Grade 6- Moist Bed Gardens- Agriculture

Constructing Moist Bed Gardens

Constructing Moist Bed Gardens

Moisture Bed Gardening.

A sunken moisture bed is an improvement of the ordinary sunken bed whose walls are lined with polythene sheet and the soil is wetted.

Sunken moisture bed

How to prepare a sunken moisture bed

1. Select a suitable site.

2. Using a tape measure, mark a plot of land such that the width is 1 metre wide and any desired length.

3. Mark the corners of the land by fixing short wooden pegs using a hummer or a mallet.

4. Using a jembe or a fork jembe and spade, dig a trench within the outlined area. Remove top 40cm layer of topsoil and keep it aside. Remove the next 20cm layer of subsoil and discard it.

5. Lay a thick polythene sheet on the floor and walls of the trench.

6. Using a manure fork, mix the top soil kept aside with well decomposed manure such as compost manure. For every 2 wheelbarrows of soil, add one wheelbarrow of manure.

7. Return the mixture of soil and manure in the trench and leave a depression of about 10cm.

8. Water the seedbed until it is thoroughly wetted. Alternatively, allow rainwater to accumulate in the seedbed. That is what is called a moisture bed or moist bed.

9. The sunken moisture bed is now ready for planting arrowroots or other suitable crops.