A community rooftop garden in Hillbrow grows from unconventional items like old tyres. Nurtured with utmost care, it helps feed marginalised people while serving as an outdoor classroom for those who want to learn.
Hillbrow, South Africa (28 March 2025) — A community rooftop garden based in Hillbrow deserves its flowers. It is certainly not just a pretty spot for the Outreach Foundation team to hang out. Instead, it’s an oasis supporting local NGOs, NPOs and migrant communities with vegetables and food sources, grown with utmost care.
If the feeding element wasn’t enough, it’s also an outdoor classroom. Here, vulnerable people can learn all about urban farming to enrich their lives one seed at a time.
Behind the rooftop garden is Mike Mkhwanazi. Mike might be credited as the garden’s driving force, but he also credits the garden as his.
“This garden has changed my life,” Mike says. “It’s given me a sense of purpose and connected me with my community. I’ve seen firsthand the impact it has on our participants—teaching them valuable skills, promoting healthy eating, providing a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, and educating them on how to plant in their own homes.”
The garden is humble. Much of its produce grows out of unconventional spaces like old tyres, plastic bags and containers. In this way, it has inspired people to realise that you can do a lot with a little.
Two interns who help Mike nurture the garden have learned this first-hand.
In reflecting on her time with the garden, Tshepisho shares that it’s been a transformative experience.
“I used to think gardening was just about planting and watering seed… but it’s so much more than that. It’s about nurturing life, being patient, and trusting the process. It’s taught me valuable lessons about perseverance and responsibility.”
For Annie, the garden has reached into her personal life in a big way. She has applied the skills learned on the rooftop to create her own garden at home; repurposing old tyres, tins and small containers to house and grow vegetables.
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The power of repurposed materials is not lost on Annie. “I was amazed at how easily I could repurpose these materials,” she says. “I’ve planted spinach and herbs in old tyres and used plastic containers to grow tomatoes and peppers. It’s incredible to see how something that would otherwise be thrown away can turn into a productive garden.”
The community rooftop garden is largely a metaphor for the Outreach Foundation’s mission. An organisation that serves as a critical partner in the lives of marginalised people; the garden represents the growth that can come from extra care, being resourceful and seeing something not for what it is, but for what it could be.
The organisation has different programmes to support vulnerable people. There’s Community Outreach where tools and activities are provided to support education initiatives, Skills Development that help beneficiaries create a sustainable life through artisanal skills, beautician skills and green skills, to name a few, and Community Development Services.
Its garden, then, is something of an intersection between the intentions of all the programmes, serving outreach, skill-building and developing communities with the basics in the process.
You can find out more about Outreach Foundation here.
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