Heart & Soil Vegetable Garden

We have land that is part of our garden nursery, but it is currently filled with 20 years worth of old movie props, wire, stones and trash, and we don’t have the capacity to make it workable in the next couple of years without some help.

So..we’re looking for help to make our land useful to others, to help it get productive more quickly, and to help someone (hopefully more than one person) make a living growing good vegetables. We will also move some of our nursery stock to make more space for this garden. The costs of land in this area make even a highly successful vegetable garden project unlikely to be profitable, and while we'll provide the land, we will need help with overhead costs for about two years.

Our initial fundraising goal ($7272) would cover costs for the entire first year, and as a family we will try to provide all support during the second year. We believe that the plot has the potential to pay for itself from the third year.

Given the shortage of land in Masiphumelele, and the need for local, organic, affordable vegetables, a vegetable garden would be a good use of this space. The space is about 1500m2, which is large enough for significant vegetable gardening activities.

A long-term Masiphumelele resident, Daniel, originally from Zimbabwe, has experience and skills and would like to use the land to farm but cannot clear without a truck (to be clear, we're not buying a truck with this money... we're going to hire people that have access to a truck to help clear...), does not have capital for the inputs needed to start the garden, or to pay for a share of rates needed to make things sustainable long-term.

Specifics on how will we use funds:
- The garden area will be cleared of rubble and trash,
- We’ll set up an fruit trees and a garden space from scratch.
- We will use the some of the money to pay for rates and employment of Daniel during the period where the vegetable garden is not making any money.
- Set up a sustainable composting system.

The goal of the garden will be to: 
(1) provide affordable vegetables— particularly hard-to-find (sometimes termed “traditional”) vegetables— to Masiphumelele residents,
(2) to be a beautiful, sustainable space, (potentially also for learning) and
(3) to ultimately provide a living wage to between 1 and 3 entrepreneurs in the garden.

We have some experience as vegetable gardeners, and a pretty good understanding of the cost of vegetable garden startup and programme management, and believe these funds will be a cost-effective way to make an otherwise difficult endeavor sustainable and potentially life-changing.

Thank you so much for your support!