Focus on Garden Day

GROWING THEIR OWN Garden Day is celebrated in October every year. Here urban food gardeners tell us how they began their vegetable patches

JOSEPHINE KATUMBA URBAN GARDENING ADVOCATE FROM JOBURG believes South Africa should learn from the way American households responded to critical food shortages during World War II.

The US government promoted the Victory Gardens concept which encouraged families to grow their own food both for nutrition and to boost morale.

Katumba, 24, believes Covid-19 has given added relevance to an idea she has been promoting since late last year when she launched Biakudia Urban Farming Solutions (Bufs) which aims to support corporates, restaurants, schools, communities and individuals to start their own food gardens.

MAMA REFILOE MOLEFE HAS DEVELOPED EXPANSIVE FOOD GARDENS ON ABANDONED BOWLING GREENS and gives free fresh produce to needy people, especially children in her inner-city community of Bertrams in Joburg.

Along the way, she has overcome numerous obstacles and challenges and even the Covid-19 lockdown has left her undaunted. “I couldn’t sell produce and the vegetable juices I make at the markets and to restaurants, because they were closed, and my customers couldn’t buy from me for three months. But we still managed to run a soup kitchen and deliver food parcels to underprivileged people in the area,” she says.

“Now we need to start afresh and we are already preparing to plant our summer crops.”

NHLANHLA MAKWE DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS A “CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR”. This 25-year-old from Orlando West in Soweto has set out to inspire young people to lead the way in encouraging residents of the area to become more self-sufficient by growing their own food – with the most limited resources.

He works with between 20 and 30 children and teaches them how to grow vegetables in containers they make from discarded plastic bottles, wood, tyres and other materials recovered mainly from a local dump site.

He tries to make their time in the garden fun, creative and engaging.

Courtesy of www.gardenday.co.za