When the chief invited us in 2013 to begin agricultural training in the Mdumezulu/ Itshehlophe area, we didn’t expect that there was an evolving strategy of community gardens in Itshehlophe.

Gogo Mseleku above is part of Nkangala Community Garden which belongs to a small, community-based NGO called the Ntabalende Development Project. Ntabalende exists to grow vegetables for the sick and bedridden, and for orphans and other vulnerable children. They operate 6 community gardens and receive some funding from the Department of Trade and Industry. Those that work in the gardens receive a small monthly stipend.

The gardens are a wonderful opportunity to develop relationships throughout the rural areas because each garden is situated in a unique location. The main problem with these gardens is that, due to a lack of knowledge, the produce from these gardens was both very little, and of low quality.

All of the community gardeners were invited to the vegetable training in November. We also invited a representative from each garden to work at the demonstration field for this entire planting season. Whatever they learned at the demonstration field, they were able to take back and pass onto their garden teams.

We are excited to say that all six of these gardens have signed up to implement Farming God’s Way! There are 57 workers on these six gardens, and we are visiting all of them on at least a monthly basis to keep training on next steps to become successful. So far, we have been training in mulching, compost making, laying out permanent, raised beds, plant spacing, and proper watering. The gardens aren’t where we’d like them to be, but we are starting to see significant progress!

The Sonto Garden had Kulegile as their garden rep. The Sonto garden is located on a moderate slope so they have lots of challenges with run off. They have made progress in adding sparse blanket cover and have already noticed an improvement in the soil’s water retention. It was 32 degrees C with a humidex of 44 degrees C on the day we visited.

The Mchumane Garden had Tholakele as their garden rep. Their application of mulch blanket was much better, but their maize did struggle this year. They expressed their difficulties in locating manure for an input. Hopefully this year they will make their own compost. They also indicated a desire to stop burning their grass and leaves in the winter.

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The Nkangala Garden has Silindile as their garden rep. This garden has very steep slopes and at some point plans for adding rows of vetiver grass will be needed. The biggest challenge at this garden is water. They have to carry buckets down the steep slopes. But we were very pleased to see good row spacing and mulch cover. The rows are now running across the slope of the hill. Our highlight was meeting Gogo Mseleku who has so much enthusiasm (main blog photo).

The last garden we visited was Inyoni Mhlophe which is located in a beautiful valley. Sanele is the garden rep. Wow! Sanele has been getting his group organized. They were the first group to try raised veg beds. Dan and Zeph were able to help them with layout. In subsequent visits we have seen the blanket being laid and onions planted.

What is most exciting, is the “knock-on” effect. In other words, we want to see these implementers replicating what they’re doing in the community gardens at their homes. Three people that we know of have started implementing Farming God’s Way methods at their home gardens.

The first one to implement what she learned is Tholakele.

She was one of our field crew that prepared and planted our demo field last October and November. We visited her home garden in January and we saw, to our pleasant surprise, 10-foot high maize! She replicated what she had done with us on our field right there at her house. We’re so proud of her! Zephania has now used her example as a challenge to the others. He took pictures of Thola’s maize and sent it to the rest of the crew, showing them what one of their own had done! The inspiration of working examples is starting to extend beyond our demo field – a very significant development.

Our goal is that every one of the Ntabalende gardeners have FGW vegetable gardens at their homes, and that soon we begin to see field-scale implementation. Please join with us in prayer to that end!