Avril Isaacs, from Rocklands, won first prize for the Best Container Gardener while Magda Campbell won a Green Hero Award for establishing the Beacon Organic Garden at Beacon School for Learners with Special Educational Needs in Westridge.
Ms Isaacs, who only started gardening earlier this year when she did Soil for Life’s Home Food Gardening course, said she no longer needs to buy vegetables.
“I cook mostly veg and salads every night now. I love salads and my potatoes came out really nice, sweet.”
She says that starting a food garden has benefited everyone in her family, “This garden has made a big change in our lives. It’s a lot less stress.”
Ms Isaacs is very creative and uses all kinds of “waste” as containers – three old toilets in her garden, empty beer bottles to form edges of veggie beds and a collection of the family’s old shoes.
Environmental non-profit organisation Soil for Life is on a mission to change the world one garden at a time. Their Home Food Gardening Programme is helping tackle food insecurity, lifestyle diseases and unemployment, giving people the knowledge, tools and support to grow their own food, even in the most challenging environments.
Since 2002 Soil for Life has trained thousands of people how to create home food gardens, regardless of limited space, experience and money.
“Everyone has the potential to grow nutritious food, whatever resources they have available,” says Pat Featherstone, director and founder of Soil for Life.
Soil for Life’s annual Home Food Gardening Awards recognise the commitment, hard work and creativity of their graduates.
The judges, board member Aziz Jacobs, Pat Featherstone, Prince Nyadimo from Soil for Life and Rhoda Kadalie from Impumelelo Social Innovations Centre, visited each garden before making their final selection.
The winners were announced on November 16 with a celebration at Soil for Life’s demonstration garden and training centre in Constantia.
