Sack farming: Unlimited vegetable harvest!

Announcer: A very warm welcome to those of you tuned in to our station. We are glad you’re
listening to our program. I am your presenter, Rosemary Nyaole.

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Announcer: If you are hungry because you don’t have enough land and water to grow food, today we have some good news for you. We’re going to talk about how you and your family can enjoy an unlimited vegetable harvest from the comfort of your doorstep. In today’s program we will hear about sack farming, and will learn how to harvest vegetables without farmland or rainwater. Sack farming involves planting vegetable seedlings on the sides of earth-filled synthetic sacks that are placed on rooftops or doorsteps. We will feature one Kenyan farmer who has done exactly that. Stay tuned.

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Announcer: Welcome back to our talk on sack farming. We are going to take a memorable journey together – a journey to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, commonly known as the city in the sun. There we will meet Mike Buseti, an urban farmer. You might be wondering why Mike chose to farm in the city. Let’s find out together. But first, listen to this drama!

Fade up heavy snoring, clock ticking, baby crying

Jane: (Agitated) Mike, wake up! Mike, my husband, I just can’t continue like this!

Mike: (Stops snoring) … What? What is it, my dear wife?

Jane: The baby. Our baby, Mike. Do we just sit back and watch our baby starve to death? Tell me, Mike.

Baby cries louder

Mike: What? … What is it now? (Jumps off bed) Can’t I just have some sleep? Why not breastfeed your baby?

Jane: (Sarcastic) I hear you well, my dear husband. Now he is my baby? (Serious) It’s now three days, three good days, since I last had a proper meal. You know very well what that means to a mother. This baby has been suckling the whole night. But there is no milk …

Mike: But … (stammering) but we’ve lost everything. No food, no money. The land is gone – oh my land.

Jane: I am tired and weak.How are we going to survive (sobbing)? We might as well starve to death (more sobs). Mike, my husband, if you truly care, go fetch food for us. (Sarcastic) Or better still, sit there and watch us die of starvation.

Mike: (Forceful)No I can’t! (Angrily) I just cannot stand all these problems.

Rapid footsteps, door opening then closing

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Mike: (Speaking to himself)My family had enough food before violence erupted in my up country home. We had to move to the city, and now we are faced with starvation. There is no farmland, there is no rainwater. Oh God, where do I go from here? God, you know how much I love my family. But look at me now. I have no hope. I can’t watch them go hungry.

Voice: (Reverb) Go back to your wife and son. Go, go, go …

Mike: Whose voice is that? Hey you, do you know what you’re asking me to do? To go back to my house and watch my son and wife die of starvation. No! I can’t! (Stammering) I just cannot stand that.

Narrator:A street urchin spots Mike. Jose is carrying a dirty sack on his back that is filled halfway with all sorts of garbage. He thinks of mugging Mike.

Jose: (Off mic – speaking to himself)That man over there. Could he be my good catch first thing this morning. (On mic) But why is he sitting all alone? Let me go and find out what he is up to.

Gradually fade up rapid footsteps and eerie music, then under

Jose: (Whistling) Hey you! What the hell are you doing here?

Mike: (Mimicking Jose) And you? What the hell are you doing here?

Jose: How dare you talk to me like that?

Mike: So, what are you up to?

Jose: This is my territory. Give me all that you have.

Mike: (Sarcastic) I give you all that I have? Yes, here I am. Take me … kill me if you want. I have nothing to lose.

Fade up rapid bits of eerie music then slow down

Jose: (Talking to himself) I can’t believe …

Mike: Young man, relax. We can work together, can’t we?

Jose: (Surprised) What exactly do you mean?

Mike: My name is Mike. I am here in the city because I lost my land and everything else. Tell me your name.

Jose: Call me Jose. I also lost all my parents and relatives. All I have is this sack, and two others. I use them for collecting garbage. That’s how I earn a living now.

Bridge music up 10” then under

Fade up music for 10” then fade out

Announcer: That short drama explains the challenges facing Mike and many other farmers who migrate to urban centres. Mike had to act very fast to save Jane and their baby from starvation. He discovered a practice called sack farming that saved their lives. This involves growing vegetables in sacks filled with soil and kitchen waste. All you need is a sack, soil, and seedlings. Jose’s three sacks became their first sack farms. I had a tour of Mike’s sack farms and had this conversation with him.

Fade up street sounds(people talking, hawkers, children playing, traffic, etc.)then under voices

Nyaole: How did you become a sack farmer?

Mike: After struggling to find vegetables in Nairobi, I asked myself: How can I increase food security for the family? How can I have enough for us and some excess to sell? I met Jose, a street urchin. He is an orphan, so I took him in and became like a father to him. He had three sacks he used for collecting garbage. I pondered over the idea of filling the sacks with soil and using them as our kitchen farm. We tried it and it worked. Then I introduced sack farming to some of my friends. It is now easier for us to grow enough food for our families because we don’t need a big space to farm.

