New veg garden on Forest Drive takes root
With the aim of reclaiming green spaces in the area, the garden on the beach side, complete with five beds, is something for the community to use and access.
SINCE the intervention of two uMhlanga residents, Shaun Peschl and Hilton MacLarty, Saratoga Park on Forest Drive has become a space transformed.
The park, which is dubbed the Saratoga Forest Activity and Wellness Park, has seen a massive cleaning and greening effort alongside the creation of recreational spaces, which include an MTB [mountain-bike] trail.
With the aim of reclaiming green spaces in the area, the duo say the new garden on the beach side, complete with five beds, is something for the community to use and access.
For MacLarty, the beautification and rehabilitation of the 1.5-hectare park have already borne fruit, well, in this case, vegetables.
Also read: Community garden brings pride to Greenwood Park
“We grow a number of vegetables here, including spinach, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, kale, beetroot and radish, to name a few. We also grow a few herbs, including sunflower, coriander, basil, sage and rosemary. We started the garden in May this year, and we’ve already seen a massive difference. This garden is open to everyone, including residents, and we encourage them to take only what they need. We’ve already seen fishermen take a few items on their way back from the beach which is just awesome,” he said.
MacLarty added that through donations from their cleaning and greening initiative, they employ a part-time worker who cleans the area, weeds the vegetable garden and empties out the bins in the park.
For fellow resident Peschl, the idea to start a vegetable garden came after a suggestion at a public meeting.
“The seed was planted at the meeting, and we decided to run with it, and a few months later, we’d created a beautiful garden. The project to rejuvenate the park was to avoid urban decay. We don’t have many green spaces that are safe and easily accessible for residents and visitors. That was the main idea behind this project. We want people to use this park and celebrate it. My young son was involved in planting the first seeds of this garden, and it was great seeing a young person involved. Maybe a long-term vision of this project would be to get schools involved in planting and harvesting to see how vegetables grow,” he said.
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