East AfricaSouthern hemisphere
Gardening in Kenya
Two rainy seasons and remarkably steady temperatures at altitude.
The numbers that decide your year
- Growing zones
- Equatorial highlands to semi-arid
- Last spring frost
- Only on high mountain slopes
- First autumn frost
- Rare and altitude-dependent
- Rainfall
- 400–1800 mm in two wet seasons
The local challenge
Two short rainy seasons that decide the whole year.
Rules worth knowing
Water abstraction is licensed, and export-grade horticulture is subject to strict phytosanitary inspection.
How people actually garden here
- Highland flower gardens
- Shamba kitchen plots
- Drought-tolerant planting
- Indigenous hedges
Native to this country
Plants that evolved here. They ask least of you and give most back to local insects and birds.
Reliable in this climate
Introduced rather than native, but proven in these conditions. Each links to its full encyclopedia entry.
Seasonal jobs
Open the calendarThe calendar reads your device clock and shifts every job six months for the southern hemisphere.
The printed guide
The Kenya Gardening Guide
244 pages written for this country alone: its soil, its frost dates, its rules and the plants that reward the effort. Everything on this page, expanded and in your hands.
- Two rainy seasons, planned
- Highland growing at altitude
- The shamba kitchen plot
- Drought-tolerant hedging
- Soil building in the tropics
- Regional rainfall calendars
€9.95244 pages · PDF download