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Announcer: We’re back talking about sack farming. Sack farming involves planting vegetable
seedlings on the sides of earth-filled sacks that are placed on rooftops or doorsteps. We’ve already discovered how Mike, a Kenyan urban farmer, started sack farming. You might be wondering what it takes to make sack farming a reality. Let’s demonstrate this together with Mike.

Nyaole: You mean I add six inches of a mixture of soil and composted manure to the sack?

Mike: Yes. Then take a 15 by 20 centimetre plastic container which is open at both ends. Put it inside the sack. Then put stones inside the plastic container. Add soil inside and around the plastic container and keep adding soil until you fill the sack. Now your farm is ready. Just water the sack farm and then plant your seedlings or seed. Remember to set up your sack farm in a sunny place.

Nyaole: Okay, so all I need to be a sack farmer is a sack, soil, composted manure and water. I mix one part composted manure with three parts soil in a sack. Then I plant seedlings on top and all round the sack. Then water first thing in the morning and in the evening. Is that right?

Mike: Yes. That is it.

Nyaole: How exactly do I plant the seedlings?

Mike: We recommend you plant about six seedlings of sukuma wiki (Editor’s note: kale in Kiswahili) at the top of the sack. Plant the other seedlings, roughly twenty four, in a zigzag line all around the sack. Place each seedling about six inches apart.

Nyaole: Now that we’ve discovered a simple way to provide vegetables for our families, why not give it a try? We will take a short break. When we get back, Mike will tell us how to avoid water logging in our sack farm.

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Announcer: Before we took a break, Mike talked about plastic containers and stones. Why is it necessary to use a plastic container and stones in a sack farm?

Mike: The plastic container and the stones in sack farming help to filter water. Without them, the soil and plants would be water logged and would die. The stones inside the container prevent water blockage.

Nyaole: Why do you use a plastic container?

Mike: Used plastic containers are readily available in our kitchens and dumpsites. The other option is to use wire mesh inside the sack. But I had no money to buy any. The plastic container must be open at both ends so that water can easily penetrate to the bottom of the sack. Use only one container for one sack.

Nyaole: How often do you replace the sacks?

Mike: The green sack that I’ve just shown you will last for two to three years. It depends on the weather conditions. But replace the sack as soon as it is too worn out to hold soil.

Nyaole: How frequently do you add fertilizer to your sack farm?

Mike: I add manure on top of the sack roughly every three months. Being an organic farmer, I buy manure from poultry farmers and use it to improve the soil fertility.

Nyaole: How many seedlings should I plant in a single sack?

Mike: Each sack contains about thirty seedlings. Plant six seedlings on top of the sack. Plant the rest, around twenty four seedlings, all around the sack. As I mentioned earlier, plant them in zigzag, not a straight line, about six inches apart.

Nyaole: So I plant thirty seedlings? Six on top and twenty four all around one sack?

Mike: Exactly that! Three sacks contain roughly ninety seedlings. That would provide enough vegetables for an average household to feed regularly and even sell some to a few neighbours.

Nyaole: Enough to feed an average family for how long?

Mike: For as long as you keep planting fresh seedlings. It takes about three weeks for sukuma wiki to be ready for harvest. So, you should plant fresh seedlings every three weeks.

Nyaole: Water is very scarce here. How do you water your vegetables?

Mike: I buy water for my usual household use. After use, I purify the used water by passing it through tiny charcoal particles. These are left over from the charcoal we use for cooking.Twenty litres of water is enough to water three sack farms twice a day. This is quite economical.

Nyaole: Can I water my sack farm any time of the day?

Mike: No. It is better to do the watering very early in the morning and late in the evening. This minimizes the amount of water that evaporates. Never use soapy water unless you have passed it through this process of charcoal purification.

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Announcer: Today we’ve been talking about how to harvest vegetables without farmland or rainwater. As usual, there can never be plants without pests. How do we control pests in a sack farm? Mike has managed to keep his vegetables free from pests without using insecticides. Let’s find out how he has managed to overcome this challenge.

Mike: To control pests, use pepper powder. Mix it with pawpaw leaves. Actually, pepper by itself will work.

Nyaole: How do you prepare the powder?

Mike: You crush the pawpaw leaves and add powdered pepper to them. Then you mix with water and spray your vegetables. You can also use milk, but we don’t encourage using milk as it’s expensive. I should mention that controlling weeds in sack farming is, of course, much easier.

Nyaole: What are some of the other challenges you face?

Mike: There have been quite a lot. First, it was money and space. I managed to find a rental house. My sack farms are in every available space around my rental house. That became my land here in Nairobi. Also, there are people who harvest my vegetables when I am away. But the benefits outweigh the challenges. My wife Jane and our son are now healthy and strong. This is my greatest joy.

Music up then under

Announcer: We’ve just discovered how to develop a sack farm. Now, members of Mike Buseti’s household peacefully enjoy a meal of sukuma-wiki regularly with little effort. His family no longer fears starvation. We can do the same.

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Announcer: I hope you’ve enjoyed this program about sack farming. If you have already tried this method and have some suggestions or ideas for other listeners, please contact us here at the radio station and tell us about your experiences. That’s all for today. Thank you for listening. This is your presenter, Rosemary Nyaole.

