The Village Garden – new community sales point opens near Hikkaduwa

Just north of Hikkaduwa we pull off the road next to a small plot of land being transformed into a community outlet. I step through the gate into a space framed by a traditional wooden house and two greenhouses. The Village Garden in Akurala was developed as a sale centre and service outlet for the Coastal Community Restoration Project (CCRP).

The Village Garden has been established to enable communities to market their produce, contributing towards supporting CCRP beneficiaries in maintaining a sustainable income. It is a nature centre, selling native home garden, medicinal and ornamental plants, organic compost, pots, and value-added products such as juices and straw products. This is a unique outlet on the coastline of Sri Lanka as other community centres focus on predominantly on handicraft sales.

Amitha, the centre manager, explains each community nursery will provide plants and other products to sell at the outlet. They will include native Sri Lankan trees such as Kaluwera, a high value timber and ornamental plants such as orchids and anthurum. For home gardens, visitors can purchase vegetable plants and herbs such as mint, chilli, lemongrass and basil.

Traditional medicinal plants are also available, not only providing an income, but also keeping alive generations of knowledge on the medicinal properties of native species. For example, I discovered that Gal Demata (Impatiens repens) can be combined with other herbs and placed on the skin to help heal broken bones and sprains.

We sat on the spacious house terrace which overhangs a small wetland. I can see egrets and herons wading through the reeds and the occasional jumping fish. As part of the CCRP’s commitment to ecosystem restoration the centre staff are protecting and maintaining this area to encourage wetland habitat for birds, fish and insects. The house itself has been designed on stilts to protect it from flooding. Amitha explains she plans serve refreshments to visitors in this calm space, including the traditional health-giving Kirala juice.

A cool breeze passes through as RRI staff describe how the centre is managed by the Cooperation of Organic Producers and Environmental Restoration Societies (COPERS). Each community CBO voted two representatives each onto the board, who have agreed a number of guiding principles for the centre operation to support the business sustainability.

I can see the The Village Garden offers communities to get their products to market, and develop future opportunities such as using the site for a training venue and eco tourism focal point. So next time you are on the Galle road, look out for The Village Garden and stop by to browse the plants and garden products, or revive yourself with a health-giving refreshment, in the calm spot of a restored wetland.

Office garden

RRI staff rolled up their sleeves, hitched up their sari's and divided into teams to turn the back yard of the office into a fertile vegetable garden. In only a few hours each group had marked out the beds, dug over the soil, added compost and come up with a variety of inventive ways to irrigate and shade the beds.

All the construction materials used were recycled from waste that has been taking up space behind the office. A broken wheelbarrow was turned into a raised bed, old tyres were transformed into plant pots, broken bricks defined the bed edges and coir netting was strung up to provide shade.

The beds are being watered in even more creative ways. On one bed, bamboo was laid across the centre with strategic holes cut into the side. The water can be poured into the centre and then drains out the holes to evenly spread through the bed. Other irrigation methods include making holes in the bottom of old clay pots and plastic bottles. When filled with water they slowly release moisture through the bottom where the holes are. And one bed just had a pot of water with string trailing out across the earth. The rope draws the water from the pot and releases it into the soil bit by bit.

We planted kangkung, radish, bitter gourd, tomatoes, chillies, okra, cabbage and spinach.

Pests are controlled organically by spraying the plants with a mixture of Neem oil, water and soap.

Now we need to water, weed, add compost every two weeks and wait for our first crop.