Kikondo, UG – Wamukisa on pace for a holiday harvest from commercial gardens – 11 Nov 2016

The Wamukisa garden shop team continues to expand their commercial garden and, despite bad weather, their first beds are on pace for a holiday harvest. Manager Michael Kiwanuka has worked to give his team a singular focus on the commercial gardens because he hopes a profitable and successful harvest will open new opportunities for Wamukisa and the community.

The commercial gardens are being planted to fulfill demand from local private schools who want to serve healthy, organic vegetables to their boarding students. In this trial phase of the project Wamukisa is planting six beds every two weeks. They have developed a crop rotation schedule for replanting to ensure the soil stays healthy and productive.

As they continue working on the garden, they are also checking how plants are growing compared to expectations. This has helped them improve their planting design, especially during the current drought. One of improvements they have made is to plant climbing beans to create shade for sensitive leafy greens. The team has learned that beans should be planted a few weeks after leafy green seedling are transplanted and, once the beans have begun climbing, their lower leaves should be trimmed so they don’t interfere with the leafy greens.

If the harvest proves profitable, Wamukisa hopes to improve their irrigation system so they can continue expanding the commercial garden and reduce the amount of labor needed to maintain the area.