Chuck's Community Garden

 

 

 

 

 

As most of you know, I love to garden. Fortunately, the organization for which I work has a large community garden that has been used over the years to grow vegetables to feed the orphans and vulnerable children around Tugela Ferry. Last year, however, the land laid vacant due to a lack of interest and leadership. I hate to see land lay idle especially if it has the potential of growing things.

The garden that you see in the pictures is what I play around with after work and use as a project for young high school students. You can see that on certain days, I have lots of help. It is fun getting teenagers involved since there is little or no after school activities in the schools of Tugela. Michelle and I also got the students to participate in a tour of Philanjalo Care Centre where HIV/AIDS patients are cared for. Even though everyone in the region is close to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, since the rate of incidence is anywhere from 32% to 42%, the students were very hesitant to be among AIDS patients. After some great conversation about HIV/AIDS in English and Zulu, the students loved the tour and all the information which was shared. We even had condom demonstrations (on a wooden carved penis) handed out both male and female condoms. This sounds a little direct but here in South Africa, you have to be up front with HIV/AIDS education since teenagers are always high risk.

In addition to resurrecting our community garden, I was also fortunate to attend a 3 day workshop on Permagardening which is a fancy term for planting a garden that is sustainable and permanent

A world re-known Permagarden specialist from Tanzania taught the workshop and covered everything from composting, fertilization, natural insecticides, planting, irrigation, and plant rotation. Now I can grow anything, anywhere on drops of water. This is good since the soil around Tugela Ferry is all rock and it hasn't rained here for 5 months and people cannot afford fertilizer or insecticides.

Gardens are really important in South Africa since most of the population in our region tries to live off the land which means that they grow what they can. Vegetables are extremely important since they provide nutrients and vitamins important for sustaining a level of health when people have AIDS and are on anti-retroviral medication. There is a saying in South Africa....'' Feeding the world one family at a time; Saving the world one garden at a time

I also have lots of fun with the farmers in the fields and community gardens around Tugela ..who, by the way, are all women since the men spend the day in the shabeens (bars). It is rare to see a man in a field or garden, let alone, a white guy with a baseball hat! When the garden really starts to produce, I plan on sitting in the village center markets with all the women selling my tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, beetroot, onions, and maize. Thanks to my parents and brother, Irv, I also have sweet corn which will really be a hit since most South Africans eat boiled maize which is dry, tasteless field corn.

The last thing that I'll say about gardening in South Africa is that you need fencing or an AK-47 to handle the goats. Since there are 40,000-50,000 goats in our region and there is no green grass for them to eat, a garden is a prize which they will jump tall buildings and crawl through a crack to get at. I am really getting good now at hitting a goat with a rock from 50 meters! There are plenty of AK-47's too in town but it is against Peace Corps policy to own a gun. Seriously, goats are everywhere and will try anything to eat your cabbage or corn. If anyone ever visits us, you will see what I mean.

So, when Michelle and I return to the US, if you want to grow vegetables to feed a family of five and you have slab of rock or patch of weeds in your backyard, I would be happy to show you how to grow the best vegetables you have ever seen or tasted. The farmers of the Farmer's Market in Madison will be envious!!