Mveledzandhivo Community Project.

We must tell you about Mveledzandhivo.
This is not just another school community project with a vegetable patch. This is a place where people get together to learn. The potential these people have, working hard to create a food secure future for themselves is inspiring to say the least. When you are growing up in a place where most people are poor the difference that a properly run healthy organic farm makes to rour life is inestimable. Follow the link (Just click on the name:Mveledzandhivo) to see a full story about how Positive Cycle got a chance to share knowledge and help to build with a community. This kind of farming is realistically the future of much of Africa. There isn't money available to keep correcting the damage done by industrial agriculture, and other commercial concerns. Community Project funding.

Visiting Pretty's Garden.

Positive Cycle paid a visit to a garden in Gauteng, in a 'previously disadvantaged community' being run by a delightful lady named Pretty. It's a fulfilling thing to do, being involved in such an ethical endeavour. We were very proud to be able to assist Pretty with some seeds and seedlings (particularly jalapenos as we have plenty of those at the moment) and also with a little know how and advice. Compost is going to be particularly helpful to Pretty as making it herself is ultimately going to save money. So will the companion planting and square foot planting advice Pretty got from Positive Cycle. These techniques dramatically increase yields (amounts of crops) and also soil health which again limits the yearly expense of augmenting her soil. Positive Cycle feels strongly about the benefits South Africans can reap by working on our economy where it really counts. Helping poor people to grow food and establish income from the crops they grow. That's why we go out to whatever schools and communities we can gain access to in order to help people understand the basics of both successful economics and healthy environmental practises. Seeing the difference good agricultural advice can bring to a community in terms of health and nutrition, psychological well being and economic prosperity is what it is all about for us at Positive Cycle.

Bio dynamic gardening lessons improve one's quality of life in so many ways you'll think you've had a spiritual experience. Except it's totally practical and hands on. Learning how to grow food and other useful plants in a proper environment, a formal gardening class where the instructor knows what to say and the information makes sense and works when you try it out on your own in your garden at home. Most of the reason so many people get started on a vegetable garden at some point in their lives and give up on it before too long is that without a bit of real world knowledge about how to prepare soil, feed plants, water correctly etc it's going to be a difficult skill to learn. Indeed some say gardening is an art. I am one of those and so were the previous two generations of my family. Come with me on a journey into good health, good food and beautiful surroundings by attending a Positive Cycle gardening class.

Food Growing Training Course.

It has been a little while since we I last touched base here so let me tell you what has been going on at the Positive Cycle garden. Our sponsored efforts to teach and develop gardens and gardeners in areas like Hammanskraal and Lesabe around Gauteng province have borne fruit (literally and figuratively) and those projects are taking off now thanks to some enthusiastic learners and all of the beautiful plants they have been growing. As a result of this Positive Cycle, while still operating an edible gardening service, is now mainly occupied with teaching people from all walks of life how to grow food. Learning vegetable gardening and 'bio dynamic growing' in the Positive Cycle garden has become popular with the locals in Auckland Park as well as with many visitors from further afield who come to find out how to creat this simple, healthy life for themselves. It's wonderful to see people progress as gardeners after attending a garden workshop and learning how to prepare soil, make anti pest solutions from the material in the garden and many other great techniques to turn your veggie patch into a wonderland that feeds the whole family. Teaching organic planting and growing methods is one of Positive Cycle's key areas of focus and we are glad of the opportunity to contribute to agricultural education in South Africa.

Organic Fertilisers and why they make sense.

Fertilisers for the garden. The 'organic method' has become popular.
Entirely organic fertilisers are preferable to chemical fertilisers, which tend to offer partial and impermanent results when compared to a consistent and careful application of the organic gardener's knowledge of how to make and apply fertilser.

'Chemical soup' is undesirable because it is difficult to predict the chemical cocktails that are produced when we introduce synthesized and or extracted chemical additives to our living soil.

The idea of 'living soil' is important since the action of a fertiliser is dependent on these little guys.Microbes, and particular microbes with particular interactions with each other and the surrounding soil are important to the processes that make nutrients available to plant roots.

The twist in the tale comes in when we realise that many purportedly organic fertiliser products may be organically based but they contain a chemical additive. This doesn't help. What one is working with are living organisms and dousing them in the compounds we think they need rather than creating the conditions in which the natural chemical reactions of life takes place is the only real way to achieve balance in your soil.
The quick fix offered by certain chemical recipes is an illusion and if you fall for it you will find yourself constantly amending your soil as it just gets weaker and weaker. Organic gardening and farmng is all about helping natural processes to achieve their most productive balance.

Organic Gardening Service

Gro4u is Positive Cycle's action team. An organic gardening service. We come out to your home and assess your soil, conducting a thorough soil analysis, after which we prepare bds accordingly and plant and maintain an organic vegetable garden second to none. We plant herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries. Transforming your garden into a wonderland of culinary delights.
We like to imagine ourselves as ' the gourmet gardeners'. We also take pride in the appearance and designer garden appeal of our garden installations. It's very satisfying to make an out door space not only beautiful but productive too.

Organic Farming.

