Communal vegetable gardens are popping up around the Londolozi staff village, and before you turn your attention elsewhere, know that:
“if you ‘aint a gardener, you ‘aint gangster”.
Inspired by a remarkable TED Talk
In February 2013, Ron Finley shared his vision for transforming much of the landscape of “South Central” (South Los Angeles) into communal gardens. He shares a scary fact: 26 sq. miles of South Central is made up of vacant car lots. That’s 20 times the size of Central Park in New York. Finley asks – why isn’t that space being used to grow good food, or to bring together communities? Why isn’t gardening cool? Why isn’t it “gangster”? Why can’t gardening be used to empower and sustain communities?
Why Londolozi neighbourhoods are turning to gardening
The Londolozi staff village is made up of several small “neighbourhoods” and slowly, we have started to see the emergence of communal gardens. Finley’s TED talk was part of the inspiration, but here are three reasons why we think our neighbourhoods are turning to gardening:
1. Access to healthy food:
Finley mentions that, in South Central, fast food is ubiquitous. Hamburgers, fries and MSG is what people know. If Finley wanted to buy an organic apple, he would have to make a 45 minute round trip. Finley’s view is that communal gardens normalise “healthy” and “organic”. Activity in a garden leads to a greater appreciation of natural, seasonal and sustainable food, and that’s a trend that’s taking the world by storm.
2. It’s a tool for the transformation of neighbourhoods:
The success of a garden is a goal shared by the entire neighbourhood. But that goal leads to other goals. Suddenly there is less junk and litter lying around. A couple of people start thinking about reducing electricity usage. There is an upsurge in recycling. In general there is a shared eco-consciousness that takes root.
3. Gardening is social and therapeutic:
Finley compares a garden to a work of art. In his case, he gathers community’s and “grows” art. There’s something special about walking past a Londolozi neighbourhood and seeing some of the residents working in a garden in their free time, chatting, spending time together outdoors. This is community and camaraderie built around an ethos of teamwork, sharing and engaging with the land.
Every path has a few puddles
A problem unique to Londolozi gardening (and I can hear many readers chuckling already) is the wildlife. Baboons, ververt monkeys and bushbuck are as eager to see the success of vine tomatoes as their “farmers” are. To counteract this problem, large cages and in some cases, wire netting is built for protection. Bear in mind that the barrier needs to penetrate below the ground as well to prevent wildlife from burrowing. Of course, the heat has been another challenge. On days that race past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (or 40 degrees Celcius), “whither” is a word that comes to mind. So chuckling readers – where-ever you are in the world – if you have a garden that you’re looking after, what are your puddles (or baboons)? We’d love to know.
The best sermons are lived, not preached
Ron Finley has inspired us to live his sermon and become more “ecolutionary” in our own Londolozi backyards. We know that we are going to make mistakes. There will be crops that fail and gardens that are “pillaged”. But we have to start somewhere, and we’re ready to learn. We would love your feedback and suggestions. What vegetables do think would work best in our warm, lowveld climate? We have very hot, wet summers, and then mild, warm winters.
Have you had any garden successes that you can share with us? Any tips, words of warning, seasonal advice? Pointers from our extended community would be very welcome…
* Note: In originally writing this piece, I repeatedly wrote “Ken Tinley” in the place of “Ron Finley”. Dr. Ken Tinley – another “ecolutionary” – had an incredible understanding of the ecology of Londolozi and guided Londolozi’s land management strategy. In I Speak of Africa Dave Varty writes “In him we found pure, distilled wisdom. He was an ecologist decades ahead of his time. A visionary genius.” Uncanny how similar those two names are!
I live in Ohio. The last time I tried to grow sweet corn, there was 80 acres of field corn surrounding the property but the deer and raccoons completely ignored that and ravaged my sweet corn instead. We have a great farmers market in our small town twice a week though, so we did get to enjoy some corn that way. Farmer’s markets are great ways to share fresh produce and make a little cash as well. Besides offering the in-season fruits and vegetables, there are usually baked goods, honey, fresh milk and cheese, and homemade items there for purchase as well. It gives a communal feeling.
