Project Report As of 24-06-2010: Permaculture Visit

By Megan Kallin

I went with Busi and two potential Japanese sponsors named Fumi and Masa to visit a Permaculture project at a primary school in Randburg. Masa is the founder of a Japanese NGO called Table for Two, which is now three years old. The idea behind the organization is that they are trying to combat the global food crisis whereby some of the world’s population eats too much food and is obese, and much of the world’s population is starving. The organization mostly operates in Japan but is also trying to start projects in the USA and perhaps Canada. What they do is add a surcharge to cafeteria foods served in workplaces and at schools, and they take the profits made from this surcharge to support the feeding scheme in Third World schools. Fumi has recently started working for the NGO, and he is currently doing a twelve-week internship in Malawi in the Millennium Villages Project as part of his masters degree in Development. His program is very similar to mine.

We drove to view an FTFA project at a primary school in Randburg, and we were welcomed there by the school grounds caretaker who is looking after the garden even though the school is on holiday. I was very impressed by all of the greenery on the school grounds- I’m sure that it will look even more beautiful in the summer. The Permaculture garden itself is quite large and it is flourishing despite the dry and cold weather. They had planted mostly spinach as well as parsley, celery, beetroot, and spring onions. They had also planted carrots and spinach underneath netting to protect the plants until they grew bigger. There was a sprinkler turned on watering some of the plants and they also had rainwater collection drums set up in a few places. There were also many water tanks and a plant nursery. There was a sign up in the garden explaining which plants were good companions, and there was a great deal of intercropping. They also use crop rotation.


The caretaker was very good to show us around the garden and explain everything to us. He was very knowledgeable and I learned a lot, and Fumi said that he learned a lot as well. The caretaker explained that they plant spring onions in winter because in summer they release more of a scent and attract pests, but if they are planted in winter then the plants will be strong and resilient against the pests. Tomatoes cannot be planted in winter because they cannot survive the frost. They cannot plant nearly as many plants in winter as they can in summer. The caretaker also showed us their compost heap and explained that they do not compost onions and garlic, but that they save these to use as natural pesticides. He said this pesticide works quite well. He also showed us their liquid manure composed of chicken manure, which they use to help fertilize the garden naturally. We also saw the orchard, and there were some small apple trees that had just been planted.

I was quite impressed with the project and the enthusiasm of the caretaker, who is supposed to be on holiday now but has volunteered to help out with the garden and with paving a driveway to the school. Fumi and Masa seemed quite impressed as well. Fumi is currently working on an agriculture project where they use chemical fertilizers to increase yields, and he and Masa were both impressed with what could be accomplished using organic fertilizers and natural processes.