Organic Farming Workshops.
In recent years many people have begun to realise the value of growing food. Particularly organic farming methods as it has now been quite clearly established that organic yields are superior to monoculture yields. Provided you have the knowledge of what to do, this way of growing food is now the direction of the future. A great deal of work has been done toward recovering the enormous knowledge base that was so badly damaged by the advent of industrial agriculture and chemical fertilisers in the early part of the last century. Positive Cycle is proud to be able to contribute to the recovery of this essential life supporting knowledge and offers organic farming workshops at the Positive Cycle garden in Auckland Park Johannesburg.

Learning Old Ways.
Much of the knowledge of how to grow food organically has been recovered by organisations like Positive Cycle in a process of trial and error. Enough time has now been spent on this endeavour that all over the world it is now becoming possible to roll out organic farming workshops where learners have an unprecedented opportunity to learn what really works. We have made progress in leaps and bounds and are ready to share what has been learnt.

Vegetable gardening classes.

Gardening Workshops.
Positive Cycle is proudly hosting a very comprehensive set of vegetable gardening workshops. The classes run from 09h00 on Saturdays at the Positive Cycle Garden in Auckland Park, Johannesburg and end at around 15h00. An organic and sustainable method of growing your own food is taught and it is well worth it. During the day a delicious lunch is served made from the ingredients learners are being shown how to grow.

It's a fun day out and you can really learn a lot. Positive Cycle is inspired by the idea of getting people growing. In more ways than one. Growing plants can be a tremendously self affirming activity. It's a serious class though. Real permacultural principles that have been tried and tested are used. Get in touch with Positive Cycle and see if you have a green thumb too!

The Positive Cycle Garden.

The joys of a well established and thriving food garden cannot be overstated. 

It revolutionises your lifestyle and puts you in a position to take charge of your health. 

Not only that but it is also so very restful to spend time in a thriving garden full of plants absorbing the sunlight and producing fresh food. Daily.

 It is nothing other than a habit to keep on going to the shops to buy food. Even if you don't have the time to prepare beds and set up organic recycling systems like compost heaps it is quite possible to find someone else to do it for you. Just think, how much of your food budget goes on produce? Vegetables and fruits, the most important part of a healthy diet can be grown in your own garden, better than they can on a farm. it is simply a question of know how.

 Positive Cycle operates a service called Gro4U.
An expert comes out to your place and assesses your garden before proposing a design for you. The design will be accompanied by a maintenance plan which can include instructing your own staff in the art of caring for a food garden.

Don't be mistaken, food gardens look very attractive too. Any visitor to the Positive Cycle garden in Auckland Park in Johannesburg can see for themselves how food plants and herbs can be used in conjunction with ornamentals and indigenous plants to create a wonderland of delights with a fully functioning ecological balance of its own. Gardening is no longer a hobby. Vegetable gardening has become an important part of many people's lives.

growing raspberries

Raspberries make a delicious cooling sweet on a hot day or even a fantastic addition to a salad.

Growing raspberries is one of the more rewarding gardening tasks. Basic soil preparation, plenty of sunlight and a years worth of patience at the least but what a lovely thing to have. 

You must provide something for the raspberry plant to climb on as it grows.

Organic Gardening Service

Getting Gardening done right
An organic gardening service is what the busy urbanite needs in order to get green and enjoy fresh organic foods. It's the answer at last. Forget buying questionable organic vegetables from chain stores, talk to Gro4U about having your own bio diverse and delicious garden installed and maintained.

Health
The benefits to health and general well being cannot be underestimated and with Gro4U experts making sure everything is done right you will be blessed with a beautiful and edible garden. Herbs, fruit and vegetables really are the most effective preventative medicine and you could have them in your back garden.


Gourmet gardens.
With enough variety, you can make dinners that will make your neighbours jealous. When you hear, 'organic gardening' don't think of two carrots and some beans. The full range is impressive and tasty. Why not grow your own chilli plants? Or herbs. Or peppers. Chives are good. I'm going to stop now because the list of what you can grow when you use the Gro4U organic gardening service is practically infinite. See for yourself at  http://sites.google.com/site/growyofood/

A vegetable gardening service.

Ideally, a vegetable gardening service consists of more than just workers to give tasks to in your garden. What one really wants is expertise and willingness because the people growing your plants and taking care of your vegetables and analysing your soil and usng environmentally sensitive, non harmful pest control methods are doing so doing so because they love it.

Time is limited these days and this is why some are opting for a service to help them grow organic vegetables and get a handle on the green way to live. Which it is now obvious is the right way togo about things. Why pay big money for organic vegetables shipped thousands of miles when you could pay less for thesame or better, professionally grown for you on your own land?
Take a look at Positive Cycle and what they do. http://sites.google.com/site/growyofood/

The very best vegetable gardening service.

The very best vegetable gardening service. That's what I think we have become.
No one else does the organic bit quite as thoroughly as we do.
The gardens the GRO4U team does really produce and with our routine reports you know exatly what is happening in your garden.
All things considered I'm proud of us, the Positive Cycle vision of a city full of not only food producing but also attractive and bio diverse gardens is quickly becoming a reality. New clients who really want the health and lifestyle benefits of organic vegetable gardens call every week now.
If you or anyone you know wants to start an organic garden, take a look at this site, http://sites.google.com/site/growyofood/home/garden-maintenance
We're a vegetable garden service.