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Presenter: Hello dear listeners, welcome to your favorite program, Shambani (Editor’s note: Shambani means “in the garden” in Swahili). In this program, we look at some of the challenges which smallholder farmers in Kenya face. We also look at ways of tackling them, and present new discoveries and achievements. Today as before, you are with me, Stanley Ongwae.
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Presenter: Today in our program, I am going to introduce you to a very new farming method. This new method doesn’t require much land to produce vegetables. It originates in the slums of Kibera, on the west side of Nairobi. The new farming concept has helped many residents to improve their diet and earn cash. Stay tuned and learn more about hanging gardens.
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Presenter: Population pressure on land in many farming communities in Africa continues to increase steadily. As a result of the likely land crisis, there may well be food shortages. People in cities and towns mainly rely on food from up country and are likely to be greatly affected.
According to a report released by the International Food Policy Research Institute on World Food Day in 2009, many people in the developing world are faced with severe famine. If we sit down, worry and don’t do anything about it, the situation is bound to get worse. But there is good news for those without enough farmland. The hanging gardens system of farming is one of the tested solutions to the problem. The method has brought happiness and hope to urban and landless rural farmers. Stay tuned for more about hanging gardens.
Gospel song with theme of hope for tomorrow
Presenter: Welcome back. Listeners, do you know the Swahili proverb: akili ni mali, which means “innovation is wealth”? Can you imagine how innovative it would be if you could harvest bags and bags of sukuma wiki (Editor’s note: local Swahili name for kale) at your doorstep or on your rooftop? Did you know that you don’t need to own a large piece of land to eat well?
We are talking about hanging gardens.
In slums, there is no land for cultivation. The little space available between houses is very small and usually paved over. Yet people from the slums, the majority of whom are women, have managed to produce enough sukuma wiki for their own consumption and for sale in their neighborhoods.
Hanging gardens grow vegetables in synthetic or sisal sacks filled with soil and organic materials. The sacks stand on the ground. Where the land is sloping, the sacks are supported with stones at their bases so that they can stand firmly on the ground. The larger the sack, the larger the number of sukuma wiki it can grow. Sukuma wiki seedlings are planted in holes drilled in the sides of the sacks. An average sack stands approximately five feet high. To make sure that the soil in the sacks does not dry out, it is recommended that white sacks be used. White sacks reflect the sun’s heat and decrease evaporation.
About fifty sukuma wiki plants can be grown in a single sack.
Our reporter takes us to a group of women from Kibera, west of Nairobi. These women grow sukuma wiki on their doorsteps using the new system christened the Hanging Gardens of Kibera.
Ruth and Kerubo are pioneers of the system. They will share their experiences with our reporter.
Sounds of strong winds, iron sheets clattering, women murmuring and children playing
Reporter: Ruth, is this magic? Where did you get this great idea to use hanging gardens?
Voices of women silencing interrupting children
Ruth: (Giggles) No magic here. This is our own idea which we invented to deal with poverty and malnutrition in our children. We could not afford a good diet for our children, because of the high cost of food in the city.
Reporter: Wow! How long have you been practicing the system?
Kerubo: It is about one year since we started. We are really encouraged!
Ruth: All these years we never thought crops could thrive here. It’s something new and really inspiring.
Reporter: I am seriously thinking of putting up kitchen gardens like yours. What equipment and other things do I need?
Kerubo: You will need sacks, organic materials like kitchen waste or compost, and soil.
Ruth: You need some seedlings for planting too!
Reporter: Oh yes! Does it mean you don’t need seeds?
Both Ruth and Kerubo: A farmer can plant his sukuma wiki seeds in a nursery and later transplant the seedlings. But in our case, we planted seedlings from a nursery.
Reporter: What about meat balls – will they do well?
All burst into laughter
Ruth: (Still laughing) Hey! Come on! Meat balls will take a whole millennium to grow into an animal!
Reporter: (Still laughing) I’m just kidding! But did you buy the seedlings?
Kerubo: We bought the seedlings from a nearby nursery.
Reporter: How about inputs like fertilizer and manure? Did you have to buy them?
Both Ruth and Kerubo: Yes.
Ruth: But we only bought fertilizer.
Reporter: How about manure?
Kerubo: We use kitchen wastes as manure, and it gives good results as you can see. We also use kitchen water to nourish the sukuma wiki because fresh and clean water is expensive. And the plants are healthy, as you can see.
Sound of leaves of sukuma wiki being plucked
Reporter: They look very succulent.
Kerubo: They’re very nutritious when cooked.
Reporter: Any successful farmer has to take full control of pests and diseases. How do you ensure this?
Ruth: We haven’t seen many pests on our crops. Just a few – like white and yellow butterflies and aphids. We spray them with a local mixture of pepper and garlic which keeps them away.
Kerubo: I remember my grandmother educated me on how to prepare a local pesticide. I also remember reading in high school that fungal and bacterial diseases on sukuma wiki – such as head rot and downy mildew – can be prevented by allowing good air circulation in the soil.
Reporter: How can you get circulation in the soil of hanging gardens?
Kerubo: We drill small holes in the sacks to increase air circulation. Also, we stack the soil in the sack loosely. Or, you can insert objects like small wooden sticks which make space for air to circulate. Remember that the objects should be placed so they create space for good soil circulation.
Reporter: Initiatives like this bring hope for raising the living standards of people like you. How has this initiative changed your lives?
Kerubo: It has really changed our lives. In a good week I can sell up to 500 shillings (Editor’s note: about 6 ½ US dollars or almost 5 Euros) worth of sukuma wiki just here in our neighbourhood. I can use the cash to buy other foods like meat and fruit for a perfect diet.
Reporter: How about you, Ruth?
Ruth: (Chuckling) My family’s life has significantly changed because of this project. My children’s health has improved because they eat more green vegetables. I can pay their school fees on time. And they are not sent back home for fees like used to happen before. No doubt I am the happiest mother in all of Kibera.
They all laugh
Reporter: One last worry I have is about the involvement of your men in these initiatives. How are they involved?
Ruth: At first, my husband did not want to see me try these things. But he came to realize how good it was when he first tasted the fresh greens from our garden. He even encouraged me to increase the number of gardens by giving me cash to buy fertilizer and seedlings.
Reporter: Why would the husbands not allow you to try these projects?
Ruth: They used to say it was a man’s job.
Kerubo: I remember quarrelling with my man over the same issue. But he came to like it when he saw my friend appreciate his wife’s project. Nowadays, he sprays and waters the vegetables while I am at the market.
Reporter: Thank you, ladies, for finding time to talk to me. Be blessed and keep alive the hope of becoming more successful urban farmers.
Gospel music about the beauty of Eden
Presenter: Well, you have heard it from Ruth and Kerubo. Their great determination and willpower to see their families get a better diet and a little cash has borne good and admirable results, thanks to hanging gardens.
You too can benefit from hanging gardens. You can make good use of a small piece of land to grow as many crops as you can. For better results, remember these three important things: first, keep the sacks well-ventilated. Secondly, keep the plants well-watered and sprayed with safe pesticides and fungicides to prevent pests and diseases. Above all, remember that hanging gardens are best suited for crops like sukuma wiki, cowpeas, onions and other crops which do not have extensive root systems or don’t grow to heights greater than three feet.
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Presenter: What a great time it was talking about hanging gardens. Well, that is all the time we have today. If you have a question or a comment about today’s program, please feel free to write to this e-mail address: stan.ongwae@gmail.com. Or you can call direct on +254 720 576113.
Bye till next week same day same time for another exciting episode of your program Shambani. From me, Stanley Ongwae, it’s good bye and may you have an innovative day in your shamba (Editor’s note: Swahili word for “farm”).
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According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, you and I – in fact every person – should eat 300 grams of fresh vegetables every day to stay healthy. Three hundred grams is about one large bowl full of vegetables.

