Recently, we’ve been talking about starting a garden over in Uganda at the LGH House. We’ve had a go at it in the past, throwing seeds into the soil a few times, but they usually ended up getting washed away by the rain. We do, however, have matoke growing in the back of the house, but that takes very little attention and practically grows completely on it’s own. In case you didn’t know, matoke is a green banana-like fruit that is a staple in Uganda and also Rwanda. They are eaten green, peeled and usually steamed so they are mushy like a mashed potato and then served with a meat stew or bean dish.

We decided to try our hand at the whole gardening thing again and so a few weeks ago Amberle traveled to Kampala to pick up some fresh basil from a fancy supermarket to plant and grow. Her and Andrea set it in some water until it grew root hairs. Then they sterilized some soil and planted it in a little cut out jerry can. This became the start of our little container herb garden. Since then, we’ve also started growing Oregano as well. Both sit happily together on the windowsill.

Herbs are one thing, but complex veggies are another. We created our own homemade version of the topsy-turvy tomato planter by cutting the bottom off of a large soda bottle. We planted the seed near the neck of the bottle and hung it in the front window. One week in, so far so good with a few healthy sprouts already poking through! Next week a new volunteer, Jeff, is set to arrive. He has some experience in the area of gardening, so the hope is to move our container garden to the outdoors. Apparently you can grow potatoes in tires and cucumbers and peppers in the same homemade topsy-turvy containers!