COVID lockdown – A boon in disguise for urban kitchen gardening

The past year saw unprecedented havoc unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. Lockdowns in many parts of the world restricted the movement of people and confined them in their homes for extended periods. Many people took to new hobbies to engage themselves and use their time more productively. One of the most flourishing and widely adopted hobby during the lockdown has been urban kitchen gardening. Urban kitchen gardening is not a new concept and has been gaining popularity for the past few decades. With an increase in awareness and demand for residue-free, organic, and nutritious food, many people prefer to cultivate vegetables and fruits at home.

So what is urban kitchen gardening?

Urban kitchen gardening is the cultivation of fruits and vegetables in the home garden with the sole purpose of providing fresh produce for family consumption. In India, traditionally house backyards are used for cultivation of fruits and vegetables. However, due to urbanization and increase in land prices, houses have become small with minimal or no backyards. High-rise buildings and flat systems further restricted kitchen gardening to terraces, balcony and even windowsills. Still, the space constraints have not dampened the spirit of gardeners and they utilize whatever space is available to them to grow some greens.

Rise of Urban Kitchen Gardening

Lockdown rekindled the interest of people at large in kitchen gardening and encouraged many first-time gardeners. With uncertainties all around, kitchen gardening gave people a feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment during the difficult and gloomy period of lockdown. Many people enjoyed growing their own veggies during the pandemic. The new generation of indoor gardeners has been booming all across the globe. This has also created a sense of awareness among the people regarding agriculture, food production, environment and climate change. Home gardening helped people to relax and reduce their stress during the pandemic while providing them with fresh produce.
                                                     

During the initial stages of lockdown, kitchen gardening was taken up as a means for sustenance. Strict lockdown and limited availability of resources made it imperative for city dwellers to grow basic vegetables at home. People were afraid to go out even for purchasing basic necessities. Later on, as the lockdown extended, people turned to gardening as a hobby to beat the blues. It gave many people a sense of purpose and pride to grow their own vegetables. Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and other major cities in India, even the North-East states, reported an increase in kitchen gardening during the lockdown.

YouTube tutorials, blogs, Facebook posts, Instagram and other social media platforms helped to spread the know-how and to teach the basics of kitchen gardening to the novice. A boom in sales of home gardening tools and materials such as vegetable seeds, containers, grow bags, tools, manures and fertilizers, etc. was seen during lockdown. Snapdeal saw more than double the increase in the sales of gardening-related products during the lockdown in India. A sharp increase in online google searches for gardening (184%), how to grow your own food (809%) and compost (420%) was observed as compared to last year.

Many people cultivated their own veggies wherever possible, be it backyard of a house, rooftop, terrace, balcony, and even windowsills; utilizing any available space. In fact, kitchen gardening also led to the adoption of composting kitchen waste at home during lockdown. Recycling organic waste into compost at home supplied organic manure for the kitchen gardens in lockdown. Many people opted to prepare homemade manures and bio-pesticides (neem, turmeric, ginger extracts) to grow their vegetables organically.

People used their own planting material available at home such as coriander, fenugreek, mustard seeds or obtained seeds from tomatoes and chillies to grow in their kitchen garden. Some even used kitchen scraps such as mint cuttings and tops of carrot, beet, and radish. This renewed interest and enthusiasm also reflected in an increase in online orders for different vegetable seeds.

Lockdown also piqued interest in hydroponics i.e., soilless cultivation using nutrient-rich water as growing media and vertical farming. The sales of DIY home hydroponics kits skyrocketed during the lockdown. To maximize the utilization of space, vertical garden wall hanging pots as well as vertical tower planters were commonly used.

Micro-greens, the superfood, found a new admirer during lockdown – children. With online classes and no play, children around the country engaged themselves in growing micro-greens. More than 2000 children from different parts of India participated in an online initiative by E zone ‘Become a little farmer’ for 15 days during the lockdown to grow micro greens at their home. Micro-greens are nothing but young seedlings that are easy to grow, require less sunlight, or grow in artificial light, and are ready for consumption within a few days. Micro-greens of fenugreek, mustard, sesame, wheatgrass, coriander etc. are power-packed foods being rich sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

With a lot of free time on hand and the growing interest in healthy eating and improving immunity turned out to be a boon for kitchen gardening. Social media posts also helped to create an upward trend and positive attitude towards kitchen gardening. People posted their experiences of kitchen gardening on various social media platforms. They took pride in soiling their hands and becoming an urban farmer of a sort. They understood the value of food and the efforts it takes to grow them. This new outlook will also help people to appreciate the farmers and be more sensitive towards wasting food in the future.