Umthathi Training Project taught more than 15 Riebeeck East Combined school pupils to train their parents during the Masilimeni training workshop last Friday.
Umthathi Training Project taught more than 15 Riebeeck East Combined school pupils to train their parents during the Masilimeni training workshop last Friday.
In the Riebeeck East Combined School gardens were facilitators, teachers, parents and pupils. Umthathi school facilitator Xolani Mountain explained that the Masilimeni programme would be led by the pupils.
Mountain said the pupils' training would cover the following types of garden: keyhole, container, trellis, tower or bag, trench beds and medicinal plants. There would also be discussions on nutrition and hygiene and demonstrations of how to make and use solar cookers and hotboxes.
Grade 11 pupil, Nomathamsanqa Makhasi, 18, taught a group of seven pupils about double digging – a method of planting in trenches dug at double the depth of a common spade, to loosen the soil and allow for the addition of compost. Makhasi said growing food would help the community to alleviate poverty and combat climate-change.
“Global warming is here and we should cultivate our yards as soon as possible,” said Makhasi. Kholeka Ralo, Umthathi's Home and Community Food Garden co-ordinator, also explained companion planting – plants that benefited from being planted in close proximity, for example, for protection from insects. Grade 10 pupil Siyabulela Mali, 16, taught the group about trellis-planting, using four poles.
