A garden for the elderly

There are three things that no one can do better than a grandma or grandad – growing the perfect garden, baking delicious treats and spoiling their grandkids.

The first one, gardening, is especially important to keep people active in their golden years, and often takes up large parts of their day.

Ethan du Plessis had this very fact in mind when he decided on a charity project to dig his hands into.

Ethan has been with the AfriForum Krugersdorp Neighbourhood Watch since its inception. Years ago he was the AfriForum Youth division’s head coordinator but left the position when he moved to Limpopo. When he returned, the youth group had unfortunately withered away as the main AfriForum division required much more attention from his peers, as he explained.

The decision was reached recently to reinstate the youth group and the search for a leader was under way. Ethan is now in the running for that position and, as part of his bid, needed to start and maintain his own charity project to show that he is up for it.

He approached the Golden Age Village retirement home in Wentworth Park and soon they started an impressive vegetable garden that the residents could be proud of.

“They’ve attempted a garden in the past, but that kind of fell apart. I’m now taking over the garden and want to expand it every month,” Ethan explained.

On Monday, 22 March he and his team started preparing the soil and planting multiple seeds. “I want to grow vegetables like carrots and cabbage that are easy to plant and harvest – basically anything high in vitamins that will be easy for the elderly to harvest if they want to work in the garden.”

The area of the initial garden is about 5m by 5m and an irrigation system connected to the borehole was installed.

“I’ve always had a passion for the youth. Like a garden, the youth will grow into the future. It’s important to plant the seeds now so that they can grow strong.”