Fruits: Prepare now for the festive season
Strawberries growing in a bath tub. Growing plants in bath tubs is a great space utilisation technique. Photos by Constance Obonyo
What you need to know:
The best thing to do when you plant is to plan so that your fruits produce during the right season.
To avoid the Easter and Christmas fruit price hikes, why not grow your fruit now? It’sraining, so you don’t even have to do the watering.
Strawberries and passion fruit
Lillian Katiso, an Accountant and resident of Kyanja has planted strawberries and passion fruit in her garden. You can find strawberry seedlings in the nursery between the railway station and Conrad Plaza, somewhere on a street parallel to and below Nkrumah Road.
“I got strawberries, just two seedlings in a window box. They were growing and falling off.
Then I read that they have tendrils. They shoot and produce others, so they need a lot of space. Now, my small box didn’t have space.
I had a bath tub that needed to be disposed of. I thought, instead of throwing it away, I could use it to plant fruits. So I planted the strawberries there and it is filling up with plants. They look like they are happy there,” Katiso says.
The Katisos planted their strawberries last year and have had a few harvests since then.
“The passion fruit ended up growing in the bath tub because someone threw it there after eating it. So, I kept it. We planted it in January this year and we’ve been harvesting it for two months now,” Katiso explains.
Grapes
Grapes grow best in temperate climate areas; that is why it is a little difficult to find seedlings. However, if you find a friend who can get you a mature cutting from their vine, you could start from that.
A friend gave Katiso two grape seedlings and she has never looked back since. Their grape and passion fruit vines have intertwined on top of the wall. The grape vine especially is so luxuriant and is a pleasant sight to behold, with its fruit peeping from among the leaves.
“It has been two years since I planted them. I started harvesting this year,” she reveals.
Maintainance
To maintain the fruit vines, Katiso waters them most evenings, at least three times a week.
She weeds every weekend, but does not mulch, because it covers the soil, yet she likes to look at the soil. She also uses cow dung for fertilizer. So, if you sow now, you and your family will be laughing all the way to the garden to reap the strawberry and passion fruit for Easter. And come next year’s Christmas, your tables will be laden with a bounty grape harvest.
