While hiking in the rift valley recently I came across a cow wearing this plastic gadget on his nose. It’s made from an old plastic container …..the local herdsmen said it was to stop him from suckling his mother – which is especially critical due to the severe drought in the region.
Simple and effective I’d say!
And here’s another one from Dominic Wanjihia – he calls it his vertical shamba
and it’s water efficient and space conserving… perfect for a tiny yard.
Here’s another clever use of plastic water bottles – bird feeders are impossible to find in Kenya
So Maina Maina fabricated this at Kitengela Glass where virtually nothing is thrown away
These feeders have pieces of mirrors attached and attract a huge assortment of birds at all times. He’s selling them at Ksh 200 (US $2.50 )
Love this! Would there happen to be more pictures? I would love to see how it’s put together. Making something like this would be great for the small garden patch I have!
I love the vertical shamba, looks like it would be perfect for a balkony garden too.
yes, the hanging shamba is a gorgeous idea, more information would be great. i will have a go myself, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas.
Just wanted to let you know how much I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs. You’re my first “blog of the week”. Will enjoy following you regularly now,
Anouk Zijlma (Africa for Visitors, About.com)
The hanging shamba is very like the window farms some artists/designers are building in NYC. See http://windowfarms.org/ for directions on how to construct them.
Hi gmoke, Anouk, Jenny, Char and Jodie, thank you all for your supportive comments. I’m making sure that all the inventors are getting them!
Great to see more uses of plastic bottles. The ore uses we have for them the fewer will add to the rubbish mountains! Another version of the vertical shamba is that made in a sack. There is also a bird feeder made from a platic bottle at the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi.
What exactly is a “shamba”, usually?