In April 2018, Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA) and Tiger Brands partnered to distribute 500 home gardens in the community of Mohlakeng near Johannesburg. We returned in November 2018 to evaluate the homes, drop seasonal seeds and seedlings, and to help the Community Educators trouble-shoot any problems faced by the community as a whole.

The Community Educators were shown how to make their own pest control from non-toxic household ingredients which they thoroughly enjoyed. Following the workshop, gardens were assessed to get a sense of the progress of the Gardens For Homes programme.

FTFA facilitators were incredibly impressed with the gardens visited. Members of the community were growing in any area they could find — no matter how small or challenging. Households were already harvesting the winter vegetables and were delighted to receive seeds and seedlings of summer varietals.

It seems that just a seed was needed to spark this community’s interest in growing food. We look forward to our return in early 2019 to access the gardens once again and weigh up the summer harvest.