Establishment of urban home garden for organic vegetables

Jean Marie Irakabaho

From Balcony to Basket: How One Trainer Turned a Small Urban Space into a Thriving Organic Garden

Jean Marie harvesting lettuce in his garden

His journey as a master Trainer under KCOA project
In 2020, he has been selected among the 6 Master Trainers to attend a Training of Team of Facilitators (ToToF) organized by IFOAM and supported by BMZ through GIZ under the Knowledge Center for Organic Agriculture and Agroecology in Africa (KCOA) in Nairobi-Kenya. The master Trainers supported the country implementing partner for the project in Rwanda (ROAM) in providing training to multipliers, supporting the training of farmers by multipliers, document success stories and knowledge products, and support the establishment of PGS groups.

Jean Marie harvesting beetroots in his garden

Inspiration towards establishing an urban garden for organic vegetables at his home

In 2025, he participated in the 3rd East African Agroecology conference in Nairobi, Kenya, he visited the Farming Wonder farm producing organically where they use an innovative practice of building multistorey gardens to grow a variety of vegetables and fruits. He was amazed by how possible we can farm in the urban area using a small space of land to produce enough food for home consumption but also for the market. He bought some materials to establish the garden once he is back in Rwanda after the conference. He used the tutorials from the youtube channel from farming Wonder to establish his own garden and started to grow a variety of vegetables including carrots, spinach, amaranth, onions, beetroots, tomatoes and strawberries and the production was good and contributed in diet diversification and reducing expenses related to buy vegetables in public market.

MT assessing the severity of the disease on green pepper in his home garden

Challenges encountered during implementation
The materials used to build the garden were bought at Farming Wonder in Kenya and not available in Rwanda, thus making difficult to expand to the neighbors who showed interest in having the same garden in their own compound. Another challenge encountered was related to
controlling pests and diseases and he used different knowledge products on push & pull practices and mixing different plants extract to manage the pests.

Master Trainer after harvesting in his garden for home consumption

Key lessons (recommendations) to share with others who have limited space and on organic agriculture in general

It is possible to use the small space to grow crops to produce food for home consumption instead of flowers only for ornamental purposes. It also contributes to diversification of diet and most importantly contribute to consumption of safe and healthy food free from toxic chemicals and reduction of expenses on buying vegetables and fruits in the public markets.