“We, the women of the Bekaa, love being productive and cannot stay idle,” says Fayze, a Lebanese widow and mother of five who has recently initiated a “Garden Wall” at her house in the village of Bar Elias, a micro-gardening project implemented by FAO and funded by the OCHA managed Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF).
Garden walls are a proven technique to grow vegetables and herbs vertically, without using any arable land. These walls are made from very cheap and readily available material such as used or discarded plastic crates or walls made from recycled plastic. Each crate can be used to plant two consecutive vegetable crops per year and can be used to grow a wide range of summer and winter vegetables that can be harvested throughout the year.
Fayze’s children are married and one of her sons is unemployed. Her difficult economic situation requires that she works to support her family and earn a living. She used to work in agriculture with her brothers-in-law. However, family problems that arose this year stopped her from continuing her job.
Fayze started planting seeds provided by FAO two months ago, and has been able to start benefiting from the crops throughout Ramadan. “As you know, we have the tradition of preparing fatoush or tabboule for the iftar, and this year we are using our own in-house planted vegetables,” says Fayze, adding that the amount is sufficient for her family.
Fayze decided to build on her previous agricultural experience and added new vegetables like cucumbers and lettuce to her micro-garden which included various herbs like coriander, parsley, oregano, and dandelions. “I am also teaching my daughters-in-law how to plant and I supervise them throughout the process. Now they can plant at their homes,” she proudly says.
This project primarily targets women-headed households and those with a large number of children. Beneficiaries include 30 landless vulnerable Lebanese households and 120 Syrian households.