In Jharkhand's Palamu district, a homemaker has turned her rooftop into a working farm using nothing more than junk. Anu Dubey, who lives in the Hamidganj locality of Medininagar, has built a lush kitchen garden on top of her house using old tins, discarded buckets and worn-out cartons instead of buying pots. Most of the vegetables her family eats now come straight from that rooftop, grown without a trace of chemical fertiliser. At a time when shrinking land and crowded cities keep most families away from farming altogether, her rooftop patch shows how a small stretch of open space and steady effort can put fresh, healthy vegetables on the table.
A childhood hobby revived during the lockdown
Anu Dubey is married to Anand Dubey, a resident of the Hamidganj area in Medininagar, the headquarters of Palamu district. She says she had loved gardening since she was a child but could never find the time for it once household duties and family responsibilities took over. That changed during the Covid-19 lockdown, when she suddenly had far more time at home. She picked up the old tins, buckets and cartons lying around the house and used them to plant flowers first, so that she would not have to buy flowers from the market for daily prayers. The project began with hibiscus, chrysanthemum and oleander, and slowly grew into a full kitchen garden that now covers the entire rooftop.
A dozen vegetables now grow on her roof
Once the flowers took off, Anu Dubey grew confident enough to try vegetables. Her rooftop today is filled with brinjal, chilli, coriander, tomatoes, spinach, and both red and green leafy greens. Alongside these, vine vegetables such as bottle gourd, pumpkin, ridge gourd and bitter gourd also grow easily in the same containers. She keeps switching crops with the season, which means the family gets fresh vegetables through all twelve months of the year. As a direct result, the household now depends far less on the market for its vegetables, and the worry over adulteration or chemical residue in daily meals has largely disappeared.
Homemade compost, no chemicals
Anu Dubey does not use any chemical fertiliser in her kitchen garden. Instead, she prepares her own compost at home from cow dung manure, vegetable peels, rice husk and other organic waste. To make the soil fertile for her plants, she mixes ordinary soil with sand and this homemade compost. She spends one to two hours every morning tending to the plants, and during the summer months, when the heat means the plants need more water and closer attention, she has to give considerably more time to watering and monitoring them.
A lesson for every family
Anu Dubey believes that any family living in a city can move towards a healthier lifestyle by growing organic vegetables on its own rooftop, provided they have a little space and the willingness to put in the effort. Her rooftop kitchen garden has now become a talking point in her neighbourhood, with several people visiting her to learn how ordinary junk can be turned into such a useful and attractive garden.
