Summer 2008

A few of our last photos, to show you how green the garden looks after all the rain this month.

We found a giant marrow, it was as big as a watermelon.
The school was closed already, one of the mothers took it home.
Today we reached the end of the field, next year we could be planting the whole field.
We will need lots of topsoil and compost.
Our wish list for the coming year: shade cloth, wall, compost, topsoil, potting soil, lots of seeds.
more tools , irrigation extension.

Summer 2008

In November we harvested the first summer vegetables, we had many many courgettes, luckily most of them we could harvest before the school closed in December and the feeding stopped till the beginning of January.There are still many butternuts, spinach, beans and brinjals waiting for the school to start again. Many of the mothers who volunteer on the project go home to their families in the rural areas over the holidays, but fortunate for us there are always a few who stay home and keep helping us through the holidays in the vegetable garden, their is always lots of work to do during this time, watering, weeding preparing new beds, new seeds to be planted etc.

When Shirley heard that Gertrude was using some old spectacles from somebody else, she took her to the optician and made sure Gertrude got some new glasses with the right prescription for her eyes.
She is showing them off on the photo standing next to Shirley.

In November Sibongeli got her little baby daughter Gracious Joy, here she is with her big brother Prince. Many of our visitors and early helpers in the garden will remember Sibongeli, she was one of our first volunteers in the project, last year she got a job and left the project, but little Prince is always there to help us in the garden.

Shirley an I would like to thank all our friends especially Henny and Knud Jensen, Marleen Buscop and my mother Marianne Robijn in Holland for all their input, interest and finding of sponsors for The feeding and gardening project, without you the garden could not excist.

A big thank you, we wish you all a healthy new year filled with love and happiness.

Bosbes Kapel

http://www.bosbeskapel.nl/xhtml/zwo.html
My mother in the Netherlands heard that her church was looking for a project they could sponsor in 2008/2009 , she submitted The Riversand feeding and gardening project and we were the lucky ones to be chosen .
I sent them many photos of the project and in September they started off with the sale of postal stamps with pictures of the children of Riversand school enjoying their food.

By Christmas 1000 stamps had been sold, so the children of Riversand school are traveling on the Christmas cards through Holland this year.

Thank you to Gert-Jan de Raad and all the people involved for all your work to make this project a success.

Gertrude's Birthday

Gertrude is our oldest volunteer at the feeding project, we celebrated her 75th also in September with cake and dancing.

Spring time

Spring time is one of the busiest time in the Vegetable garden.
Truckloads of topsoil and compost were carried to
the garden, everyone was topping up the beds, new seeds went in.
Then the watering started, it is still one of our biggest challenges, the water, especially when the seeds has just gone in, the beds have to be watered by hand for the first few weeks and of course we need to have water!!
Many days the tank is empty or the pump does not work or some body at the school switched off the pump, or there is no electricity and then of course nothing works.
The rain only starts in November at the earliest if we are lucky.

Winter months

Tomorrow is the last day of July, almost the end of winter, in August we can start to put the first summer seeds in, lots of bush beans, courgettes, brinjals, peppers etc

The winter was not too bad, we were lucky with the borehole pump, it worked most of the time, the bottle irrigation is still working very well, we also added a new terrace this winter, we are going to try a new method with this terrace, the no till method.
We put lots of new top soil on top , followed with chicken litter and compost, a few weeks ago we planted some new Chinese cabbage there and it is coming up beautifully.

This last monday we had some visitors from KLM again, Suzanne Jansen and William Gebbink.It was nice to have them and to show them what we are doing here, with feeding the children and to show them how the vegetable garden has grown these last years.
They helped with the handing out of the food and getting the last bit of cabbage and turnips out of the ground and putting some new bottles in new beds.
Thank you both, it was fun to have you here.

winter vegetables

We have planted many winter vegetables 2 months ago they are growing beautiful, here is a big bed with Chinese cabbage, a very healthy vegetable and easy to grow, we also have a few beds with Kale and Spinach, together with these we planted lots of Turnip and Beetroot.
At the moment the garden looks really great, the ladies have now all there own beds and love looking after them, they work so hard.

Next week there will arrive truckloads of topsoil and compost, It can only be delivered out side the school gates, so all the soil has to be carried in side to the vegetable garden by the ladies, that is next weeks job.
The following week we will start the next terrace all this soil and compost is for this terrace, we will try a new way of making beds, The No Till Way.
Shirley and I went to a workshop of Bill Kerr a few weeks ago, he is awell known vegetable breeder here in SA, he teached us this new way he has been using for the last years and what gives fantastic results.
It will suit us very well because the digging of the beds takes a long time and is very hard work.
Basically you dont till the soil at all, every thing what grows in the soil stays in, we put manure on top top soil and compost and some lime and we put the seeds in, when the veggies are up and finished the roots can stay in the leaves and anything else stay on the soil and we start all over again.
It sounds almost too good to be true , but we will try it out with terrace no six.