{"id":2176,"date":"2021-01-11T20:03:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T20:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/south-africa\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2021-01-11T17:26:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T17:26:29","slug":"cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens","title":{"rendered":"Cape pensioner converting verges in southern suburbs into lush food gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Cape Town – It is not what you would expect to find on a quiet leafy street situated in the heart of Cape Town\u2019s southern suburbs, but these are unusual times.<\/p>\n

Since the lockdown began last year, pensioner Ghalema Easton has been helping to transform the verges on a number streets in the neighbouring suburbs of Plumstead and Diep River into lush food gardens and by so doing is helping scores of people, some of whom may be struggling to feed their families during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Easton said: \u201cWhen the virus broke out in Cape Town my husband and I were out of town. Watching the news, that feeling of “food security” urgency started eating at me again. I made a video basically telling people how I feel and how important the collecting of seeds and growing your own food is, and I posted it on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a couple of months it was just my verge garden, until one day a lady pulled into my driveway, very excited to find me on the verge and asked me to please help her to convert her verge as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe lives just two blocks down in a corner house, which meant two verges. This is how it started and that we have now created a number of verges in Plumstead and a huge one in Diep River.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beneficiaries are you, me, the neighbour, that elderly neighbour who cannot manage to get to a shop, the homeless person who walks past. Last week we broke ground on a food garden at the Abundant Life Palliative Care centre at Victoria Hospital. This is my most exciting project so far,\u201d said Easton.<\/p>\n

Easton\u2019s fist adapter was Tina Miller who said: \u201cDuring lockdown I took a hard look at my verges and thought: a manicured grass verge is not fitting during these sad times. When I saw Ghalema had started a food garden, I knew this was a perfect way to go. Give back and pay it forward. No brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe veg on verges is for picking by anyone walking by or drivers in cars. I have picked bags of spinach for ladies working in the area on the way home. The gratitude and the looks of disbelief is enough for me,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mayco member for urban management Grant Twigg said the City encouraged households to start their own food production units.<\/p>\n

Twigg said: \u201cThese gardens have an established tradition and offer great potential for improving household food security and alleviating micro-nutrient deficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City\u2019s food gardens project which starts this month in response to the Covid-19 economic recovery programme is an initiative to establish sustainable food gardens which will aid in addressing food insecurity in vulnerable areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately R3 million has been budgeted for this project. It will go towards targeted beneficiaries for the use of farming kits that will include seeds, fertilizer, equipment, training and skills development amongst others,\u201d said Twigg.<\/p>\n

Cape Argus<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – It is not what you would expect to find on a quiet leafy street situated in the heart of Cape Town\u2019s southern suburbs, but these are unusual times. Since the lockdown began last year, pensioner Ghalema Easton has been helping to transform the verges on a number streets in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-2176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nCape pensioner converting verges in southern suburbs into lush food gardens - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cape Town - It is not what you would expect to find on a quiet leafy street situated in the heart of Cape Town\u2019s souther ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cape pensioner converting verges in southern suburbs into lush food gardens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cape Town - It is not what you would expect to find on a quiet leafy street situated in the heart of Cape Town\u2019s souther ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-11T20:03:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ffc8a2a95cce.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Cape pensioner converting verges in southern suburbs into lush food gardens\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-11T20:03:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\"},\"wordCount\":511,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ffc8a2a95cce.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/cape-pensioner-converting-verges-in-southern-suburbs-into-lush-food-gardens\",\"name\":\"Cape pensioner converting verges in southern suburbs into lush food gardens - 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