Apply open access principles
Garden projects with centralized control and restricted access often fail as the result of political disputes, the loss of a key member or driver of the project, or a lack of funding. At the same time, they establish a politics of access: who can access the resources and how are they shared? We have taken an open-access approach, planting our medicinal gardens on degraded and readily-accessible land. This allows anyone to harvest from the medicinal plants as they require them, either for the treatment of themselves or others, or to sell as a means of supporting their livelihood. There is a certain vulnerability to this approach, considering that the plants can be destroyed by individuals or animals. However, we believe that the potential benefits outweigh the disadvantages of such an approach.
The reasons behind the gardens, and the fact that local people are able and encouraged to use the plants, must be clearly communicated to people in the area. Local people are more likely to use the gardens and do their part to ensure their continued growth and maintenance if they feel a sense of ownership. This sense of ownership can be encouraged by teaching people the value of the various plants as medicines and how to use them. We hope with time that this knowledge becomes locally situated and passed on to future generations.
Even when the gardens are created without fences or boundaries, and are easily accessible by the public, people in the area may still require encouragement or seek permission to utilise the plants. We learned this in the beginning of the project, when neighbours would ask Neville each time before they harvested from the garden. We realised it was important to communicate to people in the area that the garden was theirs to use. This was done through personal communication and signage. We also learned that it is important to reflect on movements and pathways used by people in the area so as to design the garden according to the existing patterns of mobility. One mistake we made was not leaving a pathway between the road and the fence facing the local soccer field. Children ran through the garden to watch the soccer games happening on the other side of the fence, partially destroying the plants in their path.