Miracle in a box

Take one entrepreneurial teen, add water – and seed, some newspaper and a whole lot of inspiration. The result? Reel Gardening seed tape, a gardening revolution.

A bright pink sign hangs outside

Claire Reid’s office, bearing a quote from Robert Brault: ‘Why try explaining miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.’

It’s a philosophy she subscribes to wholeheartedly. As the brains behind Reel Gardening, she’s seen first-hand that planting can teach you about food production, health, mental wellness, body image and a connection with the earth – so it’s not surprising that her heart rejoices when her four-year-old son, Connor, runs to check his latest harvest as soon as he’s home from school.

This is very different from her own childhood where, she says, her own garden was ‘lush, but not loved’. What her parents lacked in green fingers, however, they made up for in entrepreneurial insight. ‘My parents believed that if you wanted pocket money, you had to earn it – but not by doing the usual chores, which should be taken care of anyway. You had to do something that would add value.’ Consequently, by the time she was 15. Claire had developed rather enviable acumen – which was when she had the idea for Reel Gardening. It was at the time when organic food first became a buzz word, she recalls. ‘My parents told me they’d buy all my produce, if I started a food garden,’ she says. Having learnt the importance of managing input costs from her past endeavors, she set out to measure the available space, then went to the nursery – where the sheer variety and inscrutability of the seed section left her stymied. ‘I didn’t understand anything. Which variety would be best for my little urban garden? Which would grow fastest? What was the difference between a Floradade tomato and a Roma?’ Nor did the assistant provide much help – she seemed to think that as a packet of seeds cost only R10, it didn’t really matter how many germinated.

Overwhelmed but determined, Claire started by marking spaces of one centimetre on her fingers, so she would know where each seed should be planted. But her attempt was a disaster. ‘Seeds stuck to my fingers, rather than the soil. Disheartened, I asked our helper, Meggie, for advice.’ Claire was astounded to find that the usually supportive Meggie had no wise words for her this time, because she’d met with her own crop catastrophes when trying to start a food garden at her home in Rustenburg.

For Meggie, the stakes had been higher, though – with no running water at her house, she’d carried a full five litre bucket to her homestead every day, patiently sprinkling the crops with water that could otherwise be used for cooking or washing. She was overjoyed when it looked as if the first seeds had sprouted – only to eventually discover the plants she’d so carefully tended with such dearly husbanded resources, were weeds. ‘That got me thinking – imagine if there were a way to place seeds the correct distance apart and to tell which seeds were germinating so you didn’t waste water on those that weren’t,’ Claire says. She experimented with placing seeds inside strips of newspaper – and the system worked so well that first Meggie’s neighbours, then her mother’s book club friends, demanded some of her ‘tape’.

When Claire entered this first iteration of Reel Gardening into the Eskom

Expo, it did more than win the SA Youth Water Prize – it also brought her to the attention of then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils, who asked if he could partner her with a University of Pretoria professor to see how the seeded tape could save water. When tests showed a water saving of up to 80 per cent in the germination phase, Claire was invited to take her innovation to Stockholm, where she beat a host of university students and became the first African to win the Stockholm Junior Prize in Water Week.

‘I was incredibly excited.

This was a simple idea that had massive potential. Gardening had taught me how much goes into food production, and I realised if other people knew this, they’d be less likely to throw away a vegetable just because it has a black spot on it. I thought this could be a real solution for people like Meggie, who’d be able to ease their overstretched budgets if they could grow their own food,’ Claire says. Even so, the idea of setting up a formal business was parked while Claire pursued her studies in architecture which, although not directly related to her would-be venture, taught her valuable lessons in systems thinking, which she maintains is essential for sound business practice. While she was working as an intern on an Anglo American mine housing project, Claire revived the idea – and the company was sufficiently impressed to offer her a loan from the Anglo American Zimele Small Business Fund to get started.

So it was that Claire and Sean, her husband, found themselves researching everything from paper to glue and seeds, finding the very best in each category to create Reel Gardening. Today, it’s a product highly sought after by corporates looking for

creative gifts or marketing solutions, which enjoys a strong retail presence. It’s the company’s ongoing focus on CSI (Corporate Social Investment)

Claire finds most thrilling, though.

With every sale, the company donates a portion of seed tape to an underprivileged school, and Claire is hoping to see these communities partnered with more affluent schools to deepen its impact further still through the company’s Learn&Grow Kit.

She’s immensely proud of what’s been achieved to date. Reel Gardening has been used by nearly 4000 school and community gardens, improving the food security of more than 1.2 million people and saving more than 17 million litres of water . . . ‘and we’ve had lots of fun along the way.’

Claire is also focusing on people who, typically, don’t see themselves as gardeners. Her goal is to help them understand the wonder of a pastime that’s so much more than a hobby. What’s next? ‘We can’t reveal our next project just yet – but it’s a big one, which will see us employing more than 100 people and link us to the international market. We’re about to enter a significant growth phase.’ Details: reelgardening.co.za

Good news for gardeners

Seed tape is a more efficient form of gardening than traditional seed because: • There’s no guesswork – your seeds are placed at the exact depth and distance apart needed.

• There’s no wastage – because the tape is clearly demarcated, you know where each seed will sprout. Plus, birds can’t get at the seed.

• It benefits the community and the environment – the paper (which is locally made and thus creates employment opportunities) enriches the soil with nutrients as it biodegrades.