Susan Law and Margery Povall visited Lotus Gardens in March. Reports on the food garden had not been positive. There had been great heat and little rain which had affected the crops. Some volunteers had got discouraged by lack of crops. Others found it difficult to work in the heat, coming only in the early morning.

Both the first and the second gardens had some crops. But the abundant spinach seen in March of the previous year was replaced by miserable stunted looking plants.

In an effort to revitalise the project a meeting was held with the volunteers, school staff, a school governor and John Nzira of Ukuvuna. The meeting was a great morale booster, particularly appreciated by the volunteers.

The volunteers seemed to understand that the future of the project really was in their hands. But sadly, promises of such things as regular monthly meetings of the principal with their committee did not happen. And an extremely cold winter in the coming months [even with frost] did not help.

However the garden continues and is producing well at the moment. There are at least six volunteers [some of them the original ones] still working. They have decided to save any money raised for distribution amongst themselves at Christmas, and are learning what crops sell best in the community. In August they managed to raise about £7 as the crops recovered. And last week harvested 18 bunches of spinach.

With John Nzira of Ukuvuna's help they have learned how to mulch and to increase their composting, and also to save and propagate their own seeds.

With a new dynamic deputy head in the school it is hoped that some pupils in the key teacher Leah Moseneke's class will now be getting involved in the garden. The school is entering the Department of Agriculture's National Greening and food security competition.

As Thatu's promised support finishes we have learned useful lessons from the experience. The school lacked direction when the entrepreneurial head resigned as the project started. The pupils were hardly involved in the garden. The number of volunteers never reached the expected total. There was insufficient consistent coaching, training and guidance, and perhaps overoptimistic hopes of employment from participation in the project so that many of the original volunteers didnt continue.

However a determined and hard core of volunteers has continued, and is working consistently, and is learning about self management and marketing both essential for such a project to be sustainable.