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  • We acquired this object.

2008

  • Work on this object began.

2013

  • Work on this object ended.

2016

2025

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Garden-in-a-Sack

This is a Project. It was designed by Solidarités International. It is dated 2008–2013. Its medium is empty sugar sack, loamy soil, manure, stones, oil tin, seedlings.

When post-election violence erupted in Kenya in 2008, food markets were destroyed and prices soared. In response, Solidarités International, a French NGO, designed Garden-in-a-Sack, a low-cost urban gardening system targeting 20,000 households living in crowded Nairobi slums. Garden-in-a-Sack is a simple three-step process. The sack gardener fills the base of an empty sugar sack with a mixture of loamy soil and manure. Small stones are placed down the center for proper drainage using a small, empty kasuku oil tin. Holes are then cut in the sack for planting kale, spinach, onion, or coriander seedlings. On average, households harvest enough vegetables for four meals per week, improving food security and diet diversification in informal settlements.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/420778923/ |title=Garden-in-a-Sack |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=21 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>