Growing Your Own Food:
How to Start and Maintain
a Household Vegetable
Garden
Third Edition, December 2010
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Why garden?
Because a household vegetable garden can contribute to the health
and well being of your family. A small garden can provide
nutritious meals every week throughout the whole year, and you
may also be able to earn extra income by selling some of your
extra vegetables.
What Do Plants Need?
Sun, Soil, Water, and Air.
ILLUSTRATION 1: What do plants need?
Sun, soil, water,
and air.
Sun light is necessary for plants to produce the energy they need to grow.
Through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, water and energy
from light combine to create energy which plants use to grow leaves, roots,
fruits and seeds.
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Soil in the garden bed provides the minerals and substances that plants need
to grow. The top layer of soil contains decaying plant material and small
living organisms that help plant roots absorb needed minerals from the soil.
It is only a few centimeters deep, takes thousands of years to develop and
should be guarded carefully. This layer can be lost and eroded away by wind
or water.
Airspaces in the soil give roots room to grow. Plant roots are very important
because they absorb water and minerals from the soil. Then these nutrients
are carried from roots to stems and leaves, so a plant can grow and produce
vegetables, flowers, and fruits.
How to Start Your Garden; location, size, soil
Your garden should fit your needs and resources. Here are several
guidelines to help you decide where to put a garden, how large to make it
and how to establish garden beds:
1. Usually it is best to plant near your home, so that you can watch over
your garden and so it is close to the kitchen.
2. The larger your garden, the more you can grow, but do not build a
garden bigger than you can water easily.
3. Use fences to protect plants and seeds from chickens and goats.
4. Walk only on paths, never on garden beds. Stepping on beds where
plants are growing may crush plants, but also pushes air out of the
soil, making it harder for roots to grow and absorb nutrients. If there is
limited space, use keyholes to increase the amount of garden space
and decrease path space.
5. Garden beds can be long, but they should not be more than 1 meter
wide. Standing at the side of the bed, you should be able to reach to
the middle.
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6. Line garden beds with rocks or sticks to help keep soil in the bed and
to help you or visitors know where to walk
ILLUSTRATION 2: A profile of a double dug garden bed
with rocks to protect soil and slow water evaporation.
Maintaining Garden Beds
The best way to have healthy plants is to have good garden soil. The best
soils have loose, crumbly textures that allows roots to sink deep seeking out
water and nutrients. Ideally if moist soil is squeezed in the palm of a hand, it
will clump together, but easily break apart when poked. This structure
results from a good mix of air (25%), water (25%), nutrients/minerals
(47%), and organic matter (3%). Organic matter, though a small part of soil,
is very important because it helps soil retain water and helps roots absorb
nutrients.
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Composting
This is the process of breaking organic matter like dead plants, coffee
grounds, egg shells, sticks and manure into its basic form of carbon and
nutrients. When organic matter, soil and worms are mixed together along
with water and sun over a period of one month to one year, the mixture
becomes compost, a nutrient rich soil.
To build a compost pile, start with a carbon (dead, brown plant matter) layer.
Follow this with a smaller high nitrogen (green plant matter, urine) layer and
then a thin layer of soil.
ILLUSTRATION 3. A compost with leaves,
manure, sticks, and grass.
If you want compost quickly, and desire to kill weed seeds, turn the compost
about once a week. The more the compost is mixed, the faster materials will
break down. This also heats up the pile killing weed seeds and harmful
pathogens. If the compost is never mixed, it won’t be ready to add to the
garden for at least a year.
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Compost piles should be at least one meter by one meter and if possible kept
moist but not wet. Added to the soil two or three times a year, compost
nourishes plants and helps the soil to retain water.
ILLUSTRATION 4: Turning compost speeds breakdown
of materials into humus.
Mulching
Mulch is organic matter in the form of grass, straw, or leaves
placed on top of bare soil. Mulch helps to retain water in the soil
by slowing evaporation caused by the sun. When placed in a thick
layer mulch also discourages the growth of weeds.
Ground Covers
Ground covers are like living mulch and compost. As they grow,
their roots hold soil in place, protecting it from wind and water
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erosion. When they die they add organic matter to the soil. Also,
covers such as clovers and beans add nitrogen and other nutrients
to the soil. It would be a good practice to shrink your garden
towards the end of the rainy season by establishing cover crops in
beds further away from a water source. Clover, beans, alfalfa,
grains are all possible cover crops.
