A photo story of the local gardeners in Swaziland whom GardenAfrica has helped. www.gardenafrica.org.uk

1. Swazi Gardeners Photo Story

2. This is Lizzie Zulu. Lizzie is 68 years old and cares for her seven orphaned grandchildren without any means of support. Her husband is a gentle man in his 80’s, and is now almost completely blind. .

3. Lizzie, her husband and their grandchildren live in a remote corner of Emfasini – a low-lying drought prone area in Swaziland’s Hhohho district. They live at the far end of the track and their road is often washed away by heavy rains, adding to Lizzie’s isolation.

4. This is Lizzie’s church, over 5 kilometres away, where she and others would meet and sing.

5. We first met Lizzie when she came to our simple training centre, along with over 60 other hopefuls to learn how to build a fence out of natural, reclaimed and/or recycled materials. In order to be selected for our 1 year training, each person had to build a fence line of 10x10 metres within which their garden would evolve.

6. In their selection training, they learned to harvest invasive exotic species as hard fencing, while live indigenous planting would extend the life of the fenceline - bringing other benefits such as nitrogen fixation, pollination, or be medicinal or edible. All species used would need to produce a good dense barrier against unwanted four (or two) legged invaders.

7. Lizzie chose to use a reed which is plentiful in her area, which she attached to harvested eucalyptus poles with hand woven twine. Her live fencing was made up of Euphorbia tirucallii interspersed with Aloe ferox . When we assessed her fence, we were impressed, but struck by how poor her soil was, and how steep her plot is. Having exceeded our expectations with a 20x20m fence – her place on the course was secure.

8. Here are some of the other innovative fences that made the grade – from beaten oil drums, bed springs, gum poles, and bamboo.

9. With selection of some seriously dedicated gardeners complete - training could begin at the simple garden and training site at Vusumnotfo, which continues to evolve.

11. Analysing soils Microbial activity & moisture retention

12. Making water harvesting equipment from available materials

13. Companions & Rotation

14. Seed Saving & Propagation

15. Learning to add value to produce – and making simple drying racks

16. Over the course of training, the demonstration garden and training centre has also come on in leaps and bounds, thanks in so small part to the practical training. Building the nursery, live fencing, learning about and digging swales, composting and soil improvement, and mulching the project garden.

17. After training they return home to practice what they have learned, where our local training team visit them and provide monthly on-the-spot advice. Tholina’s mulched garden visited by trainers James and Sam from Vusumnotfo, and Sam and Bongi from Guba.

18. Here’s a sample of how some of them got on in their own gardens. Thoko Ngwena’s fenceline before and after. And with one of her grandchildren harvesting from the garden.

19. Thabsile Mkhonta in front of her newly constructed fence. And the view now, from within her shady food forest.

20. Ntombi Vilane – having made her fenceline, which is now, quite literally, bursting.

21. Ncobile Mkhonta – having just made her fence out of reclaimed items, and later looking justifiably pleased with herself. Her grandchildren also love the garden.

22. At the same time as creating her garden, Norah Siphiwe was also building this house single-handedly, from which she can now harvest water for her seedlings.

23. Gladys Ceko demonstrates the value of good mulching practice. Here she is with her grandson in the centre of the same spiral only one year later.

24. Another champion mulcher, Tholina has ambitions to propagate and sell Moringa trees – which are a valuable nutritional supplement. Moringa has three times more iron than spinach, as much protein as eggs, and 7 times more vitamin C than in oranges. This fast growing, drought tolerant tree can make an enormous difference to a family’s health and livelihood.

25. But not all of our budding gardeners are women. The men have also really taken us by surprise.

26. Patrick took to cooking and jam making in a big way.

27. Despite being sick for a good part of the course, Sonyboy has created a garden and impenetrable fenceline - by combining Canna striata - that would be the envy of any gardener.

28. Sam has revealed a passion for edibles and ornamentals

29. And young Vusi has kept us all entertained, and has turned into perhaps the most fastidiously neat gardener of all. Combining the ages has been a vitally important part of sharing skills and knowledge between generations.

30. So what of Lizzie? Having worked tirelessly on her heavily sloped plot, Lizzie was producing a wide range of produce for her many grandchildren. But in December fire swept up the steep valley and destroyed her garden. In March when we visited, we expected to see a broken and defeated Lizzie. So what did we find?

31. As always she was working non-stop, harvesting all range of produce on her steep slope - including sugar cane, maize, pumpkins, chillis, sweet potato, ground nuts, beans and these delicious African cucumbers ( Cucumis metuliferus ).

32. And her time discussing and sharing with the others during training has provided her with valuable skills. While laughter and singing has offered much needed respite.

33. So who else do these gardens benefit? With our gardeners keen to share their newfound skills and confidence, garden open days attract lots of attention. People come to learn about how to produce food sustainably, without depending on expensive chemical inputs or hybrid seed. And school children are brought by their agriculture teachers.

34. Child headed households learn to provide for their siblings

35. Grandchildren can escape from the heat and dust, to eat from the garden

38. Every year another 25 gardeners graduate – continuing to share what they have, and what they have learned with others. After their intensive training we visit them every six months to see how they’re doing.

39. Thanks to you, GardenAfrica’s last Radio 4 Appeal in 2007 allowed us to select these incredible people and to begin this training. Now, with your help again, and for only £20, we can take Lizzie and her newfound gardening friends on to the next stage. Learning to store and save their excess, to sell out of season, they will receive a better price for it. Supported by small business skills training, they will be able to save enough money to send their children and grandchildren to school. Many of them for the first time.

40. We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Lizzie and her fellow gardeners as much as we have. Thank You.