Green notes – The Hindu

Green notes – The Hindu.

Article published on the Hindu – downtown edition March 23 , sunday !!

Green labs – define , design , sustain is a garden based curriculum designed for children and its poised to be more of a fun learning , entirely activity based! And we plan to include the community as much as possible, where we create a sense of ownership for the children by making them take care of the garden and observe and experience it. 

Very proud of the entire team who helped out .. still a long way to go. A great platform provided by BHUMI. Thankyou for the great article Liffy Thomas! 

A Peek into Green Labs!

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.

-Nelson Mandela

We often want to attack a problem from the core, the root, the point of origin. But usually we find it difficult to get that opportunity. But universe always finds a way. 

Bhumi, when it came out with the ICUBED (B-plan competition) themed as ‘Environment’, our elation knew no bounds.We were sure we could contribute to it wisely.We knew at least the exposure of the competition would give us the confidence to pursue the idea if it was worth it. Of course what we didn’t realize is that we would actually win the whole thing. BHUMI has been materialistic in bringing the idea this far.

It was a rather significant moment when we were announced that we would be getting a one lakh rupee grant for the start-up along with bhumi volunteers to help us mobilize the idea off the ground. Our idea is basically to create a system where children and gardens go hand in hand.An activity based learning. A model garden to help children understand how nature works,and thereby applying their understanding into a garden of their own and grow out of their own hands. Where children own these gardens. So here we come to another important problem.How do we teach them the significance without having to ‘teach’ them? Since this is a habit you inculcate. This is where the community pitches in. We realized it’s not just the children who get affected, but the whole community.

It was definitely eye-opening and very liberating , the whole experience and the various stages of the competition. Starting from the very first ideation of the concept to the presentation to the budgetary constraints and finally the pilot project.I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the people involved with the project. SPACES only had a brief role in this. There were many more significant players involved with getting this idea up and running and without which we wouldn’t have reached so far. Suvasini,Uma.C, Anirudhra,Krithiga, Manigandan,Palani,Adi have all played a major role!! Thank you guys. You guys are the pillars of this project.  

So we are all geared up for the next more challenging stages of this project which has now taken a turn into real existence and ceased becoming just a project.Cheers!       

Introducing ‘The Herbal Garden’ !!!

There was an unusual amount of racket and looking closer, things appeared even more chaotic. It looked like lunch break. But really it was just the school kids looking and pointing, curiosity piqued , poring over the fence trying to glimpse before the others did. We were really stoked that the children were also equally excited!!

So finally, after all the delays in setting up a Herbal Garden at Jaigopal Garodia , IT IS FINALLY FINISHED!!! 🙂  yes, finished. That does sound really good.

Getting the first project off the ground was the major hurdle and now that it is complete, feeling very relieved.

Just to give you a glimpse at how things went, check out our behind-the-scene potshots!

Working on the sign boards!!

work, work , work!!

A lot of boards to go through!!

.Moving on to the field work as the sign boards were done.

and finally, introducing ‘The herbal garden’!!

The before and after effect!! 😛

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Stunning transformation!

Every herb plant with the sign board giving information about the scientific name, local name , the uses with the specific parts along with how to use!

Along the way…

We made sure each plant had been secured with a brick layer around it!

Fencing to make sure the kids don’t damage it on a spree.

Through the fence gap!!

Extremely proud and feeling accomplished after the results we’ve obtained.

So as promised , we will keep pushing through for more herbal gardens for corporation schools and funds for the same. But for now enjoying the completion of the mini garden and reveling in its success. 😀

 

Herbal Garden – A Beginning !!

So way back , we had posted saying finally our Corporation school Herbal garden project got the green light for funding. Happy to announce our recent developments. Our efforts are finally off to a great start.We are nearly done with our first school and hope to finish soon. Rotary club has generously funded for the cause.

Our first stop being the all-girls JaiGopal Garodia Matriculation Hr.Sec.School  located in choolaimedu high road. The girls in the school show great passion and interest toward keeping and maintaining a garden. Their campus is a clear indication of that. The plants are nursed by the students themselves. A very laudable effort.

At the school, currently, we have managed to clear the area, level it and have planted over forty varieties of medicinal plants. A lot of research went into getting these saplings as well as the information.They vary from everything we use daily like tulasi (Ocimum sanctum) ,mint (mentha arvensis), aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) to the lesser known variants like nansaruppan (Tylophora indica), karudan kelangu (Corallocarpus epigaeaus) , Karu Salai (Wedelia calendulacea less)  etc.

A glimpse of the hard work put in by our laborers (above)

For the girls to grasp it better, besides each plant, a board would be displayed with descriptions like scientific name and uses and brief instructions on how to utilize it. And we are also hoping to circulate a detailed account on each plant in PDF format. Simply because all these herbs we have accumulated for the school have simply too many uses and stunning amount of medicinal values to be jotted down on a display board.

Hopefully it should help students  familiarize themselves about the easily available herbs and their medicinal properties and how effectively they can offer home remedies in case of emergency situations.

This whole effort from us is for a simple notion , why look any further, than your immediate surroundings for cure. And we hope this could inspire the children to look for bigger and larger than life solutions from the simplest of things.

SPACES would love to continue our efforts in providing more herbal gardens to schools in Chennai, so if you know any , please reach out to us. You can contact us through our website too www.gardeningredefined.com . Stay tuned for more updates.