Step 1: Plan on paper

Firstly, you need to make sure you get an understanding of how much your terrace can take. Plants and soil can put a lot of pressure on the terrace, which can most likely damage it. So be careful not to overdo it. After that, you need to start planning. What vessels to use, what to put where and the plants you want to grow in your garden. Plants like garlic, coriander, green beans, chilies, tomatoes, and spinach are particularly easy to grow and suit Kathmandu’s weather. Plus, things like coriander often grow well when paired with tomatoes.

Along with that you need to make sure the plants have direct access to sunlight. So you need to make sure that path to the sun is clear—remember photosynthesis?

Step 2: Dirty work

There is no gardening without getting your hands dirty. You’ll need soil; a lot of it. So get digging. You’ll also need vessels to put it all into. While clay pots are ideal, you can also recycle things at home such as old wash basins, drums, or bath tubs. It is recommended you raise the level of the vessel from the ground. This is because the dampness might seep in and might affect the floor below. You can also use old tires and if you don’t have any vessel, you can use plastic containers like bottles or old oil containers. Just cut the top off and fill them with soil. It doesn’t matter how the container looks, it’s only important that you get started.

Step 3: Managing the soil

This is the most important step because it’s going to be hard to get soil. But it’s not that hard if you want to set up a small garden. Just do what you would do for flowers. You need to make sure that you add a layer of greens in between the mud so that it gets some nutrients and becomes fertile. Many will face troubles because some soil is just not fertile enough to grow vegetables.

Another thing you can do is dispose of all the leftover greens on the soil and leave it be for a while and let it decompose. It’ll make the soil fertile.

Step 4: Sow the seed

You probably don’t have any seeds with you, being under lockdown. But it’s not a major problem because you can sow seeds from your kitchen. It can be the seeds from a chili pepper or one from the tomato. This will not be 100 percent successful, but if you’re lucky, you’ll be using tomatoes grown in your garden in less than three months. If you want something different, you can also regrow onion and garlic by placing them in a shallow dish of water. You can do the same with peas.

Step 5: Regularly water

After the sun, the most important thing a plant needs is water. You need to make sure you water the plants every other day. If you want a tidy garden, pluck the unnecessary weeds that grow next to the plant before watering it. You don’t have to take care of it every day, just doing that every week will make your garden look nice and clean.