Indigenous plants are part of our South African Heritage. This Heritage month the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in partnership with Duzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust and Project Gateway embarked on an initiative to educate Gateway Christian School grade 4 & 5 learners about the importance of planting indigenous plants and vegetables, and ensure their survival using the companion planting method. They were also taught how to protect their seeds from being blown away by air or washed away with water - by making clay seed bombs. The link for the seed bombs video is in the comments below.
Making clay seed bombs and planting the vegetable in the garden of the school are the activities that learners enjoyed the most. With the companion planting Marigold flowers were used, they support and ensures the survival of other plants (e.g. cabbages and tomatoes). These indigenous plants have medicinal and nutritional value to us. The indigenous plants used for this project were the Cape Ash tree and Spekboom both indigenous to South Africa. Marsha Kalika, Chief Education Officer (Outreach) did a presentation over three sessions with two different grades, at 30 minutes per session. Preserving our indigenous plants is one of the ways can use it to save our natural environment.
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Left-to-right
Ayabonga Hlatshwayo, Aphelele Hlongwa, Marsha Kalika and Aphelele Ngubo after the presentation took a photo carrying plants and vegetables that were later planted in the school’s garden by the learners after the presentation.
#heritagemonth #heritage #kznmuseum #partnerships #spekboom #capeash #planting #environment #gardening #schools #education #indigenous
