GARDENING Five friends grow green

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1 Collecting resources: In permaculture everything is a resource. The friends save their coffee grounds (source of nitrogen), egg shells (calcium) and banana peels (potassium) to make a rich fertilising tea to dress the garden beds. 2 Garden view: The first-year layout in 2018, observing the plot to see what would be best plan for the garden 3 Reusing: They use recycled water bottles – they cut the top off to form a dome – to keep seedlings warm during the winter frosts, creating a “greenhouse” around every individual seedling, rather than having the expense of building a big greenhouse. F IVE YEARS ago, Ester Kruger went on a career development course and was brought up short by the question: What would be your best life?

The answer came to her in an instant – to live sustainably, off the grid, with a community of friends.

She had the friends already – people she had met while studying at Stellenbosch University’s Military Academy in Saldanha – and they were of like mind. Because they were in the Western Cape, she sold her home in Pretoria, and used the money to buy a 3 200m² plot in Hopefield, near Saldanha Bay, land once owned by the town’s founding fathers, a Mr Hope and a Mr Field.

Now Esther shares her home with four friends, a sheep, a handful of rescue dogs and cats and some chickens. And while only the five, ranging in age from 42 to 52, live in the Hopefield Homestead, they are part of a broader group of Hopefield residents who share their vision.

At the centre of the Hopefield Homestead project is a permaculture garden – what they intend to become a food forest – “a multi-layered, purposefully designed forest of food producing species”.

The friends say: “The idea is the diversity of plants creates a healthy, abundant and harmonious ecosystem in which pollinators, birds, tortoises and other creatures can also thrive.

“Food forests need a clear initial design strategy and work

to become established, but as they mature over time, they require less maintenance as they become more self-sustaining.”

But the project has not been without challenges. Hopefield is in an arid part of the West Coast. Their land is short of water, has dry and compacted soil, virtually no topsoil, consists of a hot, sloping, west-facing site, exposed to both summer and winter winds, and has few trees.

But Lizana de Jongh, who is the garden fundi and has worked on a permaculture farm in New Zealand, has the vision and the tools to get the garden growing.

The group are collecting rainwater and using grey water, have laid down sheet mulching, are creating their own compost, cultivating worm farms, erecting windbreaks and contouring the slope.

Their gardening policies include no digging and no weeding; the planting of perennials and water-wise flora; natural pest control and an effort to plant to attract pollinators and other wildlife.

Their plants include soft-fruit trees; nut trees; citrus; aloes and succulents; culinary and medicinal herbs as well as berries, veggies and vines.

Apart from supplying their own needs, they will sell their produce to the popular Hopefield Market which is run by De Jongh.

The garden is a huge part of the project, but Kruger,

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4 Plants are chosen plants specifically to bring wildlife and birds to the garden. “Wilde dagga”, or lion’s ears, are planted throughout the garden, as it is a great source of nectar and attracts beautiful sunbirds. 5 A forest garden forms a complete ecosystem, and within this system, the friends bring wildlife back to their garden, landscape with edibles and use a perennial plant system that self-seeds and creates abundance year after year. 6 As the soil is compacted clay, they take great care to plant our trees correctly. They purchase them at 3 years old to ensure a stronger root system to survive the harshness of the soil and Hopefield summers. They prepare the holes with homemade compost and bone meal and cover with mulch to help with moisture control.

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1 Part of the grey water system with filtering by sand and reeds. 2 Ester Kruger enjoying the Hopefield sunset at their firepit in the garden. 3 Wollie saying ‘hi’, eating his favourite snack. who has a Master’s degree in industrial psychology, is more interested in what she refers to as “the social experiment”.

“The five of us – and our friends beyond in the wider community of Hopefield – all have a similar philosophy. We believe in collaborative consumption, we grow, we share food and skills, we barter. Leon van Rensburg’s the baker and maintenance man; Ron Moller is the nature enthusiast, bird watcher and photographer and Jazz van Zyl has a magical understanding of our animals and also works in the garden.” Word of their experiment has spread and they frequently have visitors, some local and some from abroad, including Mexico and Israel, who come to watch and learn.

Their shared vision is to embrace a permaculture way of life, to build their sustainable food forest and to minimise their environmental impact by switching to renewable resources.

Their power set-up includes 12 solar panels and four specialised batteries connected to an inverter. They cook on gas and are installing gas geysers too. Says Kruger: “We are very conscious of our power usage in general. The key for me is we have chosen a different way of living. The world has changed and we need to reset how we live. We need to collaboratively; create value. I am concerned about the future and climate change and it seems to me that, if you share these concerns, then there are two ways to go: to isolate, stockpile food and withdraw or you can build communities and resilience.

“And I’d rather build communities than isolate. We hope to grow old together – we’re five years into what is at least a 20-year project.”