Planting vegetables in containers
You can plant vegetables in containers if you do not have enough space for a garden . File photo
What you need to know:
A vegetable garden does not have to be big. All you need is good soil for them to grow, which is why you can also plant them in containers.
I am Boniface Ouma Owori, Retail Assistant Manager, Uchumi Supermarkets. I live in Namasuba. I am a Kenyan, but I can say I am a Ugandan, because I have been here for more than eight years.
For my container gardening, I use ordinary plastic containers, like buckets. I get old ones and use them to plant seeds.
I used to find vegetables very expensive since I had to buy them every day. So, I decided to utilise the sizeable space outside my home to plant something.
How I do it
Because it is a rented place, I could not set up a garden so I planted my vegetables in containers.
I got some plastic containers and planted spinach because my favourite vegetables.
I put loam sol into seven containers. I bought seedlings from a small farm near home for Shs5,000, I was given enough for all my containers.
I planted them and all I have to do is water, weed and spray them. I water the vegetables during the dry season.
I do it twice – early morning and in the evening. I do most of those things as part of my leisure activity. During the wet season, I don’t water. I also hand weed. I pluck whichever weed crops up.
I don’t drill holes into the containers and I plant only one to three stems that grow straight into each of them. I don’t use fertilisers or compost and I don’t mulch.
But I spray them. There are pesticides we get from Ben Kiwanuka Street. I don’t remember the exact name, but on the advice of the shop attendant there, he normally mixes something for me. I spray them about twice every three months.
There are black holes that tend to appear on spinach, when I walk with a sample of the leaf and show it to the shop attendants; they give me the right pesticides.
It is not that expensive, it is around Shs16,000 to Shs18,000, depending on the shop. It is in a 200ml bottle. I get half of it and mix and keep the rest for next time.
Benefits
I don’t remember the last time I went to buy spinach from the market.
I get the vegetables from my container garden. I even help neighbours. When one is stuck, they come for a few leaves, because there is plenty.
So, don’t buy everything. Take the initiative – the same way you would plant your flowers, think of vegetables and it will work wonders.
