A new tunnel for our Hydroponic garden.

I had a look through our old photos from the start of this project and was amazed at how far we have come in the last 4 years. I also realized that till the beginning of this year all our sponsors were from Holland, so I would like to thank again every one involved with the organizing of funds for this project in Holland.

Here is one photo when we just started and the first seeds went in the ground, the other photo I took yesterday when our first tunnel (donated by Builders hardware) was installed by Robin Good on our 7th terrace over the Hydroponic garden(donated by the students of Grundfos).

Thank you to every one who has made this possible, I cant wait for the summer veggies to come up and bring containers full of butternut, spinach, courgettes, Chinese cabbages etc. to the kitchen for the children's food the next day.

Opening of Hydroponic Garden

Last month we had the opening of the new Hydroponic Garden, sponsored by the students of Grundfos.

It was a great day for us, all the sponsors who helped to provide the material for this project were there to see the results.

After Dudley Willer and Maaike gave their talks we got to business and planted with the help of the school children and sponsors the first seedlings in the new beds.

Afterwards Milly had a beautiful lunch ready for all the sponsors and students, cooked with the veggies of the

vegetable garden.

Een talenten veiling in de Bosbes Kapel

Dit jaar was een goed jaar voor de groente tuin van het Riversands voedings project, in een vorige post vertelde ik al hoe de Bosbes kapel onze tuin had gekozen voor hun project dit jaar, Marianne had begin dit jaar een presentatie gegeven in de kapel en verteld hoe we hier jaren geleden begonnen zijn met de groente tuin en de voeding keuken, kort hier na hield de kapel een talenten veiling in de kerk en het werd een groots succes, velen boden hun talenten aan (koken van een maaltijden, geven van muziek lessen, schilderen, oppassen enz.) die allemaal erg gewaardeerd werden en druk op geboden werd.

De kinderen van de kinderkerk maakten allerlei kaarten om te verkopen, er werden zelfs postzegels gemaakt van fotos van de kinderen van Riversands school, die verkocht werden.

In Mei tijdens mijn vakantie in Nederland werd mij tijdens een feestelijke dienst een geweldige check aan geboden voor het uitbreiden van onze groente tuin.

Deze week zijn we begonnen met het graven van de foundation van een nieuwe muur voor het volgende terras, hierna zullen we ook een muur bouwen voor het terras waar de nieuwe Hydroponic garden ligt, we zullen jullie op de hoogte houden waar het geld nog meer voor gebruikt gaat worden.

Nogmaals heel veel dank aan allen in de Bosbes Kapel die zo enthousiast aan dit project gewerkt hebben, door uw help kunnen we de kinderen van Riversands nog meer en gezonder eten geven!

A Hydroponic garden for Riversands school.

In January I got a big surprise when the students of Grundfos chose the Riversands vegetable garden as their end of year project.

Grundfos already sponsored the Riversands Feeding and Garden project with a new pump, tanks and a computer for the borehole pump.

Now the students asked me what I would need to improve on the garden , Dudley Willer, their manager told me about a project he was involved, years ago in Swaziland where they built a Hydroponic garden for a school.

I had never heard about Hydroponic gardening and went on the internet to do some research, I discovered that if we could start this kind of gardening, we would be able to grow double the amount of vegetables in our garden, if we would be able to do this right , it would make it all a lot easier, I would not have all the troubles with the poor soil and it would solve our problems with the water as long as we would have enough water to top up the tank for the hydroponic garden.

In the long run it would be cheaper to run the garden as long as the students of Grundfos could manage to install this whole Hydroponic system.

In March they presented Shirley and me with 2 different kind of systems,they had all put many hours of work in researching this kind of gardening, we chose one system and all the students went to work to make this into a reality, they begged their "employers" of the companies where they did their in-service training for donations for the materials, piping+connections,tanks (from JoJo), pumps, gravel, thick plastic etc.

In June, while I was enjoying my holiday, they all started to install this new system in the garden, they had chosen a real horrible day to do this, on the wettest winter day we had in Johannesburg this winter. In the cold and rain they started digging a pit where the 2 bottom tanks had to be installed,( Milly made all the photos of this hard work! you see them in the last post.)

I have to thank here again all my garden ladies, who helped here to dig the new beds, Mammas this whole project would be impossible without your help, it is great to have these enthousiastic mothers helping us to make this project a reality, they do this as volunteers, giving so much of their time 4 days a week.

We hope to start this system in the first half of August,when the first summer seedlings are planted in this new garden.

Thank you Grundfos and especially Dudley Willer and his students, who made this possible!!!

The Students of Grundfos

Visit Marianne Belt

Last week Marianne and Fam. came to visit our vegetable garden, Marianne started this project in 2004 with Milly Jarvis.

A few years ago they moved back to The Netherlands, but Marianne is still very involved with our project and represent us in Holland.
Last year she gave a presentation in The Juliana school in Bilthoven, this school is collecting money for fruit for the children.
Soon we will be able to give each child a fruit with their meal at the school.
Marianne will also give a presentation in the Bosbes Kapel in The Hague.
This church is sponsoring our project this year, in February there will be an talent auction in the church to collect money for the project, a few weeks before this auction Marianne will come to the Hague to tell about the children in Riversands Primary school.

Summer 2008

Some of the vegetables out of the garden, Spinach, marrows or courgettes as they are called in Holland, even the last of the kale, boere kool in Dutch.
Thulani is picking the figs, Thulani is now in High school, when he was still at this school he used to come and help to get the weeds out during break time.
This holiday he came and helped to clear out the last of the grass and weeds at the bottom of the garden.