Cutting costs with an urban garden

A standard home in town has a compound with well trimmed grass or flowers, a back yard with chairs and or a garage according to one’s taste.

But for one plot owner in Nyeri, all that is too much luxury and she has gone ahead to ‘paint’ her compound green with vegetables.

What could have been a lawn, a flower garden or a garage has been put to optimum use in a project she started two years ago.

She not only has different horticultural crops including tomatoes, green pepper, onions and kales (sukumawiki), but also has two greenhouses and a chicken house where she keeps numerous indigenous layers and cockerels.

But for the horticulturist of several years, hers is not a normal kitchen garden as many may think, she cultivates the crops also for commercial purposes.

Ms Alice Chuaga is among urban residents in the country who have devised ways of alleviating hunger and urban poverty by earning extra income and has been successful despite myriad challenges.

Initially, she used to plant kales only, but changed to tomatoes and green pepper for sale.

“I conducted a survey and established that there is no time the selling price of green pepper will be down. The tomato market is also very good,” she says during an interview.

The greenhouses keep away predators, control moisture and pests as well as adverse effects of weather like excessive sun and frost. They also help cut costs and increase tomato production.

Ms Chuaga harvests more than 60 kilos of tomatoes per day during dry weather and 80 kilos in wet weather.

She harvests about 60 kilogrammes of green pepper and sells a kilo at between Sh50 and Sh60.

The price of tomatoes varies depending on market conditions. She sells them at between Sh50 and Sh60 during the harvesting season, but prices can sometimes go up to Sh100.

She makes an average of Sh2,000 per day from selling the two commodities.

Massive losses

While farmers suffered massive losses of their crops (not only in horticulture), she is thankful that she has some tomatoes left since they are inside green houses.

She also grows tomatoes on eight acres but severe frost destroyed all the produce.

“It is better to use green houses than cultivate tomatoes normally. Weather conditions have drastically changed and farmers are suffering from losses,” she says.

The greenhouses have continued to teach her farming lessons that would have been difficult otherwise.