With this in mind, a municipality in Cuba developed a program for residents to grow their own vegetables in urban areas. Rubén Luis Hernández, who is a member of the Farm Radio Network, told us about this program. He is an agronomist in Sancti Spíritus, the municipality where this program helps to feed people. The local government in Sancti Spíritus planned to use every empty space available to grow food. There were plenty of vacant lots and unused spaces but many of them were paved over with concrete. Or the soil was not fertile.

The question was, how could they make these spaces usable to grow food? Here’s what they decided. To make the spaces usable, the city planners built containers from bricks, cement blocks, wood, large rocks, and metal scraps – anything they could find. All of the materials were inexpensive and available close to the growing site.

In total, the city built 26,000 square metres of growing containers. That is about the size of two and a half soccer fields! Many of these containers were rented out to city residents at a low cost – just a few cents per square metre. The residents planted lettuce, leeks, radishes, cabbage, carrots, chard, peppers, garlic, onions and beets. After the first season they harvested 15 to 18 kilograms of vegetables per square metre – a very good yield! Today the yields are more than 20 kilograms per square metre.

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Let’s talk about the growing containers for a minute. Or really I should say, let’s talk about what goes in them. This is one of the most important things to know. The containers are filled with a mixture of soil and organic material. They use half soil and half organic material. This is a high proportion of organic material. The organic material is made up mostly of sugar cane leftovers and chicken manure. There is also a small amount of cow and horse manure mixed in. But the most useful thing is the sugar cane waste. This is because sugar cane is widely grown and processed in Cuba so it is easy to get and inexpensive.

[NOTE TO BROADCASTER: IF POSSIBLE, SUGGEST A LOCAL SUBSTITUTE FOR SUGAR CANE. CONSULT AN AGRICULTURE EXPERT IN YOUR AREA TO HELP YOU MAKE THIS SCRIPT MORE PRACTICAL FOR YOUR AUDIENCE.] The soil mixture is so fertile that residents are able to grow and harvest vegetables for two or three seasons without adding any fertilizer.

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At harvest time, the growers sell their vegetables at prices they decide, based on local supply and demand. This system stimulates the local economy and the production of fresh vegetables in the city. And the program provides jobs for many people who need work, especially women.

