Production of Edibles and Use of Garden Waste in Domestic Gardens of a Middle-Class Suburb in Cape Town, South Africa

ABSTRACT

An under-investigated impact of urbanisation is the decrease in green spaces like domestic gardens, which does not bode well for urban sustainability. To this end, research was conducted in a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa to ascertain the degree to which residents use their garden spaces for the cultivation of edibles and to establish their management practices regarding garden waste. A mixed-methods approach determined that potential gardening space occupied, on average, about two-thirds of the area of residential plots. However, the 129 selected respondents were cultivating lawns, not food. Where the cultivation of edibles did occur, it was predominantly fruit with minimal vegetable production. The residents of the middle-class suburb had a penchant for using private gardening services who disposed of the garden waste elsewhere. Some home-composting activities were recorded. A municipal-driven composting programme will provide the impetus for increasing the rate of home composting. The study established that food production in the middle-class suburb has the potential to contribute to sustainable urban green spaces through increased home-garden cultivation. However, on-site techniques of disposing with garden waste must be promoted.

KEYWORDS:

• Cape Town
• composting
• edibles
• gardens
• garden waste
• food production
• suburban

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Comprising kitchen and garden waste.

2. Based on the number of erven (residential plots) in the study area (246), along with a confidence level of 95% and error margin of 6%, a sample size of 129 householders was calculated.

3. The RAND function of Microsoft Excel was used to randomly select plot numbers.

4. Fruits grown by less than 10% of the fruit-growing respondents are (in descending order by percentage): tangerines (known locally as naartjies), peaches, pomegranates, bananas, pears, quinces, grapefruit, oranges, mangoes, grapes, papaya, apricots, tomatoes, limes, mulberries, prickly pears, almonds, chillies, gooseberries, custard apples, and kumquats.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anjali Mistry

Anjali Mistry is a post-graduate student with an interest in urban sustainability issues.

Manfred Spocter

Manfred Spocter is a senior lecturer whose research interests include suburban geographies of the post-apartheid city and small-town geographies.