SACK GARDENS IN KENYA and UGANDA
Sack gardens are a great way to grow vegetables in a small space, need very little watering or weeding and can produce enough food for the family and some vegetables to sell.

With usual gardening in the ground there is a lot of waste water and weeds grow all the time and insects eat the plants. Fresh water can be very scarce if the rains do not come. Plants on the ground sown in rows allow the hot sun to dry out the ground. Weeds always grow.

Using this new type of gardening in a sack water is used very sparingly, there are almost no weeds and insects are not so difficult to control because native Kenyan plants are very strong and hardy.

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A lot of very helpful agencies from countries around the world have provided bags and soil and seeds and compost to mix in to increase the fertilty of the soil. They have shown adults and children how to put pebbles and small stones down the center of the bags for drainage and how to mix the soil and the compost or animal dung or even weeds to make the soil good. Many of the agencies have large seed beds where they grow small plants and supply them free.

Fresh new grown vegetables ready to be planted in the sack gardens. They are mostly given away free to help people start their sack gardens.

On the outskirts of Nairobi is one of the largest slum areas in the world. Over a million men women and children live in the slums. There are no roads. There are no jobs. People might have a meal once a day. If they are lucky. Somedays there is no food. But things are changing. The sack gardens have made it possible to grow food for the family and even sell some vegetables for income. The women do all the work. And the children. And the men are right in there helping. They stop people stealing the food. They do the heavy work. Sack gardens provide food for the family and some vegetables to sell.

There is a new spirit in the slums as people realise how good the sack gardens are. They provide food for the family and some vegetables to sell. They help reduce crime and violence and drugs and alcohol. They bring families together. Before there was no way to improve life did not matter how hard people tried they were still in the slums with no way out. Now things have changed. Growing vegetables provides food for the table and extra money for the family. Children are learning important new skills. People are talking to each other and helping each other and making progress.

Mary Abukutsa-Onyango stands in a field of African nightshade near Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Jula, outside Nairobi. She grew up eating local greens and is studying their nutritional benefits and popularize them.

Many other plants as well

SUKUMA
CARROT
TOMATO
ONIONS
SOYA BEANS
GREEN BEANS
CABBAGE
SPINaCH
PAsSION FRUIT
MAIZE
OKRA
MILLET
SUN FLOWER
BEETROOT
GREEN PEPPER

Plants growing in sacks buried in the ground. The ground is hard and dry but it is easy to water the sacks

Great for schools to show children how easy it is with a sack garden to grow strong healthy plants

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Here is the sack. See the tin in the center. It has the top and bottom removed. Put the tin in the bag in the center. Fill the tin with stones. Put soil around the tin. Fill with soil and stones up to the top of the sack Lift the tin up as you gol. Plant your vegetable seedlings in the soil. Water into the stones. The water will move into the soil for the plant roots.

Here is a finished sack planted with 6 vegetables

In the space of the sack you might have had 4 vegetable plants. Now you have 6 plus maybe another 6 around the sides of the sack. So you have 12 vegetables plants where you had 4. Makes a big difference

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