This is a good project for cities and towns where there is a lot of unused space available – space that is either paved with concrete or doesn’t have fertile soils.

Do you live in a city where you spend much of your hard-earned income just to eat? Or, are you a farmer struggling to get food to city markets — battling the high cost of refrigeration and transportation? If this describes you, here’s something of interest.

In the country of Cuba, a large quantity of food is grown in the cities, where most people live. An economic crisis in the early 1990s forced Cuba to take a different approach to feeding its people. Cuba’s goal is to produce much of the food the cities need in the cities themselves. This is a way to feed people and reduce the cost of transporting and refrigerating foods.

Will Cuba succeed? Well, it is certainly off to a good start! Let’s look at the example of Havana, the capital city.

Havana is a large city. Two million people live there. The government encourages peple to use all available spaces to grow food. Today there are over 5,000 community gardens and 2,000 small farms in and around Havana. The previous system of growing food in the country and transporting it to the cities required refrigeration, transportation, storage and a distribution system. All this required a lot of energy — especially petroleum and electricity. By growing food in the city Cuba has greatly reduced its dependence on expensive petroleum.

The city of Havana even has its own Director of Agriculture. He is Mr. Eugenio Fuster. Mr. Fuster says that the city’s goal is to some day produce ALL of its own food.

Cuba now has one of the most successful urban agriculture programs in the world. By encouraging people to establish home gardens, community gardens, and small farms within cities, Cuba is working to produce the food FOR the city IN the city.

If you live in a city or town, perhaps you could grow some food to eat or sell from your garden.

Even though Mr. Darbis Leyva lives in the city you could still call him a farmer. In fact Mr. Leyva produces much of the meat and vegetables and almost all of the fruit for his family of five.

Mr. Leyva lives in Havana, the capital city of Cuba. He and his family know the joys of eating fresh fruit all year round. Unfortunately many people who live in big cities have forgotten the sweet taste of fruit picked fresh right off the tree.

Mr. Leyva grows most of his fruit in the yard behind his house. The yard is 14 metres long and 12 metres wide. In this area he has one lime tree, two orange trees, one banana tree, and one mango tree. He also has a chicken pen where he keeps about 20 chickens. From this backyard, in one year, he harvests a lot of food – 600 mangoes, 400 oranges, 200 guavas, 200 limes, 100 kilograms of bananas, and 80 kilograms of chicken meat!

And there’s more. Along the side and front of his house he grows plenty of grape vines and a coconut tree. He gets 275 kilograms of grapes and about 60 coconuts in a year.

No space is wasted. Mr. Leyva even grows vegetables on his roof. He has fresh vegetables all year including garlic, onions and peppers. He harvests about 100 kilograms of vegetables each year. And he could get more if he used more of the roof.

Mr. Leyva has had particular success growing fruit. His trees produce a lot of fruit, in a limited space. This is partly because he gives each fruit tree the amount of space it needs to grow properly. If fruit trees don’t have enough space and are crowded together they won’t get enough light or water. For example, a mango tree needs quite a lot of space 64 square metres. A guava tree needs 16 square metres and a banana tree needs 8 square metres of land.

He also makes compost to fertilize the fruit trees using materials he has in the yard. He uses tree leaves and chicken manure. First he spreads a layer of leaves on the ground. On top he spreads a layer of chicken manure. Then another layer of leaves and so on. This is his compost pile. With time the materials break down and make excellent fertilizer.

His advice for people who want to start growing fruit trees is to carefully select the best, most productive varieties. He recommends using grafted varieties because they often produce more quickly and grow well in less space.

He says it’s also important to get a specialist, someone who knows a lot about growing fruit, to help you out. Specialists will know how much space the trees need, how deep the soil should be, and how to fertilize the plant. It’s also a good idea to choose trees that bear fruit at different times of the year so that there is always something in season.

Apart from being a good source of food, fruit trees help keep the city air cool and clean. And a fruit tree in the city is a beautiful sight.

Mr. Leyva notes that there are many people that don’t want to plant fruit trees because the trees take a long time to produce. But he responds, “The important thing is that later on in the future someone else will eat the fruit. This is the important thing. Remember that you aren’t just planting a tree for yourself, you are also planting it for the people that come after you.”

We all need fresh vegetables in our diet to be healthy. And sometimes, growing them ourselves is the only way we can afford to eat them regularly. “But,” you say, “I live in the city. I don’t have space to grow vegetables.” Well, just because you live in a city doesn’t mean you can’t have a garden. You don’t need a lot of space or land. Try gardening in old tires!

The best thing about tire gardens is that you can set them up and move them just about anywhere. You can garden on a cement patio, on flat rock, on a rooftop, on a steep hillside, even on the roots under a tree. You may want to look for land that no one is using. Maybe you can set up your tire garden there.

All you will need to start are several old tires, some plastic sheets, soil or growing mix, and plant seeds. The number of tires you use depends on how big a garden you wish to have.

A tire garden is easy to make. You can cut off the top rim of the tire for a wider space to garden or you can garden in the tire without cutting it at all.

