Ikhaya “Home" Garden (Ikhaya Kulture Garden)

Ikhaya “Home” Garden (Ikhaya Kulture Garden) is an urban food forest established in 2013 by Xolisa Bangani, an artist who had a vision to showcase gardening as a landscaping art. Based on a plot at Isikhokelo Primary School in Site C, Khayelitsha, the project focuses on promoting and practicing agro-ecology and biodiversity concepts. The garden and space provides the community with the necessary gardening skills and information on healthy living.

Ikhaya Garden serves as an organic food forest with a variety of vegetables being grown including spinach, beetroot, leeks, onion, cabbage, carrots, radishes, herbs, indigenous plants & fruit trees. The space is an educational garden for the youth and community, equipping them with knowledge and skills in urban farming. Ikhaya Garden comprises of 8 members working in the garden and under the leadership of Xolisa have since expanded their activities to include provision of seedlings and compost for household gardens in the community, whilst also establishing a program uniting local organizations focused on social development and urban agriculture to work together and share resources and ideas.

Services offered at Ikhaya Garden include upcycling & environmental awareness: educating on the importance of re-using and recycling material, that would otherwise be discarded as waste; creating & organizing community events. As one of the 10,000 gardens in Africa that are part of the “Slow Food Movement”, the garden hosts Eat-in’s, Disco soup, Funky Food vegetable festivals & events, workshops & food markets such as Impilo Yabantu Market (bringing together the locals with businesses, entrepreneurs, professionals and people in the food industry). Gardening and group motivational activities such as table tennis, hiking and biking excursions for the children.