APD stands for Association of People with Disability.  They are an NGO (a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organisation) with multiple focus areas, one of them being Horticulture Training.  APD has setup an amazing nursery in Jeevanbheema Nagar, Bangalore where disabled people are trained in order to help them gain meaningful employment in the areas of gardening and agriculture.

We came to know about APD through very good friends in our apartment who have an amazing terrace garden.  And the main reason we visited APD’s Horticulture Training Centre was to buy a sack full of mud for our new garden in the balcony 🙂  Nestled away from the main traffic and pollution, this place seems to have its own peace and calm.

During our first visit they didn’t have the mud, but we thoroughly enjoyed the place and ended up buying several other items. They have in fact stocked up the place with almost everything you would need for a garden.  Saplings of every kind, varieties of pots, mud, cocopeat*, compost, gardening tools, seeds, insect sprays and so on – all organic or herbal.  It also feels very good to know that the plants are taken care of so well by people with disability.  If you buy a new plant and pot, make sure to watch them prepare the whole thing.  Ask someone to explain what is being done and the importance of it – this itself was great learning for us.  And as a takeaway, they usually have some fresh organic garden vegetables on sale too.

[*he he … about a month back, I didn’t even know that there’s something called cocopeat … :-)]

A couple of weeks later, we came back to buy 2 sacks of mud (Rs. 130/- each).  Their mud is fortified with compost, cow-dung, etc.  Before you go, please call them – on some days they are closed.

Just visiting this place and being around the plants and the people gives you a positive push.

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