Companion planting
Growing different vegetables together is called companion
planting. This serves at least three purposes. First, mixing young
and mature plants in the same bed helps to provide a soil cover that
protects the soil from evaporation and shades the younger plants
from too much sun. Second, planting different plants together (for
example, potatoes and beans, carrots and chard and beets) helps to
maintain nutritional balance in the soil. Third, having a variety of
plants together offers some protection against pests and insects.
ILLUSTRATION 5. In this illustration carrots,
onions and beets are planted together.
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TABLE1: Companion plants for the Ethiopian highlands
Plant Family
Liliaceae
Common
Vegetable
Onion
Garlic
Cruciferae
Cabbage
Kale
Leguminosae
Beans
Chenopodiaceae
Beets
Chard
Spinach
Carrots
Corn
Lettuce
Melon
Pumpkin
Peppers
Tomato
Potato
Umbelliferae
Gramineae
Compositae
Cucurbitaceae
Solanaceae
Companinons
Everything except beans
Same as onion
Beet, chard, lettuce, onion, potato,
spinach
Same as cabbage
cabbage family, carrot, chard, corn,
potatoes
Bush beans, cabbage family, lettuce,
onion
Bean, cabbage family, onion
cabbage family
Bean, lettuce, onion, pepper, tomato
Bean, melon, potato, pumpkin
Beet, cabbage family, carrot, onion
Corn, pumpkin
corn, melon
Carrot, oinion, tomato
Carrot, onion, pepper
Beans, cabbage family, corn
Rotate crops
If you grow carrots and lettuce in one bed one year, it is best to
grow another combination in the next. Never grow plants from the
same family in the same area two or even three years in a row.
Rotating crops between beds maintains a good balance of soil
nutrients and helps prevent pest infestation.
Weed
Weeds compete with vegetables for water, minerals, and space, so
keep weeds to a minimum. Weeds can be pulled and laid over the
soil as mulch or added to the compost pile. If you do add weeds to
the compost you should turn your compost so it gets hot enough to
kill any weed seeds.
Water
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Watering every day is essential when seeds are first planted and
when the plants are very young. Seeds should always be kept
moist, and this may require watering two times a day.
When establishing seeds, surface watering is sufficient. Since there
are no plant roots yet, deep watering is not needed.
When plants are older, spot water to conserve water and help
plants develop deep roots. Spot watering refers to heavily
watering a plant near its base rather than watering the entire garden
bed. This will be especially useful through the dry season, and
only needs to be done once every few days.
Avoid evaporation! Use mulch or a canopy to avoid exposing the
soil to the sun. Also it is best to water at the end of the day.
If you can locate your garden close to a well, a spring, or a stream,
then watering can be easy. If you must go some distance to get
water, then you must think about how much energy and time you
can afford in carrying water and limit the size and number of beds
you start accordingly.
Grow Food through the Year
In the Ethiopian highlands, farmers usually grow two crops a year.
The household garden is also influenced by the seasons, but the
best gardeners manage to produce food through the year. The
basic reason is that the gardener has more control of soil and water.
There are several strategies for growing crops through both dry and
rainy seasons.
1. Adjust garden size to water availability: a larger garden during
the rainy season and a smaller garden during the dry season.
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2. Choose plants and seeds that are most appropriate to the season.
Potatoes, chard, carrots, onions, and garlic can be grown all
through the year. Tomatoes and peppers need water but like the hot
weather.
3. Plant new seeds in the garden as you harvest vegetables so that
you keep a mixture of older and young plants together in the
garden, just like a family of grandparents, parents, and children.
4. Save seeds from your plants for planting in the next season.
Air-dried seeds can be saved in dry water bottles or plastic bags.
Write down the kind of plant they come from. Remember: the
seeds from plants that are especially healthy and fruitful are
probably very well suited to your climate and soil. Save them!
Questions
1.What plants and fruit trees will grow in Kossoye?
2.What are techniques for conserving water?
3.What are the common garden pests and insects? What are the
best ways to control these?
4.What are the best seed varieties?
5. How can chickens be kept out of garden beds?
Acknowledgements: Thank you to the teachers of the Kossoye
School and the Kossoye Community Health Workers for
consulation and advice; to Andrea Karkowski for illustrations; to
Jessica Bilecki, Frank Doden, and Andy Carlson for writing; and
to Seifu Wolde-Abraham for translation.
Copyright @ 2011 by Kossoye Development Project. All rights reserved. This publication may be
reproduced or distributed free of charge provided there is acknowledgement to the Kossoye
Development Project.
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