My Urban Gardening Journey with Sack Planters

I believe that everybody should have a garden of their own. Gardening is incredibly satisfying, for me. Watching plants come to life and thrive because of you is a joy I discovered early in my life.

When I first started gardening, sunlight was the only resource I had in abundance. Most other resources such as space, water, and land were in short supply. These limitations made gardening seem impossible—until I discovered sack gardening. I now have a pretty impressive home garden in Lusaka - all potted in sacks!

My vegetables in bags

What Is Gardening in Sacks?

Gardening in sacks is a form of container gardening where plants are grown in sacks filled with soil, compost, or other organic materials.

The sacks act as mobile garden beds, making it easier to manage plants, especially in places where traditional gardening isn’t feasible.

Humans have farmed in all kinds of conditions for thousands of years, often using containers when necessary. The Egyptians were among the first to grow plants in containers as early as 5,000 BC, using materials like stone, metal, and wood. Modern sack gardening continues this tradition, with the primary difference being the use of sacks instead of clay pots.

My Journey into Urban Gardening

My interest in gardening stems back to my early childhood. My mother grew up on farm so I was raised with all kinds of stories about farming and farm life. These stories gave me a deep sense of admiration and envy towards a farmers ability to grow their own food. This led me to make many attempts at gardening through out my childhood.

Fast forward to 2018 and my dreams of owning a big, very productive farm where alive and well. So I decided that I would start with what I had at the time and build from there. I remember feeling like I had been tasked to climb a mountain with no tools at all. Resources where limited, but most importantly, so were my expertise. It is here that I learned my first gardening lesson, which also applies to life in general.

"When you are embarking on a new venture, knowledge is the most important resource to invest in."

My first attempt at gardening started with pineapples, which at the time where in season. This made them quite affordable to buy in bulk. Another factor that made me choose pineapples was how easy they are to grow. This is a lesson I learned completely by chance, but it served me very well.

"When you are first starting your gardening journey start with a plant that is easy to grow."

I would buy fully grown pineapples, twist off the tops of the pineapples from the lower edible part. Then place the tops in jars that had water in them. The pineapple tops would drink up the water and roots would grow out from the bottom of pineapple tops.

After a few weeks many of the pineapple tops had grown roots that where a few centimeters long and algae had began to build up in the jars. The pineapples where ready to be planted in the soil. This was a great success. The only problem was I couldn't plant them in the ground because the house I was living in was rented and the yard was completely paved.

This was a big challenge for me at the time. Looking back at it now reminds me of the saying that goes, 'every problem is a opportunity'. I can really see how true this saying is. The only thing I would venture to add to it is, 'the bigger the problem is the bigger the opportunity.'

In life and definitely in gardening, you will face challenges. Every solution you find for these challenges will open new doors for you. Behind those doors will be more challenges, but also great rewards.

So back to my problem. To achieve my dreams of becoming a farmer I needed to be able to garden in manner that was could move with me, if and when life demanded. The obvious solution would be to buy flower pots for my plants. But this would have been too costly for me because of the number of pineapples I had collected. So instead, sticking with the theme of using the resources I had with me, I chose to make use of the many two liter bottles I had.

I would cut the tops off of these two liter bottles and fill, the now open bottom part, with sand I had collected from the few unpaved areas in the yard and plant the pineapples in them.

Unfortunately this didn't work out as well as I would have hoped. This is because the bottles weren't porous. This led to water-logging which slowed the growth of my pineapples and almost killed a few of them. It's here that I learned another lesson in gardening.

"When going into a new venture be ready to fail, its part of your journey to success."

It's around this time that I remembered being told about a man who was going from church to church, offering to teach people about growing potatoes in plastics. I figured if you could grow potatoes in a plastic you could probably do the same with pineapples. Plastics where also much more affordable than flower pots or plastic bottles and they where very easy to purchase and transport in bulk.

The plastics worked well. I could make drainage holes in them much easier than with the 2 liter bottles. I could also fill them up with more soil and so my garden grew and got just a little bit better.

I would have settled for gardening in plastics had it not been for the few failings they had. The first one being that the material that plastics are made from is very flexible. This meant that if I over watered a particular plastic I would often lose a lot of soil from the plastic, because the material would bend open in the direction that the water was flowing.

Plastics are also not as porous as I would have preferred, you can only make so many holes in plastic bag before you permanently damage it. This meant that the soil couldn't breath, take up or lose water in a manner similar ground based plants.

Despite their many flaws, I would have continued gardening with plastic bags. But I was lucky enough to come across the idea of using sacks. Though they are slightly more costly than plastics they come with many advantages that make them better for gardening.

