Growing Fresh Organic Food
I have been researching about growing organic food on small land and came across this valuable article detailing the assignment by Frank Edwards and Tina Thompson they embarked on. I decided to dissect it to readable chunks and post the article in parts. This information is also relevant to rural co-operatives to adopt and implement.
On a warm, sunny morning, on 28 May 2009 a small family started to dig up a patch of ground near their property. They wanted to put the ground to more productive use by starting a veggie garden. It would supply food free of charge to the community and give the people of the area something positive to talk about.
So at 8am in the suburb of Berea, Durban, South Africa, Tina Thomson, Frank Edwards, Frank’s son Linden, little Angelo and Max began digging up a “grass desert park”. Guided by principles of permaculture and gardening in a sustainable fashion, the family began to plant an assortment of vegetable seedlings. After working for about two hours in the sun the family was “busted” by the Municipality’s Parks Department, the initiative was approved as it was seen as contributing to “community upliftment“
Fresh Organic Food
The idea to do a spot of “guerrilla gardening”, as it’s known in Britain, came about at a Sydenham Community Forum meeting. It was proposed that something should be done in that area to get people talking about the positive rather than the negative, and Tina and Frank were inspired to start the Berea garden.
When the two were interviewed in November 2009, the garden was doing well with a variety of vegetables and fruit trees. Vegetables had been planted along the contours of land, onto swales, which are depressions that help conserve water. A greywater harvesting system was set up to take used water from an outside shower at Tina and Frank’s home and lead it onto the garden. Rainwater was also being harvested and vermicomposting practised.
Part 2 Coming Soon!
