budding. And they are transplanted with one month of sowing. Now days portrays are employed for raising vegetable seedlings. Portrays are plus trays of 2 to 3-inch depth with the drainage hole. Initially, the ¼ portion of the plug is filled with compost and one seed is sown in each plug and cover the remaining with compost or sand mixed compost. The watering and other operations are like the above method.

The seeds of some vegetable crops can be sown directly. These seeds are sown in selected pots or polythene covers. The depth of sowing should be about 2 and a half times the seed size. Most of the vegetables are raised by sowing seeds directly in the containers.

All the vegetable and spice plants are raised in all the seasons. But the raising of vegetables should be avoided in the summer seasons.
Fruits Plants suited for Terrace garden: Banana, Guava, Lime, Papaya, etc.
Vegetable plants suited for Terrace Gardening: Transplanted Vegetables: Tomato, brinjal, chillies, and Directly sown vegetables: Bitter guard, snake guard, Ridge guard, radish, okra, and beetroot.
Spice Crops for Terrace Garden: turmeric, coriander, and Fenugreek seeds.
Medicinal Plants for Terrace Garden: Aloe Vera, Lemon Grass, Wheat Grass etc.S
Shrubs for Terrace Garden: Allamanda grandiflora, Baleria cristata, Bauhinia tomentosa, clerodendron inerme, Dombeya spectabills, Duranta plumieri, Hamelia patens, Hibiscus rosasinesis, mussaenda erthyrophylla, Nerium oleander, poinsettia pulcherrima, Tecoma stans, thevetia nereifolia, codioeum sp. Eranthemium elegans and pisonia alba.
Climbers for Terrace Garden: Allamanda cathartica, asparagus densiflorus, bougainvillea sp, clitorea ternatea, ipomoea palmate, Quisqualis indica.
Flowers plants for Terrace Garden: Impatiens balsamina, celosia, chrysanthemum , cosmos bipinnatus, globosa, Tagetus erecta, petunia hydrida, portulaca grandiflora, salvia splendens, solidago canadensis, Vinca rosea, roses, jasmine, marigolds, hibiscus, tuilips and Zinnia elegans.
Lawn grass.

Fertilizer Application in Terrace Garden

For maximum growth and yield of crops can be achieved not only through organic manures and can be improved better by the application of inorganic fertilizers. Topdressing with nitrogenous fertilizers improves plant growth and yield of vegetables. This can be done by applying urea or DAP or ammonium sulfate in small quantities. In general, 5-10g of urea may be applied in moist soil once a week or 10 days starting from 3 weeks after sowing or 2 weeks after transplanting. In general, 5 to 10 grams of complex fertilizers (17:17:17 /20:20:20) containing NPK mixture is applied in three stages as follows:

30 days after planting onset of vegetative phases= 5 to 10 grams/plant.
60 days after planting onset of flowering phases= 15 to 20 grams/plant.
90 days after planting onset of fruiting phases= 15 to 20 grams/ plant.

In addition to the above, vermicompost 100 grams/plant should be applied at monthly intervals. Care must be taken that vermicompost should not mix with any inorganic fertilizer. Hence the application of vermicompost and inorganic fertilizers should not be practiced simultaneously.

Watering your Terrace Garden

Plants in containers need more care, watering of plants depends upon the weather, types of plants, and size of containers. In summer plants should be treated with more care and they should be irrigated twice a day. More water even harms the plants, so you should water them as per the requirement. You should scratch the topsoil to one inch and see whether the lower soil is damp, in that indicates that irrigation not necessary. Due to evaporation topsoil will dry even though the soil has enough moisture in the containers. So, check the requirement of water before you water.

Weed Control In Terrace Garden

Hand hoeing and weeding helps in aeration for the roots and helps the plants to grow healthy. Weed should be controlled gently in leafy vegetable crops like Amaranthus, fenugreek, spinach, coriander, etc.

Pests and Diseases In Terrace Garden

Spray neem oil when you find any larvae on fruits and vegetables.
Neem seed extract is the best organic pesticide that controls many bacteria and fungus.
Don’t use toxic chemicals.

Vegetable and fruit plants are attacked by many pests and diseases like aphids and jassids. So, use organic and natural pesticides to control them. Fruit flies are major pests of some vegetable crops that spoil young fruits. You should pluck fruits that effected by fruit flies, the plants should be sprayed with insecticides. After spraying insecticides fruits and vegetables should not be harvested for 8 to 10 days for consumption. Plants are mainly affected by fungal diseases during the rainy season. Virus-affected plants should be destroyed. Use the exact fungicide to control fungal diseases.

Harvesting In Terrace Garden

Vegetables are harvested and used promptly, vegetables grown ourselves are very nutritious, fresh, flavor and appearance. Leafy vegetables should be picked up frequently. Root vegetables should be pulled out while they are tender. Vegetables like Tomatoes are picked at the ripe stage, brinjal and okra are picked after they get the full size.

Roof-grown flowers get more beauty to our house. And even herbal plants air gives us healthy air.

Post-Post Harvest preparation in Terrace Garden

Digging soil: Before harvesting the vegetables, you should remove the plant from the pot or covers and dump the soil in an open place and break clods.
Application of Natural manures: After 15 days, add organic manures and mix the soil thoroughly and refill the pots or polythene covers.
Choose alternate crops: maintain proper recycling of nutrients, crop rotation can be adopted.

Yield in Terrace Garden

The yield depends on the variety grown on the terrace. It also majorly impacted by watering, sunlight, or other plant care practices.

Read about Hibiscus Farming Indoors.

In case if you miss this: Organic Vegetable Farming In Greenhouse.