Start your own vegetable garden (Part 2)

In the previous edition of Ubisi Mail, we looked at the preparation of a vegetable garden and making your own compost heap to fertilise the garden. You are now ready to start planting vegetables.

Everyone uses onions in their home when they cook. Onions are a very good source of vitamins, especially vitamin C. Select the section of your garden that you want to use for onions.

Water the ground, so that it is moist (not muddy). If you want to plant more than one row of onions, make sure that the rows are spaced between 20 and 40cm from each other. Make the rows with a spade or hoe. They should be about 15cm deep (about half the spade’s head).

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Biogas is a low cost form of energy derived from renewable 'waste' resources: animal manure, agricultural residues, industrial wastewater, human waste and other organic or plant materials.

Biogas is produced when organic matter, such as animal manure or plant matter, is biologically broken down in the absence of oxygen. This anaerobic or fermentation process releases methane gas, carbon dioxide, ammonia and water vapour (moisture). These gasses are combustible and can therefore be used as fuel for heating, such as cooking, or in anaerobic digesters where it is generally used in a gas engine to convert the gas energy into electricity and heat.

Under normal circumstances, the huge amounts of manure produced on farms is more of a problem than a benefit and either gets dumped or sold to composting companies at relatively low prices. By installing a biogas digester system, the manure becomes an asset, producing practically free energy to generate electricity or heat.

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