PLANS to revive the permaculture project at Durban Botanic Garden came under discussion at a meeting with various stakeholders on Friday.
In attendance were members of the Durban Botanic Gardens and officials representing the city’s Parks Department and Durban Solid Waste who agreed that the 10-year-old permaculture project was not meeting its full potential.
Jennifer Rampersad from Parks District 7 and Jabulani Memela from DSW, who are responsible for the thriving permaculture project at Congella Park, said they would link the Botanic Gardens project with the Congella Park project.
Memela originally established the permaculture project at Botanic Gardens and was also responsible for running permaculture training courses.
“Each person attending the meeting today represents some sort of help to develop the permaculture garden at Durban Botanic Gardens again. We will be revamping the garden, which has become run down over the past few years, to create a new-look garden which will be utilised for training, which will start next month, and a propagation area. We also aim to open a recycling area on site, where materials such as paper, bottles and plastic will be collected from events held by the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust,” she said.
A German student, Sophia Zierock, who has been working with Jennifer, will put together a landscape design for the existing and recycling areas.
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Rampersad said horticulture, agriculture and nature conservation students would be able to utilise the training sessions and Sipho Mhlongo, horticulturist at the Gardens, will be involved in sustaining the garden. She and Memela would oversee the project, but third year students from DUT and Unisa would be involved in managing the area in their absence. The vision is to build a permaculture display that visitors to the Gardens can walk around and view. Propagation will be done on site.
The Congella Park garden, which was established last year in collaboration with the Umbilo Business Forum, is currently used to train homeless men who had previously lived in the park. The men were involved in establishing the Park’s garden project and now live in tents in Congella Park and work in the garden where the produce they grow is sold to local restaurants.
“We are aiming to do the same here with the Botanic Gardens project. The vegetables we grow will go to supply schools and restaurants in the area. Money will then be ploughed back into permaculture project,” said Jennifer.
Martin Clement, curator at Durban Botanic Gardens expressed said he was enthusiastic about the partnership.
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“This is the 10th anniversary of the Gardens’ permaculture project. It is inspiring that we are going to be rejuvenating the garden and start training again this year. We have good ingredients to make this a success – we have the right people involved and have seen the evidence on the ground with the success of the Congella Park project. This project has potential to grow and succeed,” he said.
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