To cut the rim, lay a tire flat on the ground. The rim is the whole top section from the side to the hole in the centre. Notice that the top rim and bottom rim are exactly the same size. With a knife or machete, cut off the top rim. You can prevent the knife from sticking by pouring a small trickle of water on the rubber just behind the knife.

Next, place a piece of plastic such as a garbage bag inside the tire over the bottom rim. The plastic should be large enough so that it covers the bottom of the tire and one or two inches stand up along the walls. Now turn the top rim that has been cut off upside down and press it in against the bottom rim. It will fit tightly and hold the plastic in place. If you have not cut the rim, use a few stones or gravel to hold the plastic in place on the bottom of the tire.

The plastic sheet in the bottom of the tire helps your garden in two ways. It holds water at the bottom of your garden so your soil does not completely dry out. Any extra water can seep between the plastic and the side of the tire, then out through the bottom. You may want to cut one or two extra small holes in the bottom rim for extra drainage. Plastic also prevents tree roots from growing up into the tire garden.

Now fill the tire with good soil or compost. Make sure the soil is pushed well up against the walls of the tire. Now it is time to sow your seeds. If you are gardening on a cement patio or rooftop, you can place your tire gardens on top of sticks, large stones, bricks, or cement blocks. This will let air blow beneath them and keep the patio or roof dry between waterings.

Most vegetables and herbs grow well in tire gardens as long as you water them regularly. People around the world have successfully grown lettuce, carrots, onions, cabbages, spinach, tomatoes, and peppers. Consider what grows best in your area. If you find the plants are not growing well, you may need to add fertilizer to your garden.

Certain crops do not grow well in tires. Trees are just too tall to grow properly. In the hottest, dry months, plants that need a lot of water such as sweet potatoes may not survive, even if you are watering them properly. Plants with big leaves that spread over a large area such as pumpkins probably need more soil than a tire garden can hold, so you may want avoid planting them. Some very tall plants, 1.5 metres or taller, may be hard to grow because they might tend to lean over and break. However, you could use sticks to support them. But there are no rules for tire gardening. You can experiment with many types of plants. Perhaps you will discover some new methods for growing tall or difficult plants.

If you place your tire gardens on a hillside, you can stop the tires from slipping by placing rocks in front of them on the downhill side. Or you can drive a stake into the ground inside the tire on the uphill side. If you make a row of at least two tire gardens across, you can help stop the rains from washing good soil down the slope.

One way to check when and how much to water your garden is to place an empty flower pot, pipe, or coconut shell in the centre of the tire. This container will collect water so when the water level drops, it may be time to water.

It is a good idea to get some air into your soil. This way, you won’t have to use as much soil, and your garden will be lighter. Add objects to the soil which have a lot of air space in the middle such as plastic bottles, sections of bamboo, or soda pop cans. First you should cut holes into the sides of bottles or cans so plant roots can get through. You can also try using pieces of coconut husks, a layer of coarse weeds or alfalfa hay which also provides extra nutrients to your soil.

Every six months or after two crops have been planted, replace the soil mix in the tire completely with fresh compost and manure. It is possible to use the soil mix longer than this, but other tire gardeners have found that crop production goes down.

To prevent theft or damage by chickens, goats or other animals, place your tire garden on top of something high enough to be out of their reach. Maybe you can think of a way to build a tall holder for your gardens so that four or five of them fit in small narrow space.

If you are growing a plant that requires shade at certain times, you can move the garden out of the sun. Even better, if you move to a new home, you can take your tire garden with you. Now you can tell your neighbours, “Look how easy it is to grow vegetables in the city!”

Are you making the best possible use of the space above your head? I’m talking about the space on top of your house – the rooftop! It’s possible to harvest lots of fresh vegetables from a rooftop garden and deliver them directly to your kitchen table.

Go up to your rooftop or out to your patio and look around. How could you make the space more useful? Can you imagine a lush garden with maize, cabbage and other vegetables flourishing there?

If you have a good supply of well decomposed compost, it’s easy to make a garden on your roof. Compost is best because it’s lightweight and full of nutrients. Soil is often too heavy for the roof.

Make the vegetable bed the same way you would make a regular garden bed. It can be any shape you like. It doesn’t have to be rectangular. You may want to form it so that it fits into a corner of your rooftop. The garden can be any length, but it might be helpful to break it up with a path every two to three metres. Each bed should be just narrow enough – about one and a half metres – so that you can reach to the middle. Try to make the best use of the space.

To keep the garden lightweight, you will want to make shallow growing beds. You can grow plants in beds that are only 8-20 centimetres deep. As a guideline remember that to make a garden bed that is 8 centimetres deep and measures 1 metre x 1 metre you will need about 140 kilograms of compost.

Another way to keep the bed lightweight is to add some soft drink or beer cans. Crush the cans and punch holes in them so that the roots can grow in and out. Mix the compost with an equal volume of these crushed tin cans. Make sure that a layer of compost covers the cans.

The cans make the growing medium looser so more air can get in and also allow you to make a deeper bed without adding much weight.

If you can’t get any cans, look around for something else that might do the same job.

