What comes to mind when you think of the abbreviation, TGIF? Thank God it’s Friday? An indication of a ‘Casual Friday’ or a ‘No Work’ day at the office? Right? WRONG!

In fact, we work harder every time we have TGIF sessions! Still confused? Don’t be! TGIF at YDP expands to- “Terrace Gardening Is Fun!

”We had our first TGIF session at YDP on the 26^th of March this year and it was the perfect example of “all work and all play”. The SC members and a few enthusiastic volunteers took it upon themselves to revive the dying roof top garden and add an element of aesthetics to the plain and uninviting space that existed previous

We performed classic gardening rituals that required us to separate stones and other obstructing material from our soil and compost. Next in our line of work was mixing up the soil and compost after which this mixture, layered with neem cakes had to be filled into gardening bags and made ready for planting the seeds.

Fun fact about our gardening bags: We bought used gunny bags from the local Gujri shops in order to facilitate our ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ policy!

Our gardening arsenal was equipped with organic seeds of three types of greens – Dantu (Coriander), Methi (Fenugreek) and Palak (Spinach), two types of compost – one, which was a product of a composting workshop that was conducted at YDP previously and the second one, vermicompost that we bought from an organic store. Neem cakes and cocoa peat were also included.

All of our classic gardening rituals were spearheaded by the President of YDP- Nirupama Rajan, a well informed gardening enthusiast who loves getting her hands dirty and convincing others to do so as well!

Needless to say, getting our hands dirty in these rituals was the highlight of our TGIF experience. It was also a wonderful way for the newly formed SC to bond with one another.

But all of YDP’s efforts would be of no importance if not for the support provided by the members of FSL-India  (YDP’s parent organization), in order to take up maintenance of the garden.

So, the next time you visit the YDP office, don’t forget to take a quick look at our small little garden on the second floor balcony!

Diya P

SC Board Member