How to Grow Fresh Food in Various Soil-Free Containers
Author: Professor Willem VAN COTTHEM (Ghent University, Belgium)
Grow vegetables and herbs at home in pots, buckets, bottles, cups, barrels, bags, sacks, anything that can hold soil. Here are some of my photos:
Grow vegetables and herbs in large quantities in a small space. Place pots and buckets on pallets to limit infection. Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental pallet garden P1100559.Cherry tomatoes grow year-round, zucchini and bell peppers are grown in pots and barrels with drainage holes in the side walls. Maximum yield is achieved with minimal water and fertilizer (compost or manure). Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My New Experimental Tray Garden – P1100561Planting zucchini in a bucket, as easy as it can be. Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental tray garden – P1100565.Tomatoes and zucchini are not grown in the field (otherwise they would get infected), but in buckets and pots. Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental tray garden – P1100568.Growing bell peppers in large quantities, not in degraded soil, but in buckets filled with a mixture of local soil and animal manure. This method can be achieved anywhere, even in Inner Mongolia, the Australian bush, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Cape Verde, Arizona, the Pampas and all the refugee camps on Earth. Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental tray garden – P1100579Eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, marigolds (to keep away white flies). Check out the drainage holes in the side walls. Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My New Experimental Tray Garden – P1100581 Copy.Peppers in a bucket. Photo from WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental pallet garden – P1100602.
Imagine if every home, every school, every hospital, every maternal and child health center in arid regions had a potted garden like the one below. Don’t you believe we could reduce malnutrition and hunger? Don’t we have a chance to improve the living standards of all residents in desertified areas?
Problem? What’s the problem?
Teach people how to set up a small vegetable garden using some containers, and don’t forget:
They don’t have containers? Provide them with the quantity they need at minimal cost or even for free, because that is sustainable development in the purest sense.
Have them make their own potting soil by mixing local soil with fertilizer.
Provide them with some good quality seeds and teach them how to collect them.
Before you dismiss this idea, take one last look at the photo of my experimental garden below and consider the potential of this approach.
Photo WVC 2013-07-28 My new experimental pallet garden – P1100656, is designed to show how easy it is to produce fresh food in a simple and cheap way that it could be used all over the world. With some good intentions, of course.
Should we be working to restore Africa’s two billion hectares of degraded land (and how much more on other continents?), or should we be providing viable support to the poorest and hungriest people on the planet?
I send you all my warmest wishes for 2017!
author: William Van Cottum
Professor Emeritus of Botany, Ghent University (Belgium). Scientific advisor on desertification and sustainable development.
View all posts by Willem Van Cotthem