If you have a sheet of plastic use it for a base. This may help prevent water from seeping into cracks on the roof. It will probably always be wet under the plastic, but that is better than having a lot of water in direct contact with the roof.

You can grow many different vegetables in your rooftop garden. Try growing the same vegetables or flowers that local gardeners grow.

Smaller vegetables such as cabbage and onions will probably work better than very tall plants such as maize or plants with a large leaf area like pumpkins.

Stay away from root crops and large vines. Root crops generally need deeper beds to grow in. And large vines, such as pumpkins, jicama or sweet potatoes need more water than they would get in a shallow bed. If you want to grow these large vines you will probably have to make a deeper bed or have fewer plants in a bed and water more often. If you take those steps then you should be able to grow vines such as pumpkin or watermelon.

These shallow beds that you make on your roof are not likely to need more water than deeper beds. But they will need to be watered more often – sometimes every day. Because they are so shallow they can’t store much water. This is the main disadvantage of a shallow bed. You cannot go away and leave it for some days without watering.

So water the beds often and add a little fertilizer now and then if you see it’s necessary. If you don’t have any chemical fertilizers then use manure tea.

As we said, the best material for making a shallow bed is good quality compost. If you have lots of it then that’s what you should use.

If compost is not available you can use things like grass clippings, corn cobs, weeds, and other vegetable wastes or crop residues you have around. Water regularly with liquid fertilizer to add nutrients. The organic matter will decompose as your garden is growing. The best thing to do is experiment with mixtures of kitchen and garden wastes.

Your city garden doesn’t necessarily have to be on your roof. You can turn any flat cement slab into a garden. It could be a rooftop, driveway, sidewalk, or a section of a parking lot.

If you’re going to start gardening on your roof, start small and expand the garden as you experiment with different growing materials and vegetable crops.

In this script package we discuss creative gardening methods, such as how to grow vegetables in small spaces or create rooftop gardens. We also discuss the importance of Vitamin A and ways to create and use natural fertilizers.

How can you grow food in the city if you do not have any land?  All around you there are only houses and buildings, roads and traffic.  But take another look at those roads.  Is there land beside them?

Often there is.  And often nobody is using it.  Why not grow food beside a road?  You can earn money and feed your family better by farming roadsides and public right of ways.

Many people who live in cities in different parts of the world grow food or graze animals on strips of land beside roads or canals.  They also use public utility right of ways such as the land around a power line or railway tracks.  This kind of urban agriculture is called roadside or right of way farming.

In Nairobi, Kenya, many of the roads between the centre and the outskirts of the city have crops along their edges.  If you were to drive or walk along these roads, you would also see cattle grazing.

In the town of El Salvador, in Peru, some of the streets are very wide.  People use half of the roadway to grow fruit, vegetables, and flowers.  And in Jakarta, Indonesia, people rent the space underneath and beside elevated toll roads.  They use the space to grow food.

Farming on roadsides and right of ways has some special advantages.  For one thing, because they are right on the road, roadside gardens are easy to get to.  That makes taking seeds, fertilizer, or water to your garden easier.  It is also simpler to deliver your products to market.  You might even be able to sell your produce right on the roadside.

The engineers who build roads usually level the land beside them.  That means most roadside land is flat, so it is less difficult to farm.  But it may not be very fertile soil, so you will have to be prepared to work at making it better.

Roadside farming is cheap, too.  Since the land is public, rent is usually low.  In fact, you might be able to use the land free.

Roadside farming is not just good for you and your family.  It is good for the whole city.  Roadsides look better when they have plants growing along them, and the plants keep the air cleaner by cutting down on dust and absorbing some of the exhaust from passing traffic.

Roadside farming has many advantages, but it may also give you a few problems to solve.  First of all, you will have to find out whether you can use the public land you want to farm.  You might have to get permission from a local authority or make an arrangement to rent it.

Protect roadside crops from theft: Roadside farmers also worry about people stealing their crops.  It is more difficult to protect your crops from theft when they are growing on a public roadway than when they are in your own garden or field.  But you can reduce the risk.  Some roadside farmers grow low‑value crops that are not worth stealing.  Or they grow root crops like cassava or potatoes, which are less visible and harder to steal.  Others harvest their roadside crops before they are completely ripe.  That way they get their produce before a thief does, but they also lose some of the value of their work.

In El Salvador, Peru, roadside farmers build low fences around their crops to protect them, and ask neighbours to keep a sharp eye out for thieves.  The local police also help.

In Dar‑es‑Salaam, Tanzania, some roadside farmers work together to protect their crops from theft.  They set up a small hut by their roadside crops, and take turns spending the night there to guard against thieves.

Water for your roadside crops: Before you start farming on the roadside, you will need to think about where you will get water for your roadside crops.  In some places, roadside farmers arrange for water to be delivered by tanker truck to steel containers which are placed near the centre of their plot of land.  Other roadside farmers whose plots are near neighbours who have piped water make agreements to use the water once a week, or when they need it.  They use hoses or watering cans to get the water to their plots.  Many roadside farmers depend on rainfall.

