Sunday, March 22, 2009

Inspirational Visit

Yesterday I visited with a long time gardener and food grower in Claremont.

Brigid lives right alongside a busy traffic intersection and opposite her is a field of about acres. In 1993 she approached the City Council to rent the land. At that stage it was inhabited by squatters and was overgrown and home to all sorts of vices.

Eventually in 2002 she was granted permission and so began the Arniston Elemental Organic Garden.

Her garden uses no pesticides, she proudly states that she kills nothing. Everything (all the elements) works together in balance.

A lot of the area is uncultivated but her plans are inspirational - hoping to plant a fruit orchard, olive trees and other large projects are all ready to happen with just a little bit of funding.

She has created this little haven pretty much on her own with the help of one labourer. So come take a short tour with me:

Because the garden is self funded, she grows what she can to resell to put more back into the garden. Growing a patch of buffalo, amd selling it, has brought in some funding.



Basil was also sold to friends. There is a large amount of lavender which she is distilling in her garage.




As a self acknowledged "garden-pack-rat" she throws nothing away but grows cuttings of all sorts.



She has two large wormeries made in old baths, they are producing juice and lovely looking compost.



She makes use of companion planting to promote good growth. Below is mustard and wild garlic.



My son was enchanted with the black chillies and even managed to wangle one to bring home for Daddy!



Brigid's husband made a bee-hive and baited it for 6 months before they appeared.



This is part of the uncultivated section she plans to use for olives.



A lovely section looking from the right of the entrance up to Table Mountain.



The children found a shady spot and chatted. This is looking from the top of the frist section down towards the gate, basil and buffalo.



What I didn't photgraph was the little dam they have built which fills in Winter. They also have a borehole powered by a wind turbine that Brigid's husband created.

It was a grea, insiprational morning!

3 comments:

Brigid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brigid said...

Please visit http: www. aristonorganicgarden.blogspot.com or www.brigid-ariston.blogspot.com for more information. Thank you Wendy for this post

Anonymous said...

isn't Ariston awesome?! what Brigid is doing there is phenomenal - and I hope more green-fingered folk out there are inspired to do the same. If I had enough space, I would love to do something like that too!