The first time I met Peter Takelo, the founder of Net Vir Pret and general community rabble-rouser-for-good, we found ourselves talking at length about growing vegetables – a common interest we both hold dearly.
“When you pull a carrot from your own garden in your own back yard, you feel dignity, you feel joy!” exclaimed Peter.
Couldn’t agree more.
Over the months that followed, we walked together through dozens of yards in Smitsville the community that was split off from Barrydale in the Apartheid years (and that continues to carry much of the social and economic burden of that old system). These days Peter and I talk about “Barryville” rather than two separate towns.
What became clear on those late afternoon chats with neighbours in the community is that folks very much wished to grow their own vegetable gardens. The barriers to getting started were partly economic—planting seeds and seedlings in those rock hard yards absent of ground cover and top soil require not only hard graft, but extra money that is difficult to come by when you live hand to mouth.
One year into these conversations I turned sixty-five years old. Last year while thinking about what could be a wonderful birthday gift to myself, it occurred to me that a few of my friends might be willing to sponsor the compost and seedlings as starter kits for a few families to begin their own veggie gardens. Just imagine if five or six friends each sponsored a family vegetable garden?
And so I put out the word and waited to see if anyone would respond. To my surprise, in just a couple of weeks, a total of 86 family gardens were sponsored by my friends. Nice to be surrounded by good people.
We quickly hired two mentors from the Ville side of Barryville who put the word out to the community that we were looking for families ready to do all their own work to set up personal veggie gardens. We would provide any advice they may request plus the starter kit of compost, seeds and seedlings. More than 200 families came forward. Well, that was unexpected! And it gave us a vision of what could be done in future years.
Last year in early Spring, all 86 gardens went into the ground. The shared feelings of joy and delight were wonderful to experience. We gained a lot of insights in that “test run” and look forward to the long term plan that will ensure every family in Barryville can have the gift of growing their own food.
Already the municipality of Swellendam has agreed to chip all their green cut-offs from Barryville on behalf of this vision, and the residents of the Gwarrie section of our community will oversee the chipping in exchange for being the first families to completely blanket their yards with chips and slowly begin the regeneration of the land – the first step to installing permanent food gardens. The next step will be to set up demonstration gardens in the Gwarrie and invite resident who wish to grow their own gardens to attend veggie workshops in exchange for the seeds, seedlings, wood chips and compost. We imagine a day when all of Barryville will be filled with the flourishing veggie gardens of hundreds of families. We welcome any kind of assistance, advice and support. Please contact us at go****@li**.za if you wish to become involved.
