Turn any outdoor space into a vegetable garden

By LILLIAN KIARIE

NAIROBI, KENYA: Mary Atieno, a single parent and Kibera resident, has had a rough number of years in the informal settlement.

“My children and I were sleeping hungry more often than not as my meagre earnings were not enough to afford us a decent living. Even on the days I could afford flour, I was unable to purchase vegetables,” she says.

The direction her life was taking changed the day she joined an initiative spearheaded by Solidarités International, a French NGO with a branch in Kenya. The organisation specialises in helping individuals plant vegetables in earth-filled sacks that can be placed on rooftops or along narrow paths.

“The organisation gave each member one to three sacks filled with earth and taught us how to grow vegetables and benefit from it. I started by planting kale in three sacks, and harvested enough to eat and sell,” she says.

Today, Ms Atieno has established a formidable sack nursery outside her house in Kibera and grows tomatoes, onions, kale and spinach.

There is a surging interest in agribusiness, but several budding farmers lack the kind of space required to go big on it. However, this should not stop you from at least starting your own little edible garden in whatever space you have.

You can start with the more basic sack garden, which requires about Sh200 in capital. 

The key selling point of the sack garden is that you can grow vegetables in small spaces that you can sell for a little extra income, or consume yourself to reduce your grocery costs.

A sack garden is typically made using recycled sacks filled with soil. You grow crops in them on different levels, dubbed vertical farms, by poking holes in the bags and inserting seeds and/or seedlings.

CROPS TO GROW

The crops mainly planted in them include spinach, kale, sweet peppers, carrots, spring onions, cherry tomatoes, chillies and potatoes.

The materials you need for this are a burlap sack, which you can buy for about Sh20, or you can recycle one that had maize flour or coffee beans.

Fill the sack with soil, which you can either dig up for yourself or purchase. For instance, Plants Galore Garden Centre on Limuru Road sells soil that has compost and fertiliser already added.

You can make your own organic compost from cow dung or chicken feed.

According to experts, you can either fill a sack with horizontal layers of stones and soil or have a sack with a central well — that can be made using a tin or plastic container with the bottom cut out — that is about 5cm in diameter filled with stones and surrounded by soil.

Start by filling the bottom of the sack with a shallow layer of soil mixed with organic manure.

FILLING THE GARDEN

Place the tin in the middle and fill it with rocks.  Add more soil until it gets to the top of the container, and then slowly lift it up and surround it with soil again. Do this until the sack has a tower of rocks in the middle — this will serve as an irrigation channel — surrounded by soil.

It will take about an hour the first time you make a sack garden, but it should get easier and faster for subsequent ones.

Finally, transplant seedlings into the sides of the sack. It is advisable to put root crops on top and leafy vegetables and herbs on the sides.

A sack about a metre high can hold up to 45 plants of kale or 20 tomato plants.

Atieno says she harvests enough from her sacks that she has opened a grocery kiosk.

“I have been able to save and educate my children courtesy of this initiative. My last born son is in Form 3 in a day school nearby and I have started saving to construct a house in Nyando, Kisumu,” she says.

If you’re looking to create something more visually appealing, think raised gardens.

DECORATIVE STONES

These often have an exterior made with decorative stones, metal pipes, painted old tyres or planks of wood.

You can also add wheels at the bottom of the raised boxes to enable you move your garden around to follow the sun, or to make it easier to carry it with you should you move out.

The advantages of raised beds are that you do not have to worry about the poor quality of soil in your area, and they can create beautiful landscapes in small spaces.

And even if you are not interested in farming, why not consider constructing raised or container gardens for sale?

For people with yard space, you can create larger raised gardens that can be split into quarters or eighths, with different crops grown in each section. At the most basic level, you would need eight planks of wood, which you can buy from furniture shops, and galvanised screws from hardware stores. Or paint old tyres. Fill these with soil that has compost, and you have a garden ready for planting.

For those with smaller spaces, you can sell them decorative container gardens that can be placed along kitchen window sills or anywhere else in the house. These are ideal for growing herbs like mint and dhania.

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