With time, I've learned that I can grow almost anything in a sack, as long as I have good, well-draining soil in the bag. I’ve found that 25kg sacks work well for most plants, while larger sacks (50kg and above) are ideal for crops that produce suckers like bananas or coco-yam. Sack gardening can also be combined with other methods like Ultra-High Density Farming, Vertical Gardening (especially for creeping plants), and Syntropic Farming.

Benefits of Sack Gardening

Cost-Effective & Eco-Friendly Sacks are affordable and easy to source. Your local Butchery and supermarket probably has them in large numbers as they are often used when transporting frozen foods in bulk. If you want to get them in really large numbers, there are many sack manufacturing companies that can be found in with a quick Google search.

When I first began sack gardening I used all the empty mealie-meal sacks I had in the house. As my garden grew I would purchase my sacks from sellers at Lusaka Soweto market. I now purchase my sacks from supermarket merchandisers.

Sacks are Porous one of the biggest advantages that sacks have is that they are porous. This allows them to breath and lose water at a good steady rate. I've found that that this is very helpful for plant roots and creates a great containing foundation for your soil mix. I've also seen that it allows the plants roots to break out of the sack when its growth reaches a certain stage.

In some really interesting cases, roots from one sack will break out from their original sack and then break into a neighboring sack. In my experience the plants that do this are very healthy and are capable of accessing water and nutrients from several sacks.

Weed and Pest Control I rarely deal with weeds in my sacks because the soil is only exposed at the top or where I make openings. This limits weeds and unwanted seed entry. The fact that the opening for the sacks is above the ground reduces its exposure to ground-dwelling insects and rodents.

Water Conservation Sack gardening conserves water better than traditional gardening. The sacks retain moisture longer, reducing evaporation and runoff. I further minimize water loss by mulching or growing a ground cover crop like pumpkin, whose large leaves act as natural shade for the soil.

During the dry season I only water each sack in my garden with 2 liters of water. I do this every two or three days depending on how hot it is. I've also found that placing the sacks next to each other helps retain more water.

Soil Quality Management With sack gardening, I have full control over soil composition. I've found that most plants react best to soil that is rich in organic matter. This can be anything organic, from leaves to sticks and branches.

Shortly after I switched to sack farming I discovered a German farming method called Hügelkultur. Which, aside form being a great farming method, is also quite the tongue twister. In Hügelkultur, farmers or gardeners collect logs and sticks, then stack them on top of each other. When this is done soil is then placed on top the stack. This forms a mound where seeds can be planted. As the plants grow they will be fertilized by the slow break down of the logs.

I found this form of farming very attractive. So I attempted to mimic it farming system on small scale in each sacks soil mix.

When filling up my sack with soil I would first begin by filling one third of the sack with soil. I would then place as many branches, sticks, leaves and any kind of organic mater into the sack. I pile them up in the sack until the pile was just past the mid point of the sack. After that is done i then cover the organic matter with more soil.

I've found this soil mix to be highly beneficial for my plants.

Food Security & Accessibility One of the most valuable benefits of sack gardening is its role in my food security. I’ve successfully grown beans, maize, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and various other vegetables in sacks and have observed that they grow just as well as plants grown in the ground, ensuring that I have fresh vegetables all year round.

An advantage that may not be immediately obvious to some, is that you can grow two different types of plants in one sack. This has allowed me to maximize the amount of food crops I harvest from each sack.

Space-Efficient & Mobile Sack gardening is perfect for small spaces. Sacks can be arranged on balconies, backyards, or even along walkways. Vertical arrangements further maximize planting space. Unlike fixed garden beds, sacks can be moved to optimize sunlight exposure or protect plants from extreme weather.

For example, the south part of my garden receives little sunlight from April to September due to the shadow that my house casts. Since my sacks are mobile, I simply move them to sunnier spots as needed. Additionally, if I ever relocate, I can take my plants with me with minimal disturbance to the plants.

Less Labor-Intensive & More Efficient Compared to traditional gardening, sack gardening requires fewer inputs. I've been able to build my sack garden with only a shovel. You don't need to plow or make garden beds. Since nutrients remain concentrated around the roots, there’s minimal loss through leaching.

Give It A Try

It's nice to that sack gardening is a growing trend in Zambia and that other gardeners in Zambia have also been using this method. In urban areas, this method of container gardening is especially impactful, low income households in particular can really benefit as the inputs are relatively accessible, cheap and manageable.

Sack gardening has completely transformed my relationship with nature. It has deepened my respect and love for the natural world, and allowed me to create a thriving mini forest right here in the heart of the city.

If you’re looking for a simple way to grow food around your home, consider gardening in a sack as a practical, manageable solution. For me it’s done more than I ever imagined—and I’m confident it can do the same, or even more, for you.