With the rising number of buildings and the decreasing open space, balcony gardening is emerging as a great option for many urban dwellers with the passion of producing their own food. Meet 36-year-old Zainab Abdallah, a resident in Tononoka Majengo Machura estate in Mombasa County.
She is a balcony farmer who started a garden on top of a two-story building measuring about 50 square meters where she grows vegetables and fruits for both commercial and family use.
"My love and passion for plants started four years ago and it’s not a must for you to own land in order to produce food but any place with water and soil can be your garden. The idea struck me when I read a story in one of the daily newspapers on how you can start balcony farming. That's when I made the follow up with the local agriculture office in Mombasa town," said Abdallah.
To date, she has tried a variety of vegetables and fruits ranging from spinach Sukuma week cabbages Mchicha cowpeas tomatoes and onions she says, "my balcony garden does not need much maintenance and it is hardly time-consuming just devoting 10 to 15 minute of my free time attending to my plants."
The concept of this mini-farming has however been motivated by her passion to read more articles on smart farming the Saturday daily that features success stories on seeds of Gold where she draws her Knowledge.
Agriculture officers trained her on how to mix the soil and the farmyard fertilizer starting with one old sack that she started with and later started with buckets and crates she now sees this space as her one-acre piece of land which is always busy with different projects on farming.
Standing on top of her house next to the coast general hospital she says producing enough for her family was not just enough she approached the local Mama mboga who rented her space to sell off her excess produce motivating her to grow more crops.
The Mombasa agricultural show has also played a key role in training and getting more information of farming which she never misses one of her key achievements is when she improvised the net house for her crops from the scorching sun which she says during drought her crops continues to flourish.
She is also a Google farmer who does research even on the internet just to experiment in farming different crops in her garden this paid off when shew grew a tissue cultured banana matomoko coconut and oranges which she harvested which she says plants need love and care just like humans.
Balcony gardening however sweet it comes with costs Zainab has to buy soils and manure from Kikowani goat yard and pay some youths to ferry the soils on top of the building which is sometimes cumbersome she has also to rely on firmly members who also appreciate her efforts because they have been supportive.