WITH the aim of feeding a community with fresh vegetables while also reviving a culture of ploughing, a group of Khayelitsha women established Ekhaya Ekasi Rooftop Garden in 2013.
In this net-covered garden, different kinds of vegetables are planted on top of a roof inside 18 boxes.
The ever-green rooftop of a double-storey house at Gaba Street in Makhaza provides fresh natural air for the resident. The women take turns maintaining boxes by changing sand and manure to make fertile ground for vegetables in season.
Busisiwe Dalingawo said the women in the community felt obliged to provide a helping hand after noticing an increase in those who went to bed on an empty stomach.
“That was when we decided to have this feeding garden. Everyone who is feeling hungry comes here during lunch to have fresh and healthy vegetables. We even give something to take home to those who have nothing,” she said.
Nomfundo Yaso explained that there is always the need for people, especially locals, to be taught benefits of planting their own gardens. She said people don’t know that their grandparents grew up eating fresh food they cultivated themselves.
“Fully grown vegetables make an immune system strong. It makes a person stay healthy, not disease-prone like us nowadays. The benefits of planting is that you eat fresh food and that is what we are encouraging,” Yaso said.
The women said that maintaining a garden requires the knowledge of which vegetables are suitable for each season, as well as the type of soil and manure required for a particular vegetable.
“A spinach does not need more compost because it takes only six weeks to get ripe. Therefore, more compost will kill it. You can use more of it in beetroot as it takes 10 weeks,” they explained.
Yaso said their garden is a testimony to that anyone can plant anywhere. “A lack of space is not an excuse.”