A square metre of ground outside, and a bucket of clean water inside, can take a family a long way on the road to better health.
A square metre of ground outside, and a bucket of clean water inside, can take a family a long way on the road to better health.
This was the message at the Umthathi Training Project workshop last Friday, which covered a variety of food gardening techniques, DIY compost, nutrition and healthy living. The Masilimeni (Let's get planting) Day was held at Umthathi House in Xhora Street, Extension 7, where the NGO's training centre, green houses, and sales of seedlings have been located since December 2010.
The 50-odd participants were mostly near neighbours of the project. The focus of the day was not only on how to plant and grow one's own food and plants, but also on a healthy lifestyle. "You can have as much healthy food as you want, but if it's not hygienically prepared, you're going to get sick," said Mitchener.
Even in a house without running water, a bucket of clean water, soap, and a towel could stop many disease-causing bacteria in their tracks. This was particularly important, she said, when people were preparing to work with food.
Producing food at home is central to Umthathi's mission, and facilitators Xolela Qinela and Xolani Mountain showed how just one square metre of outside space was enough to grow enough to at least supplement a family's diet.
Qinela showed how to make a tower garden using four poles surrounded by mesh that contains layers of stones, compost, topsoil, manure and wood ash. This vertical garden can be made in a space as small as one square metre, and requires little weeding, kneeling and getting dirty.
Mountain demonstrated keyhole gardening, in which a raised soil bed is created by building a horseshoe-shaped structure from stones. The soil, inside is mixed with compost and topped off with a layer of wet newspaper. A blanket of cut grass is placed on top of this to regulate the soil temperature, keeping it cooler in the heat, and retaining warmth during winter.
A two-litre plastic bottle, punctured with many holes, is nestled within the grass, its opening protruding, so water poured into it is dispersed around the soil bed. Mountain explained that the raised surface reduced the need for bending and stooping for disabled and older people.
A string could also be tied between keyhole gardens to help blind people move from one keyhole garden to another. Clearly inspired by what he had been shown, gardener Frank Khakhana told Grocott's Mail, “Even if I don't have space in my yard, I can do a tower garden.” But the most useful tip, he said, was the one about paper mulch. "I used to make my own mulch from Shoprite catalogues, but at the workshop I learnt that it is better to use newspapers. Newspapers take only three months to decompose, whereas the catalogue paper takes a year."
One more reason to buy Grocott's Mail, we say…
The power to help yourself Umthathi Training Project is a non-profit organisation that supports vulnerable groups such as women, children, those affected by HIV/Aids, and unemployed and impoverished people. Their mission is to improve health and sustainability through increasing domestic food production and developing the skills necessary to improve self-sufficiency in rural areas of the Eastern Cape. Mitchener said Umthathi hoped to create a ripple effect in the area and was hoping to offer similar one-day workshops on a monthly basis, for people who did not have the time to attend the extended courses that the project offers.
