latest news

The Kalahari Garden Project now has a total of forty gardens spread over five villages. Between September and October, all of these were planted with summer crops. New garden owners (and their families) were trained in basic gardening skills and organic pest control, and gardeners involved in the project since its inception received follow-up training. Our horticultural advisor from the UK, Ian Martin (Curator of the Dry Tropics Biome at the UK Eden Project), returned to the field site in September to assist with further training and garden maintenance.

Young plants have suffered from more aggressive attacks from pests and birds this year, so we have been experimenting with different forms of organic pest control. These include a variety of sprays made from chilli, onion, garlic and local plants. To protect the plants against the birds, we have encouraged attaching moving scrap materials in the gardens and some gardeners have also constructed scarecrows. More recently, we have experimented with low level micro shade tunnels. These have been extremely effective against both pests and birds, but being more costly, have meant that we are in need of more funds to enable each garden to have these shade tunnels. Despite these hurdles, the gardens are growing well and we expect to begin harvesting in December and January.

Introducing Simon Stronach, the Kalahari gardens new volunteer

During September, Simon Stronach started working on the kalahari gardens as a horticultural volunteer. He has helped build another 12 gardens and plant out all forty for the summer. In his own words, after two months of volunteering, he is enjoying his time greatly, learning lots about growing crops in the desert environment and about the day-to-day workings of the project.

The project team

The garden project local team has recently expanded and now includes two field workers from the region who are employed full-time and four San garden representatives in training. The full-time team have been trained in leadership, project management, garden construction and maintenance. The representatives are receiving training and mentoring in garden management and project supervision and will form a local garden project committee. They are responsible for conveying feedback between the beneficiaries and the project team and assisting the beneficiaries in finding solutions to technical and/or social problems associated with the project.

The field team, with whom the trainees are currently working, includes Abraham Motlhaping (Assistant Coordinator) and Joseph Bessa (field technician). This on-site team are supervised by GDF’s regional coordinator Hattie Wells and Komeho staff, Gabriel Hangara and Bethel Kazapua.
We are anticipating the arrival of our new horticultural volunteer Simon Stronach in early September.

Starting the blog

Hello! Kalahari Gardens is new to blogging, and despite having been up and running as a project for over a year now, this is our first post. So, we have lots of news.........

We are happy to report that the planting of the gardens between September 2007 and June 2008 has been extremely successful. Despite initial adversities that arose concerning the water delivery in two of the villages we are working in, 18 gardens have harvested pumpkin, squash, carrots, beetroot, spinach, maize, tomatoes, beans, turnips, cabbage, kale, chili peppers, onions and watermelons over the year. 29 gardens have been built, but 11 of these have only recently been constructed and are waiting for the next planting season for sowing their seeds.

The gardens are 10 x 14 meters and have strong, livestock proof fencing and eight rows of tilled sand improved with dung and ash. Seasonal vegetables are grown and each garden has two fruit trees (fig, pomegranate or clementine). The beneficiaries are extremely enthusiastic about the project and are keeping their gardens well maintained.

The project team has recorded harvest data and foods eaten from the garden during this period, which suggests that diets have improved significantly with the addition of these foods to the daily staple of maize porridge. Some of the larger food crops such as watermelons and pumpkins have been sold locally, bringing in additional household income.

The gardens were collaboratively designed by our horticultural technician Ian Martin (Curator of the Dry Tropics Biome at the UK Eden Project), the project team and San beneficiaries. Ian provided training in building gardens and sowing seeds during a three week visit in September 2007. Additional training was provided in December and April on sowing seeds, seasonal gardening, transplanting seedlings, natural pest control and harvesting. This was coordinated by Komeho staff from the Ben Hur Rural Development Centre.

In addition to garden construction we have significantly improved the water delivery system in two villages, by installing a new solar water pump, two additional solar panels, a generator (for cloudy days), new pipeline and taps. This has resulted in doubling the daily water yield in one of the villages and has ensured a reliable water supply for both household and garden consumption in both villages.