#STEEMGIGS: (how-to) — Practice Urban Farming Like Me?

What have I learned? Well vegetable is something that human cannot do without, to stay healthy, we have to include it in our meal, everyday.

I am a farmer, I practice urban farming like a king. This is how it started, I had a chat with a friend that I am yet to meet. Seriously, internet is real a very interesting invention. 

We've been friends for over a year now, but my Facebook posts about farming seems to have inspired him a lot. So he chatted with me on WhatsApp about his farming challenges, as an enthusiastic farmer, I rolled out a good piece of advice to him and I pointed out his mistakes. 

Somehow, we talked about a rare kind of vegetable in Nigeria. I never knew that he had these vegetables in his environment. Surprisingly, on a good Saturday morning, when sleep was still sweet😂. Lo and behold, his call woke me up in early hour of the morning. Here is our conversation.

Phone rings📞

Me: Hello, good morning Rasheed.

Rasheed: Good morning sir and how's your night?

Me: It was super fantastic! Yours?

Rasheed: It was great. Are you still in Ilorin?

Me: Yes

Rasheed: Clears throat. Uhm, my friend is already on his way to Ilorin, so I packed some seeds of efo gbagba and sent it through him. He will get to Ilorin in next one hour, kindly meet him at Offa Garage.

Me: Okay, Thanks so much.

Rasheed: You are welcome.

Yeah! That's it. I took delivery of the seeds.

Unboxing Efo Gbagba

Removing first nylon

Removing second nylon

Volia! Here are the sexy seeds.

Here is our conversation on WhatsApp when I told him that I will give him feedback when I plant it.

Then here are the planting procedures

In urban area where there is no land to farm, where soils that surround houses are cemented with concrete or locked with stones. The only option is [vertical farming] or [sack farming]. In this case, I used big plastic bowl.

Its been long that I used this soil, but I assumed that it top soil may not have enough soil nutrients. So I tilled it.

Step 1: Watering

Step 2: Soil tilling

Step 3: I left it for two days, so that soil micro organisms would become more active.

Step 4: I planted 1/6 of entire seeds because I don't have land space.

Step 5: Day 2 after planting the seed, I watered it.

Step 6: On exactly fifth days after planting, my vegetables germinated! Omg, I am so happy right now.

Did you see tiny vegetables in above picture? It is the first growth stage of the first born.

I am a farmer cum gardener, I plant 80% of vegetables that I eat as a gardener. Staying in the city should not limit your ability to grow vegetables with advent of new technology.

Thanks to @surpassinggoogle for providing us with this platform, where we can share our experiences without fear. 

@jalasem is actually doing a great job, he brought #til-todayilearn to our notice.

I am @autofreak, don't be deceived by my username, I love automobiles just like I love agriculture. 

Till I come again, when I will give you updates on how my vegetables are doing. Live Consciously!