Kikondo, UG – First family sets out to be an example in their community – 29 June 2016

The TMM family is the first family in Kikondo to begin a family vegetable garden. After attending Wamukisa’s garden building training on 1 June 2016 the family started a 2-bed vegetable garden at their home.

Five families attended the garden-building training and the TMM family was the first to start a new garden. Mr TMM was very excited to attend the training and learn how, with the right knowledge, vegetable growing can be simple and inexpensive.

“We always thought growing these vegetables would be a very expensive project,” he said, “so we always bought vegetables at the market. Now we know how to grow vegetables at home.”

To qualify for assistance from Wamukisa the family had to invest time and energy in their garden first. This meant cultivating growing space, raising beds, and building a best-practice “edible fence.” The fence is made from cassava stems, which will grow into full trees with edible roots. Peas cucumbers, passion fruit, and other climbing plants are planted at the base of the fence to provide additional food and fill in holes between the cassava.

The family is hoping to use their 2-bed garden to reduce food costs at home and have extra spending money when needs arise. They own a large piece of land where they could greatly expand their vegetable growing but they have to fetch water from a nearby stream, which is time consuming. They hope if their first two beds are successful they can make a plan to improve water access.