Katy Caldis from Abundantly Urban Permaculture and little farm in Rondebosch, Cape Town

Tell us a little about yourself!

I grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe with a large and loving Greek family that included lots of cousins, aunts and uncles and much celebration, food, game playing and fun. In 1987 I came to study at UCT, fell in love with Mano and Cape Town and have never left. I got married straight out of varsity and when we moved into our first house with a garden in early 90’s I did an organic gardening course with France Muhl in Noordhoek which opened a whole new world for me. Decades later the magical joy of seeing a seed germinate or harvesting something to eat straight from the garden just never gets stale.

A backpacking tour around the world, three kids, and a career as a health actuary and executive later and I found my way back to the soil. 2018 was a water shed year for me and the start of so many projects. I started studying permaculture intently and as Cape Town approached day zero we converted our pool into an eco-pool, installed a battery of rainwater tanks and most importantly lifted our tennis court to plant a food forest or at least start the process of soil regeneration.

The most surprising learning has been the connection with our neighbourhood that has developed since we started our garden projects. We already have quite a large community in the house with my parents living with us since 2002. My sister and her family are very close to us as well as the rest of our extended family and friends. So, a kind of happy chaos prevails in our household.

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

2018 was the year that I was turning 50 and I guess I was thinking a lot about what kind of future life I would like to lead. I was really concerned about being resilient in the face of climate change and the potential collapse of our economic and governance systems. I was also interested in becoming less dependent on earning money to live a fulfilling life in harmony with the ecosystem. I'd experienced multiple burnouts in my job, so I was seeking inner and outer harmony, abundance and health. I found permaculture to be an inspiring, positive and hopeful area of study. Permaculture is often only thought of as an ecological design tool, but the principles can be applied to creating holistic solutions in any complex system. I really like that from a permaculture perspective humans are seen as a potential force for good and not just a destructive force on the planet. It really is about thinking carefully about the design and the desired outcomes.

Jacqueline Edmiston (Inspire Permaculture) gave us the idea of building the soil by using banana circles. This was so we could get a yield of bananas and banana plants whilst building up the beach sand we discovered under the tennis court into soil full of organic matter. In the process she introduced us to Tendai Mandirawe who is my partner in crime in the garden.

Tendai gets to implement all our designs whilst I am stuck behind my laptop in my corporate job. Although of course if I am honest, he is way more efficient and capable than I, but I am still hoping to get more practically fit and strong enough. I was enticed to consider aquaponics by Martin Fick of Practical Aquaponics who was following my journey on Instagram. So Tendai and I took an aquaponics course and in December 2023 our mini commercial aquaponics system went live. We can now really call ourselves an urban farm.

We have designed our fruit tree plantings into an agroforestry zone and have kept a portion of mixed fruit trees and annual veggies, complemented by our chicken coop, worm farms and as well as our highly productive, if attention-seeking, aquaponics system. We now sell vegetables, chilli oil and pesto to our neighbours. My vision was to be able to provide hyper-local organic produce. We are also grateful to supply some supportive restaurants in the area and are looking to expand this offering.

What are you most proud of in this process? 

That our home and garden have been transformed into a beautiful and diverse oasis full of life. It feels like you are on a farm and in nature and I am quite at peace to just stay at home. And of course, our delicious bananas which have caused the neighbourhood to call us “the banana house.”

Over time I have become a lot more observant and connected to life around me and that is something else that’s important to honour and be proud of. I have learnt to observe more and do less. People always say slow, small solutions are better than grand designs and I get so much joy when after observing a situation for a while you suddenly see a refinement that will solve whatever challenge you are facing. Often it is just a minor adjustment with a significant impact. Nature is the expert, and we are the observers in our own little microclimate so what works somewhere else will not necessarily work the same way in your space.

What is the most helpful piece of advice you received when you were just starting out? 

Focus on the soil. If it’s too sandy you need to add organic matter. If there’s too much clay you need to add more organic matter. If it’s not retaining moisture, you should add organic matter. So, I didn’t focus too much on the technical details, and I just kept adding organic matter and trusted that nature would do the rest.

We added a great diversity of organic material to the garden, inviting every tree feller, landscaper and all the neighbours to dump their organic waste in our garden. We have indeed created soil out of that white sand and ended up meeting and connecting with our neighbours in the process.

What advice would you like to give to others who are younger/earlier on their journey? 

Start with zone 00 i.e. yourself. Take time to understand your own needs, and how best to meet them. The metaphor of focussing on the soil also works for us personally and establishing a good self-care routine and rhythm is fundamental to being able to enjoy your life and work and be sustainable and resilient in and of yourself.

By observing nature more closely we can see how to do less and achieve more - breaking the cycle of busy-ness that is so much part of modern life. I highly recommend following the rhythms of the seasons and using the lunar cycle to plan planting and maintenance work. i.e. new moon for leafy crops, the next week for fruiting crops, full moon for perennials and root crops and the last week for maintenance jobs and rest. This enables you to work in a structured, calm and patient way and simplifies your planning work. It may also help the plants to grow better.

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

Consumers are becoming more discerning, and many people are interested in growing their own food and I really hope that this will result in more local food production on a smaller scale.

There is a growing appreciation for the nutritional density, taste and quality of organic fresh produce. The fact that your health is directly affected by the food you eat is finally firmly established as a fact amongst most people and this naturally leads to more questioning of where the food comes from.

This supports the drive towards more small-scale local production which is exactly what we need to solve multiple crises. Small local food production supports the local economy, reduces the food miles which is good for our communities, our health and climate change. It hopefully means more heirloom and non-GMO produce, less pesticides and fertilizers and more soil regeneration and in time more perennial and indigenous crops and a greater diversity in our diets.

Awareness of the value of perennial crops that require less effort in the long term to deliver greater nutrient density is also starting to emerge. It is also really encouraging to see growing information on indigenous crops, something that I really want to start focussing on much more.

But big agriculture is big-business and so it will take time, inspiring examples and resilience to encourage everyone to start practicing more regenerative agriculture. I do believe we are moving in the right direction. Who knows perhaps the change in political climate and threat of unexpected tariffs might encourage even large farmers us to focus more on our local markets.