Hi Leslie. Good luck on the next crop of sweet corn 🙂 Farmer’s markets are great. I’m not sure about the milk and cheese, but at Londolozi we’d hope to have the vegetables and the honey – watch this space!
Am a garden designer in the UK. 😉 …One of the main keys to making a good garden is getting the soil just spot on with preparation…The soil that you’re working at Londoz already looks great…have you been adding much to it to get things going? I can imagine some well-rotted elephant dung would be fab! (just have to make do with using horse manure here! 😉 …the organic matter would also help to hold the water in the soil and provide nutrients…but it must be rotted down first, so it doesn’t take nitrogen out of the soil…Lovely to hear that the team are enjoying their garden so much …perhaps you could try growing your own fresh blooms too to create table decorations with? Enjoy! x
Yip Nicole, elephant dung wouldn’t be a problem! Kenneth – Londolozi’s gardener – has been helping with the soil and I will follow-up with him. Rhino Dung is also a great option, however it needs to be properly dried out to alleviate the acidity of the matter before using it as compost. Check out this video on our gardener, Kenneth, using this technique: http://blog.londolozi.com/2012/02/how-to-grow-vegetables-with-rhino-dung/ . Our African farming adventure gets more interesting by the minute 😉 Great idea on the flowers.
Thanks Ryan. Kenneth is super-cool! Just love his enthusiasm for his plants…Look forward to the next updates from the Londoz garden. x
Ryan, I love gardening & have learnt more over the years, but a book that has helped me a lot is “Jane’s Delicious Garden” by Jane Griffith. In Londolozi’s case, you wont need to plant the vegies in with the indigenous bush around you, but in the Baboon/bushbuck proof cages! The recycling can be done in your own “backyard” by getting in “its own cage”, a compost pit/heap going, by putting all the grass cuttings, the leaves from the trees, cardboard, newspapers, eggboxes, eggshells, overripe fruit, (maybe you have a bird feeder) leftover salad stuff, all the leaves taken off cabbages, lettuce, carrot tops, skins & potato peels, in fact all the peelings, add this to the pile, together with some of that ellie droppings that Nicole mentioned, with a layer of your beautiful soil. You will be amazed at how that will cut your refuse removal! No cooked food as this encourages rats. All the above I mentioned is placed in layers, either kept moist by watering or natural rain, some agricultural lime can be added to hasten the process, then this compost can be plowed into more cages that you prepare & in the end you will be able to support the entire lodge with fresh vegies. Your vegies that thrive in the heat (but need to be watered) are Pumpkins, Hubbards, Gems, Butternut, Brinjal, Tomatoes, radish, spinach, beans, oh the list is long. If you have bugs, no need to rush out & buy poisonous stuff, just make a solution of sunlight liquid & water & spray on – they gone! You may say squashes need space, not at all I have a small garden (300sqm) & last year harvested 15 B/nuts & 13 Pumpkins! So try & have fun. I would love to help where I can, but try the book & you have my email address. Good Luck its so rewarding. Don’t forget to show us the results? 🙂
Hi Wendy – I have had a look at the book, “Jane’s Delicious Garden” online – thank you so much for the recommendation. For anyone else who is interested, go to Jane’s website – http://janesdeliciousgarden.com/.
There was a really inspiring quote at the top of the website as well, which I would love to share: “To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Thanks for sharing Wendy, and thanks also for the veggie recommendations.
P.S. Sunlight and water only? We’ll try it 🙂
Ryan, thanks for replying! as horse manure is so good for compost, you have a “few” zebra’s that you could consider picking up some of theirs 🙂 🙂 What I should have mentioned is its too late for planting seeds now, so look for Jane’s winter varieties & when to get started. Happy Gardening 🙂
Yes, Mahatma Gandhi really hit the nail on the head & its so true, if only people would heed that!!!!
We want to see the results 🙂