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Common technique in Peru can make growing food at home possible

Returned from a trip to the interior and was spoiled with all the fresh food on offer? Well know that you can try to do this at home. With a system originating from the Lima Park Service (SERPAR), in Peru, it is possible to learn how to make a vegetable garden occupying only one square meter and still avoid consuming vegetables that have pesticide residues - the case of most of those sold in Brazil , as the National Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) showed in a survey in 2011.

How to make

Perfect for small spaces in your backyard, the vegetable garden is enough to provide the amount of vegetables ingested daily by one person for a month. To do this, just divide one square meter of land into 16 squares of the same size (25 square centimeters). So just plant, in each square, a different variety of herb or vegetable.

However, some care is needed. Larger plants should be in the back rows and smaller plants in the front rows, so that sunlight reaches everyone. Vertical plants, such as tomatoes, must be hung on a support structure - which must be installed in one of the garden's "lines" (iron pipes, PVC pipes or other reused items can make up the structure), tying them to that support the weight.

Maintenance is hassle-free, as anyone can easily reach the entire plantation space without planting, watering and harvesting becoming big jobs. The height of the garden reaches, at most, a person's waist (which makes life easier for people with disabilities).

Crop rotation is automatic. For example, a crop that takes longer, such as tomato, can be planted among other crops that are quick to harvest and that will be harvested before the plant needs more space.

See below which foods can be grown:

Small plants:

• Radish;
• Carrot
• Onion;
• Spinach;
• Beetroot;
• Lettuce;
• Parsley.

Large plants:

• Cabbage;
• Broccoli;
• Cauliflower;
• Aubergine;
• Peppers.

Vertical plants:

• Tomato;
• Cucumber;
• Pod;
• Pea;
• Bean.