Xolani residents got their green fix during a permaculture workshop on Saturday organised by the Rhodes University Masincedane Society to inform residents about organic vegetable gardening.
Permaculture is permanent agriculture. One of the principles is working with nature and getting nature to do the work for us.
Xolani residents got their green fix during a permaculture workshop on Saturday organised by the Rhodes University Masincedane Society to inform residents about organic vegetable gardening.
Permaculture is permanent agriculture. One of the principles is working with nature and getting nature to do the work for us.
It is about using the things around us to use in our gardens and putting only natural things from the earth into our gardens.
People learnt about the importance of mulching, where a protective layer consisting of grass, dried leaves and shredded newspaper is placed over the soil to retain moisture.
They were also informed about companion planting, where vegetables that benefit each other – such as mielies and beans are grown together, and to plant strong smelling vegetables such as leeks on the outside row of the patch as they repel insects and keep them off other vegetables.
Workshop facilitator Robyn Hills was hired by Food and Trees for Africa, a Johannesburg- based NGO, to help with Eastern Cape projects.
One of these projects is establishing a sustainable food garden for a feeding scheme at Boy Boy Mginyana pre-school in Xolani. Hills said, “We’re trying to get them to move forward in an environmentally friendly way to address food security.”
She said that organic gardening is important because “people are losing touch with where their food comes from.
To see the process of a plant growing from a seed and putting it on your table creates an understanding of how life is supported by other things.”
Students and community members were able to put their newly-learned knowledge into practice when they helped to fix up the garden at Boy Boy Mginyana pre-school.
They spread mulch over the plants and picked geranium and lavender leaves to make a natural insect repellent.
Naniwe Klas, one of the residents who attended the workshop, said would implement the knowledge in her own garden.
She said that she had learnt things which she did not know before such as the concept of a potato tower where potatoes are planted in a stack of tyres.
This makes the plant produce more potatoes than if it was underground. Masincedane Society chairperson Emily Jones said, “The Masincedane soup kitchen is reliant on external funding because we make soup from soup mix which we have to buy from Port Elizabeth.
“Through increasing our vegetable output, we’ll decrease our reliance on external funding.”