You might be lucky enough to have a river, stream, or pond near your roadside or right‑of‑way garden.  If you do, you can probably use that water to irrigate your crops.  But first find out whether the water is polluted.  It may contain things that are dangerous to your health.  If it does, and you use it to water your crops, then the food you grow may not be safe.

Protect your roadside crops from lead: Soil beside roads is especially likely to contain poisonous lead which is used in gasoline, and lead dust in the air will settle on the food you grow.  This lead is spread in the exhaust from cars, trucks, and buses.  Roadside farmers need to protect themselves and their crops from lead.

There are several ways you can protect yourself from lead.  The most important decision is what to grow.  Do not grow leafy greens, like spinach or lettuce on the roadside, because they hold dust which may have a lot of lead in it.  For the same reason, you should not eat the green tops of other plants that you grow by the road, such as carrots, beets, or sweet potatoes.  Fruiting plants such as tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, or cucumbers are safest from the effects of lead.  Wash them thoroughly before you eat them to make sure there is no dust on them which might contain lead from exhaust.  If you grow root vegetables, peel them before you eat them, because lead concentrates in the peel.  Corn or maize is an excellent plant to grow by the roadside because its own leaves protect the cobs from lead in the air.

You need to be especially careful if your small children farm with you.  They are likely to get soil in their noses or mouths, and lead is most harmful to children.

You can help protect your roadside crops from lead by using mulch, because it cuts down on dust.  Lead from exhaust builds up in dust.  When the soil you farm is dry, the dust can blow onto the plants, or you can breathe it as you work.  But if you cover your soil with mulch, it will stay moist, so there will be less dust.

What is mulch?  It is a layer of leaves, cut grass, dead plants, wood chips, straw, hay, or other material placed on top of soil.  It cuts down on weeds, erosion, and nutrient loss. You can use newspaper or black plastic bags for mulching, but make sure the newspaper has no coloured ink in it.  Coloured ink contains lead.  When you are gardening near a busy roadway, you should not use waste from plants you have grown there as mulch because they will contain lead.

If you want to begin roadside or right‑of‑way farming, you will have to do some planning.  You will need to make arrangements to use the land you want to farm, and to protect your produce from theft.  You will need to think about where to get water.  And you will need to think about protecting yourself and your crops from the lead in vehicle exhaust.  You will also need to decide on crops and planting schedules, keeping in mind market prices and your family’s food needs.  You might find it easier to begin if you work with a few other people, rather than alone.

Think about roadside farming in the city.  Imagine yourself carrying home tomatoes, corn, and peppers that you have grown yourself.  A productive roadside, where you grow crops or graze animals, improves city life.  Making the most of roadsides and other unused public land can increase your income and help feed your family.

Spot #1

Voice 1:People who migrate from the country to the city often do not know the problems they will face.

Voice 2:  Yes.  In most cases, they take a lot of dreams with them to the city, but the sad reality is different.  In the end, they return to the place that they never should have left in the first place.  They return frustrated, with no enthusiasm left for life, and worse, they have trouble settling down.

Voice 1:   So, farmer, dedicate yourself to agriculture with  pride.  Serving agriculture, the basic industry, is the best choice.

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Spot #2

Woman:   I told you not to go to Panama City, Horacio, and you didn’t pay any attention to me.  You sold the farm and now you come back with no money and with more problems for all of us.

Man:    Forgive me, Maria.  I tried to make money, but the truth is that in the city things are more difficult than here.  And I thought it would be just the opposite.  Andrés was right, but I didn’t listen.

Woman:  And now, Horacio, what are we going to do?

Man:  We’ll see.  We will think of something.

Announcer:     Make sure you do not end up in the same situation as this farmer.  Stay on your farm.  The city is not the solution for people who leave their fields.  The countryside is a better choice for you.

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Spot #3

Voice 1: At the beginning of this century, the population of Chiriqui was almost completely rural.  That is, the people lived by agricultural production.  If we keep migrating to the capital city, who will produce food for the rest of the population?

Voice 2:  Think a bit about the advantages and disadvantages of moving to the city!  In the countryside, you can almost always lead a healthy life, and the opportunities are greater.

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Spot #4

Voice 1:  When you migrate to the big city, two things can happen.  First, you will not be producing food, so you will change from being a primary producer to being a primary consumer.

Voice 2: Second, if you do not have the right education, you  will have a hard time finding a job.

Voice 1: That is why you will be happier staying right where you are now‑‑producing for the nation-serving agriculture, the basic industry.

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Spot #5

Voice 1: Panama City is an explosive place.  There is no  security for anyone.  The cost of living is high, and housing is extremely expensive.  The amount of pollution is a big worry, and there are hardly any jobs.  Would you want to leave the tranquility of the countryside to be in the middle of all that?

Voice 2:  Think about it, farmer.  The countryside still offers better opportunities than the city.

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Spot #6
Voice 1:  Often the city dazzles us with its cars, buildings, big stores, with its people and its style.  But the reality is different.  In the countryside, maybe we do not have some things that you can get in the city.  But we do have the cooperation between one farmer and another, something which is rare in the city.

Voice 2: So, why go to the city to look for problems?  Let’s keep producing.  Our country needs us.