The organic urban Farm in Goa
Growing 5000 vegetables , fruits and spices,
with fish tanks growing 120 kg of
Seabass, fresh water Carp, for the home
Scroll down to see Our Green Oasis in Goa
Experience Nature in Our Son’s Goa Home
The polluted air in Delhi was taking a toll on our health. In 2013, so during the winter months we moved to out son’s villa in Goa, which was a double storied house on a 180 square meters plot of land with a modest garden patch of 10 feet on the front , side and back of the house so there was limited space to grow food.
In Delhi, we had thrived in an environment surrounded by greenery as opposed to the house in Goa was amidst rows of houses in the colony.
There was a parking area at the entrance to the home and a Porch with a door to the sitting area of the ground floor, there was no privacy to the house as from the entrance you could look into the home
We converted the Villa into an Urban Organic Aquaponics Farm growing 5000 plants of vegetables, Fruits, herbs and 120 Kg of Fish
We remodeled the goa home by closing off the entrance Porch with a stunning Laterite stone wall, seamlessly blending rustic charm with modern aesthetics, also expanding our sitting area, creating an inviting space for relaxation, looking onto gardens instead of the road
The combination of stone, greenery, and a hidden entrance at the side of the home instead of an entrance from the front has transformed a simple facade into a beautiful testament to innovative home design, where every detail reflects our love for nature and greenery
The entrance to the home from the road was into a Japanese Garden , growing fresh water fish and providing nutrition rich water to plants in the Aquaponic units at the entrance to the home. By shifting the main entrance to the side of the house, we crafted a more intimate approach that opened directly into a beautiful Japanese garden
Along the parking at the entrance to the Goa home, we set up Aquaponics with 10 Aeroponic towers and NFT pipes in a 2 ft wide 10 ft long space growing 500 plants of spinach, basil, lettuce, kale, bokchoy, mint, strawberries, and dutch bucket crates below the pipes grew other plants.
An Aquarium unit at the entrance grows fingerlings to move into our tanks and grows 200 plants of vegetables and herbs
Most homes, kept doors and windows sealed during the sweltering parts of the day, forcing us to adapt to a different kind of lifestyle and our creativity was challenged by the limitations imposed by restricted spaces in urban living and we found ourselves innovating, adapting gardening skills to a different environment, creating aquaponic gardens and systems around the house
The gentle, rhythmic sound of flowing water creates a soothing ambiance, enhancing the tranquility of our innovative oasis
The garden flanks the sides and front of the house, enhancing the overall serenity of the home, ensuring privacy from the road.
Growing in one of the fish tanks are 60 seabass ( Chonak ) fish, which grew to 1.5 kg each in a year, were harvested , cleaned and our deep freezer was full of organic fish for our home. This fish is unsurpassed in taste as it is organicaly grown and not contaminated with the mercury and other pollutants in the rivers and sea
A 10 ft wide area along the side of the house, all the way to the back, with a majestic Mankurad Mango at the corner was only a limited space to grow much food.
We transformed this into an oasis of vegetables, herbs , spices, fruits, fresh water fish. Water from the fish tanks flows into a small ornamental pool, and is pumped up to the rooftop greenhouse, feeding 3000 vegetables and the clean oxygenated water flows back to the fish tanks on the ground floor We rear organic Seabass and Carp in the fish tanks, providing us 120 kg of organic fish a year. We also tried freshwater prawns grew Rice on the fish tanks
At the back of the house, there was a 10 ft space, where we set up a fish tank enclosed in a greenhouse 10 ft by 20 ft with a fish tank growing Carp fish. The water fed aquaponic media beds where we got a bumper harvest of tomatoes . We could grow vegetables all year round in media beds and NFT pipes enclosed in a greenhouse with artificial grow lights ,
We are growing fruit trees along the walls of the home
The Goa home grows vegetables for our kitchen , the vegetables we do not grow are sourced from organic farms.
We still have to buy fruit, So a few years ago we set up a system growing 50 fruit trees along the walls of the first and second floor of the home
Along the first floor side wall , outside the windows to the bedrooms, is a 4 ft wide platform growing fruit trees in drums Pomegranate, Papaya, pineapple.
Along the side of the second floor rooftop a 4 ft wide platform grows fruit trees - barbados cherries, pomegranate, chiku, bush peppers, pineapple along the inside and crates on the outside growing spinach , beans, celery
Along the front of the second floor rooftop a 4 ft wide platform grows fruit trees - mulberries, figs, guavas, curry leaf, all spice in drums and along the outside are crates growing , radish, beans , celery, and herbs,
The second floor open terrace is covered and has a sitting, dining area and kitchen area, screened by fly proofing mesh . Along the front and the side is a 4 ft wide platform growing fruits , herbs and vegetables - Bush pepper, papaya, chiku, barbados cherries. papaya, guava, figs, mulberry, curry leaf, lemon grass, allspice, pineapple along the inside of the platform and on the outside are crates growing spinach, radish, beans, celery, chives, vegetables
Instead of looking out of the windows onto the bare walls of the houses next door, the trees provide a pleasant green screen around the home . The other most important aspect of this is that the house is naturally cooled by the trees growing along the walls and even though our neighbours use air conditioners, we no longer use air conditioning, the air from the fans in the home is cool enough, At times during the night, it becomes so cool that we have to put off the fans
In a corner of the house at the back was a Mankurad Mango, which was fed by aquaponic water from the fish tanks and has now grown up to the top of the 2nd floor rooftop , It gave a bumper crop of delicious Mankurad mangoes, 356 in the first pick and the 244 second pick
Green your home to get naturally clean and cool air into the home. surround it by vegetables, fruits, herbs providing food for your family
The second floor had a tiled sloping roof at the back of the house. We remodeled it by setting up a greenhouse on the roof which is growing 3000 plants of vegetables
A 10 ft wide , 14 ft long and 8 ft high unit in the greenhouse grows 2000 plants of lettuce, kale, celery, parsley, spinach , cabbage, chinese cabbage in NFT and aeroponic towers , climate controlled by an inverter AC
On a terrace above the second floor , we are growing fruit trees under an Agrivoltaic Solar panel system
Walking up to the terrace above the roof, we have passion fruit along the entrance and as we walk onto the terrace, it is encircled by fruit trees in drums filled by vermi compost and watered by aquaponic water from the fish tanks, we have Lemons, Mosambi , pinneapple giving us organic fruits .
We have set up an Agrivoltaic Solar panel system on the 2nd floor rooftop which powers our aquaponics and the air conditioner in the greenhouse that grows 3000 plants
We harvest rainwater from the rooftops, store it in a 1000 litre tank which feeds our Aquaponic Greenhouses in the monsoons
We Compost our kitchen and garden waste in 200 litre drums, which generates vermi compost to grow our food
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