THE secret to success for vegetable gardens is making the best use of the available space and for Khabazela Village resident, Dumile Magaqa, this much is true. Two months ago, with the support of NPO’s Singakwazi Aid, The Seed Fund and Mission Thando, Magaqa began sowing the seeds of change in a small plot of land next to the village’s soup kitchen container.
The vegetable garden has already begun yielding results with the aim of supporting the area’s soup kitchen which feeds more than 100 children and families.
In order to create sustainability, Magaqa, the soup kitchen founder along with volunteers hope to sell vegetables to the community to raise funds for those in need. In a short space of time, volunteers have planted cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, onions, chillies, green beans, spinach and various other herbs.
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“A Durban North resident, Lorraine Evans, suggested that we start the vegetable garden to become more sustainable. From that idea and the help of the various NPOs we began planting and we’ve seen results already with lettuce and spinach in particular. Ben Goodwin of The Seed Fund helped show me how to sow seeds and advised both the volunteers and myself on how to water the garden and keep the vegetables growing.
“We feed the children and families out of an old shipping container where we store our food. There is a little patch of bush to the back and side of the container which is where this project began. I cleared away the bush and begun creating little beds for the various vegetables. Ben also helped me compost the area and already we’ve seen most of the veg take hold extremely well. Besides helping us with ingredients for the soup kitchen we also hope to sell vegetables to the residents in the area to raise funds for the kitchen,” he explained.
Magaqa has already begun his tray of seedlings he hopes to plant in the coming weeks.
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