News

Thus far we raised £400.- already for the Kumari pre-school renovation. That is 50% of the total needed to give these children a safe and sound learning environment! We only have one month to go to the deadline. On 15 December the renovation has to start. If we miss the deadline the pre-school will be closed permanently. Help us raise the remainder by giving on our donation page (click here). ...

It has been a number of months since we started our square foot garden project here in the Netherlands. And although we started late in the season, the fruit of our labour is clearly shining upon us. What an amazing sunflowers! The concept of square foot gardening, combined with lessons learned and experience from our friends in Sri Lanka will soon be implemented at one of our projects. Could this amazing concept help lessen the fruit and vegetable shortage that orphans in Sri Lanka experience? We'll have to wait and see. By the end of December the first square foot gardens should be in place. ...

These 5 year olds will soon be forced to find another pre-school, unless you help us save their current school. The nearest pre-school is an 8 kilometres walk and cost double to attend! But their current school is falling apart. Help us save this pre-school for them and generations to come.   Visit the ...

People told me on many occasions that it was a bit too late seeding when I started the square foot garden. Did I listen? No. Plants have grown well, and so have the snails that completely destroyed my radish plants. The sunflowers and pumpkins do exceptionally good and the tomato plants are trailing behind. But the most important thing is that the concept of square foot gardening actually seems to work. The few minutes spend gardening over the past weeks are nothing compared to the time spend in a conventional garden. All I did was remove fallen leaves and pull some weeds out. Hardly ...

Ever wondered how it would be holding a baby turtle? Discover what it feels like and go beyond! Watch turtle eggs hatch, hand-feed baby turtles and release them into the wild ocean on our latest wildlife conservation project in Sri Lanka. Sounds like the right challenge for you? Wait no longer and look up the details on our Working with Sea Turtles page. Dont forget our other exciting volunteer opportunities such as Working with elephants, teaching English, working with orphans and our building projects. ...

Is a square foot actually enough for some of the plants? The pumpkin had to be forced back onto its own sqaure foot today as it tried taking over the radish's and sunflowers' square feet! I started using sticks to help the plants grow and stop them from falling. What flawed design is this that these plants need help standing? All in all the garden is doing really well and I can actually see the first vegetables showing: radish! More news on the square foot gardening project soon! Meanwhile please head to our donation section and help us raise money for the ...

No news on the square foot garden last weekend as I went to London for some LEO Project related activities. However, the square foot garden kept going without me sitting next to it and telling it exciting stories such as 'Jack and the beanstalk' (talk to your plants to make them grow better). My trip to the UK was fruitful, but many things didn't go as planned. Thankfully I did manage to prepare two huge boxes containing a server computer, children toys, stamps and some other handy stuff to be shipped to Sri Lanka....

It was Tuesday 21 July when I decided that something had to be done about the cats. What had happened you might wonder? The cats from around the neighbourhood had discovered a mega litter tray. Yes, our square foot garden! We tried to keep them out by putting many markers in, but that seemed to make it even easier to find this mega litter tray. So when we found four squares destroyed by the cats the very next day we had to take action. We constructed a solid mesh fence protecting the square foot garden, but with holes large enough to put our arms through and maintain the garden....

With only one week past since we put the Square Foot Garden together and already the first vegatable and flowers are coming up. Absolutely amazing how quick this goes. Even the tomatoes are coming up which means I need to start building a frame. In the image below you can see a close up of the sunflowers....

Saturday 11 July was the big day: Square foot garden day! It has been a while since I last used a drill and I’d rather kept it that way as I’m not very comfortable around these things. But there was no escape; the Square Foot Garden had to be build! So, 2 weeks ago I went out to get the wood, the compost, the peat moss, some seeds, a huge shovel, a hammer, nails and material to create the grid. Last week I went to my parents’ place and borrowed my father’s drill and some screws (he won’t be seeing those back). I also ordered the ...