All garden enthusiasts, hop on board for a lovely half day workshop on basics of gardening by a renowned horticulturist on 26th July, 2014 at SPACES’s premises at Mylapore, Chennai.
Do follow the link below to register for the workshop.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pTPYewvHoCHlMx9au86RCpExe_551ai__PWvRGtkyKM/viewform?usp=send_form
Do ping SPACES website, fb page or on wordpress if interested. 🙂
And finally our dream shop is open.
Catch some of the glimpses of the day.
Just before the opening!
The very moment!!
Aaaaand….We’re Open!!
Performing Pooja!!
Some of our guests.
Mr.Sriram, who was a rock on the day and our own Hydroponics mentor!
Proud owners!!
A glimpse of all our newspaper media!
A little token of best wishes from everyone.
And finally, a view of our newly decorated office!! 🙂 
SPACES has yet again broken an important hurdle. Owning a brand new store! Do drop in sometime, whether to gawk or buy, doesn’t matter. 🙂
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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.Â
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. Â
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! Â Â Â Â
Dream Camp organized by M.A.D
A dream indeed, not only for the thirty five to forty kids present there, but even to us at SPACES who got the opportunity to interact with them. They were the most charming and intuitive little bunch of  people that we had ever come across. None too as innocent as they seemed.
SPACES as part of the MAD event organized a small workshop for the kids aptly named “Little Farmers”. All of them were super excited and running about with increased energy, increased adrenaline, climbing every tree top they could sight with the pretext of getting more green leaves or plants or saplings.In fact, I met a mentor who seemed to be in-charge of just that – getting the kids back to the original place. 🙂
The whole day was enlightening and in retrospect we were very much in awe at the level of interpretations of some of the kids and their ideas and thoughts. There were a few instances where we were completely mind blown at their creativity and ability.
As soon as we were ushered into the lovely In-Deco resorts at Mahabalipuram which had a very lush green outdoor, we quickly gave a brief talk on the current scenario, what the children could do to preserve the environment and some basics of gardening, waste disposal and recycling. What followed next was the outdoor session where the kids learned how to compost, what were the steps involved and more importantly they all learned how to plant a sapling along with a small exercise in recycling.
Hands down, the recycling part of the workshop was the most favorite, even the mentors got right down to the nitty-gritty. Where paints and brushes were involved, the children went to a happy place and got real serious. We got to see some beautiful pieces of art, very tastefully and creatively done.
There were a lot of chaotic moments, sweet ones, thick friendship, loyalty, naughtiness, every possible trait we could think of, we got to witness in that short period.  SPACES had an awesome time and hopes to meet the kids again real soon. Usually, these sessions with children often works out the other way around.We are the ones who take back a lot more than we expect to give!
Sixteen days had gone by since the group of twelve volunteers had battled it out in the terrace to equip a vegetable garden for the kids at the Shelter at Red Hills. Tentatively, we arrived at the gates , the children were busy attending Sunday Mass, and we went straight into the terrace , eager to see the results of our handicraft. There were so many doubts .. did the structures still stay strong, had the saplings grown for all the veggies, had the pandal structure stood the test of the winds.
The sight which was awaiting us was one which would rise our spirits by the double.
The children had taken care of the seeds like they were their own, everything looked healthy and was growing fine. All the structures were intact and pretty strong. happy and content, we set about with transplanting some of the tomatoes , brinjals and the chillies into separate containers thereby avoiding crowding and stunted growth.
We also removed the plastic covering underneath the bigger pots,afraid of stagnation of water.We gave them instructions to keep changing the position of the containers slightly every 2 weeks.
By the time we were done transplanting, the kids were done with their prayers too and were eager to come up, curious to see what the annas and the akkas were up to. We taught them how to transplant , how to water without doing excess , and how to keep cuttings of plants and propagate them like indian borage, perandai  etc
One little fellow followed my suit and started watering the plants and the rest followed.
Soon the two hours just flew by and it was time to leave and we had time for one last photo session.
Until next time. 🙂
SPACES was fortunate enough to be invited to conduct a session on Ornamental Gardening. It was indeed a unique way of blending both the organic methods of farming and the utilization of the space available in cities. Yes , space is the most important constraint even for garden enthusiasts and that proves to be a block for setting up gardens. Sometimes this block is less physical and more of an immediate rejection without exploring the available possibilities.
This very novel effort on educating the audience on such options was conducted by SUBHAM in association with Kasturba Residents Association. The organizers did a brilliant job by roping in notable groups working toward similar goals.
There was a talk by Ms.Lakshmi Sriram madam who explained about the little details that most of us tend to worry about and these were the precise information that would go a long way in producing better, healthier produce .. and that too at our own backyard! And then the famous organic shop – Restore‘s owner Mr.Anantu gave an inspiring talk about food security and there were some innovative products, specifically Eco-pots ,designed by Mr.Vijayan and his daughter. Not to forget the informative talk about different indigenous herbs and their uses.
SPACES gave a presentation on the terrace and other recent technologies coming up among which Hydroponics and Aquaponics were topics covered. Other than that we also gave a general idea on the important things to take care while having a roof garden and the concept of vertical planters. The topics were well received and the audience were full of questions later and hopefully many would want to take up the same.  Space saving techniques have become the order of the day and we were just too happy to share our knowledge.
All these aspects added quite a bit of dimension to the normal format. And in the afternoon session, we had group discussions with each of the resource,talking about their ideas or products or basically clearing all general doubts.
The whole atmosphere ,no doubt, presented a very healthy discussion platform for creative garden enthusiasts to get more and more of a clear perspective. A great initiative by the community and SUBHAM. SPACES hopes to see next time larger audiences and much more resources coming and putting forward their ideas and innovations.
First impressions when we entered the college – “does this place really need any work?” . Imagine the greenest campus you know of! And imagine it tastefully maintained and designed. That is the college we visited. Chevalier T.Thomas Elizabeth College for women. A college that can boast that it is completely independent and self-sufficient.
As we moved around the campus, we found out they had already taken the initiative of setting up a kitchen garden. The images of the ladies finger growing out there is still fresh in our minds. Very healthy looking and well looked after. So we were not at all worried about the herbal garden that we were going to set up. In fact they already had a few planted.. like aloes and perandai, insulin plants. But they did need a bit managing, since they were all placed pretty randomly.
And then, in spite of a few glitches on starting the project, the management had full faith in us, and our laborers did a fine job in completing the garden full of 20 odd varieties of herbs replete of name boards with information, uses and local names.
SPACES thanks the management for giving us the opportunity and for taking the initiative of maintaining a green campus and going the extra mile.
This gallery contains 11 photos.
Our big dream project. So we started a small step toward the big project this October. Planting the border trees. Founder of SPACES, planting one of her own. 🙂 A little late in putting these snaps up. But hoping soon … Continue reading
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.
SPACES 