On the 9th of October 2018 Call 2 Care visited Siluncedo Educare for workshop 2, which was sponsored by UNiBA. Call 2 Care met with the principal, teachers, and caretakers the week after workshop 1. The goal of this workshop was to educate Siluncedo Educare about the technology used in the iGardi Project.
This technology includes square foot gardening and companion planting. Square foot gardening is essentially referencing a chart to figure out how many of each vegetable can be planted in one square foot. For example, you can plant nine beets in one square foot, but only one cabbage. This makes it easy to strategically plan out the garden such that the limited space is not wasted. Companion planting determines which plants grow well near each other. A common reason that plants are good companions is that together they repel pests. The use of both of these methods optimizes the plant yield, and fights against pests. Siluncedo Educare was eager to adopt these gardening techniques and were excited that they were able to have all of their requested vegetables!
Call 2 Care and Siluncedo Educare collaborated to create a "map" for the garden. We drew a chart that was influenced by companion planting and square foot gardening, while also taking into consideration which plants will be in season. We repeated this for the four double beds, which were also sponsored by UNiBA, until the beds were completely full and both groups were satisfied with the layout.
Call 2 Care walked away ready to plan out the next educational workshop. Siluncedo walked away with a ton of new information and ideas. All of us are eagerly anticipating the production of the garden as October 27 approaches!
The iGardi Project is one of the ways that Call 2 Care improves the lives of underprivileged communities through education. The iGardi Project's implement Self Watering Food Garden Boxes within the Western Cape and host a number of educational programs to ensure that anyone is able grow their own food, increasing food security in vulnerable communities.
Call 2 Care is a Non-Profit Organisation located in Cape Town that improves lives through educational outreach projects and events while offering a sustainable end to end service to corporates, government, and the general public.
The iGardi Project is proven to be very successful based on the progress from the other beneficiaries. The iGardi Project is one of the many ways to get involved with Call 2 Care. To support Siluncedo Educare, get involved in another existing project, or sponsor a iGardi Food Garden to a community in need, contact us at info@call2care.org.za.