By Antynet Ford
Beatrice Wangui has made rocky floor in Langalanga, Gilgil, right into a spinach and vegetable farm by making compost and utilizing vertical backyard towers fabricated from backyard paper and garments.
“The land in Langalanga space is only rocky with no soil. For a few years, we went virtually ten kilometers within the neighbourhoods to lease land for farming as a result of we couldn’t develop something on these rocks,” mentioned Beatrice.
“However then I realized that from the waste supplies in my residence, I might make my very own soil,” she mentioned.
“Making my very own soil on the compost pit takes upto six months and it is rather fertile. In a yr, I make soil twice from the compost pit and from it, I could make as much as 10 vertical gardens of the Vetagro backyard paper. I add to my very own made soil by shopping for soil from distributors who promote it at between Sh200 and Sh300 per wheelbarrow,” she mentioned.
The Vetagro backyard paper she makes use of is a powerful gardening sheet that prices round Sh2,800 for a package to develop greens in layers as a substitute of on flat floor. Wangui’s paper gardens have a excessive central part within the center, and spherical layers going outwards like rings. She places soil blended with compost in every layer, and crops greens within the prime of every layer.
She additionally makes use of sacks and worn-out garments to develop the greens, together with previous trousers crammed with soil.
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Her farm produces indigenous greens resembling terere, saga and managu, in addition to spinach and sukuma wiki. She additionally grows indigenous maize varieties, yellow, purple and pink, which she sells as meals and seeds.
“Earlier than doing this rising, I used to be engaged on folks’s farms with a purpose to get meals for my household. I all the time knew that nothing would develop within the rocks. This farming is ready to feed my household and likewise earn a dwelling from it as I promote the maize, greens and seeds, making a success from it,” she mentioned.
“For greens, I promote to an organization who purchase a kilo for Sh25 and it’s a available market with no middlemen. I do rotational farming for sukuma wiki and spinach on 35 Vetagro paper towers I’ve made. The indigenous greens take a bit more room that’s the reason I’ve set them apart after making good soil individually flat on the facet of the farm,” she mentioned.
“I now have spinach which I harvest after 14 days. On a superb day, I harvest upto 120 kg of spinach, which is about Sh6,000 a month. For the indigenous greens, I make about 100 kg and the pricing remains to be the identical Sh25 per kilo. That is cash I didn’t know I might make due to the rocks,” she mentioned.
