Our 100% organic garden pooh-poohs the superstition that it is impossible to live without pesticides and synthetic fertilisers on this earth. It’s high time naysayers and those who champion pesticides stopped rationalising the use of deadly cocktails on the soil.

The residents of Sobha Althea-Azalea, Yelahanka, Bangalore, will not forget this Independence Day for two important reasons:

1. We are 100% successful in managing our waste. No waste goes out of our complex. All the garden waste gets vermi-composted. Kitchen waste is turned into super-rich organic manure using a simple, cost-effective composting method. All the dry waste is recycled and sent to factories as raw material. And, the hazardous bio-medical/sanitary waste is sent for incineration through Semb-Ramky.
2. The Mysore Horticultural Society, Lalbagh, picked out our organic garden for ‘Best Ornamental Garden & Landscape” and awarded us with a trophy on August 14.

These achievements called for two years of relentless efforts involving nothing less than behavioural change in each community member of all ages and stripes—day in and day out. A huge amount of pride and a sense of unparalleled satisfaction have overtaken every sincere segregator of our community today.

This is a community which took all small and big challenges in its stride and never even once questioned whether it made any sense to fret over so many types of waste every single day while most parts of the city do not even give a hoot to the negative impact of their indifference on the ecology and of course, the Mandur people.

100% free from landfill for all recyclable/compostable waste

Our community waste management is one of the ‘15 ideas for August 15’, according to ‘The Times of India’.

Barring the un-recyclable biscuit wrappers, thermocol, paints and stuff like that, we have a foolproof system which is anything but kind to waste. We either recycle, compost or incinerate our waste in a scientific manner. You can well imagine how advanced it is if I tell you that 21 types of waste get segregated in our complex after the residents do three types of primary segregation: kitchen, sanitary and dry waste.

100% free from chemical pesticides & synthetic fertilisers

For one year now, we have not used a drop of chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilisers for our garden. It’s completely organic. All the compost we prepare inhouse goes back to our garden and it’s a feat of its own class. It took a lot of research and legwork to understand organic gardening through soil enrichment methods. And, we stuck to it. Fortunately, our garden also responded so beautifully without suffering any yield depression even though we took it from one extreme to the other.

Now, zero worries when our children play in the garden and roll on the lawn. There is no residue of harmful pesticides anywhere. If anything, my kid comes back home excited over earthworms munching on the mulch heaped up underneath bushes and trees. More so during rainy season.

Now that’s something priceless!