The food gardens are a great success, as we were able to see for ourselves on our last visit. We have already reported on Beauty’s garden.
We also visited Lukas. He is 49 years old. Lukas runs his farm with his wife. Most of his five children have already started their own lives.
It seems that he is just the right man for the vegetable garden campaign. His vegetable garden now not only provides food for his own needs. It also secures the family’s income. The garden has grown so much that Lukas can now even sell his vegetables to neighbors. He has already cut off another piece of land to prepare it for gardening.
Lukas has also built a greenhouse on his land with the help of the Ndlovu Care Group. Here he is implementing a new idea: hanging gardens.
Plant pots are hung vertically in a long row. Plants are pre-grown here for sowing. This makes cultivating the garden more effective.
This planting system is used extensively by the Ndlovu Care Group. On the one hand, less space is required as the plants are no longer sown in a row. Secondly, care and harvesting is easier, as the gardeners can also work standing up. This is very convenient for many people, especially the elderly. A third important advantage is the effective, economical irrigation. The water runs through the pots from top to bottom. Less water seeps away unnecessarily into the soil.
Almost all of these plant baskets have a colorful belly band. These were sewn by the women of the community to make the work a little more colorful and cheerful. Everyone here works together with one big goal: to fight hunger.
Lukas has even given his garden a name: Tshaba Tlala.
That means: hunger MUST go.
