The Mazibuko Trench Garden

Today’s program is about the value of local wisdom. In your community there is local wisdom about farming, about medicine – and about many other things. This wisdom is often passed on to us to by elders. As this story shows, local wisdom is important because it can provide solutions to local problems.

Today’s program is about a useful soil and water conservation technique for gardeners. We hope you enjoy it.

FADE OUT MUSIC.

Robert Mazibuko lived in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in a place called KwaZulu in South Africa. To picture the Valley of a Thousand Hills you must think of a place far from the sea, where the hills are steep and the soil is hard. It is difficult to grow food and so, in the past, the people were discouraged from farming. When they tried to plant vegetables, the rain washed the soil away or the sun dried up their crops.

The mothers who lived in the Valley of a Thousand Hills did not have enough fresh vegetables to feed their children. Their children were not healthy and strong – instead they were often hungry and sick.

Robert Mazibuko was a man who loved the soil and he also loved people. And he wanted to help the Mamas and their children. One day he called together all the Mamas in the Valley.

He asked them this question:

(as voice of Mazibuko):
Why are your children sick, Mothers of the Valley?

The mothers explained that their children weren’t getting enough food, because the soil was so hard and difficult to plough. The Mamas understood that Mazibuko was a wise man. They asked him how they could soften the hard, dry soil. Mazibuko replied that the soil needed food. They would have to start by gathering food for the soil. And so they did.

The women gathered piles of dead cabbage leaves, carrot tops, potato peels, crumpled paper, cattle dung, chicken droppings, dead leaves – anything to make the soil soft. The women worked together and every day each woman added more organic materials until there was an enormous mountain of food for the soil.

(in voice of Mr. Mazibuko):
Mothers of the Valley, you have gathered this food for the soil. Now you must dig a large hole the length of one Mama and half the length of another Mama and as deep as your one- year-old child.

Mazibuko pointed to one of the Mamas. She put her hand against the side of her knee to show how deep the hole should be. The women chose a piece of ground. They began digging. The soil was hard and the sun was hot but the women dug and dug. When the hole was deep and long enough, they filled it with all the leaves and grass and potato peels and cow dung they had collected. Then they covered it with soil. Some of the Mamas fetched a few buckets of water to make sure that everything was well watered.

(in voice of Mazibuko)
Mothers of the Valley, go and rest. You have worked hard. What you have made is a trench garden. Now we need to let the soil grow soft. Come back in a few weeks to meet me here and we will till the soil. Until then you must all go and dig a trench garden near your homes. Do not make them too big. But make them big enough to grow the vegetables you need for your family.

The women said good-bye and returned to their homes. Each one started to collect cow dung, chicken droppings, leaves, grasses and scraps from the kitchen to feed the soil. All the organic materials they could find. First there were only very small mounds of materials, but each day the mounds grew until they could fill a hole as big as a door.

Several weeks later the women returned to that first hole with Mazibuko. They all gathered around the hole and turned the soil to see what was happening. Do you know what was happening?

Well, I’ll tell you. Big fat worms were crawling everywhere and beetles too. That’s right – and that’s very good. All the food in the trench was attracting insects and worms, and together they were beginning to make the soil soft and full of air and water. When you feed the soil in this way it’s like giving food and water at the same time.

This is the way that the Mamas of the Valley were working together with nature. If the soil received enough food and was well cared for, it would provide enough food for the Mothers of the Valley to feed their children plenty of fresh vegetables. Soon the soil in the trench was ready for planting. Mazibuko suggested the women start planting their beans. He said that the beans would make the soil strong for other food to grow. So the women planted beans.

It was not long before the green shoots of the beans started to sprout. The trenches caught and held the rainwater so the plant roots could grow deep and strong. The women were happy to see the fruits of their labour. They would have fresh vegetables once again to feed to their children.

MUSICAL BREAK(5 seconds)

The idea of trench farming has been used all over the world. To this day the women in the Valley of a Thousand Hills still use this method to grow their own vegetables. It is a very useful method because it builds soil and conserves water. The old man, Mazibuko, is no longer alive, but his memory lives on in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. And we thank him for sharing his knowledge with us. It is good old ideas like this that are passed on to us that we can also pass to our children, so they can be used again and again, now and in the future.