Garden of Earthy Delights offers oasis for refugee families

By Agnieszka Rakoczy

Cypriots and non-Cypriots have come together in the centre of Larnaca to create a new urban garden of earthy delight where refugee families will be able to plant their own vegetables.

The Oasis Refugee Project whose work is entirely volunteer/donation-based, first saw the light of day at Larnaca’s Grace Church about five years ago. It is now supported by five of Larnaca’s Christian communities – the Greek Evangelical Church, Trinity Church, Grace Church, Larnaca Community Church and Home Church.

The guiding principle behind their efforts comes from Leviticus 19: 33-34: “The foreigner must be treated as your own born, love him as yourself”. Today, at any one time, the joint project assists from 30 to 80 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

The garden project draws on a process called Permablitz. In late May, volunteers devoted a day-long effort to begin transforming a large space surrounding an old traditional house in the centre of Larnaca into a flower and vegetable paradise.

However, preparations for the day started long before.

The late Andy Dyason, the inspiration behind the project

“The Cyprus Permaculture Association visited us numerous times and made detailed plans as to what we would need to do to create the garden,” recalls Heather Lewis-Shayesteh, one of the coordinators of the Oasis Project Centre, which operates out of the old house. Their aim is a practical project designed to help refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the Larnaca area.

“We found a man who takes care of other people’s gardens. He donated a whole lorry-load of grass, leaves and tree prunings to the centre. That became the basis for our compost.”

Lewis-Shayesteh, a 53-year-old American volunteer (an English language teaching consultant in her professional life) enthuses about the innovative collaboration between the volunteer group and the Permaculture Association which is committed to promoting the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems with the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems.

Pointing to the layer of wood chips now covering almost the entire garden area, she exclaims: “You know, these wood chips for example… I have done some research on it. They hold water in so actually we use less water here. I can see the difference between how plants grow here and how much we have to water them in my own garden.”

Luke Louka is the driving force from the Cyprus Permaculture Association who has been coordinating the work on the Oasis garden project.

“Using wood chips in your garden has many advantages,” he says. “They are aesthetically pleasing and make it easy when it comes to creating pathways. Above all, they protect the soil and help with irrigation.”

Before and after the transformation

They also provide a fantastic environment for funghi and thus help create a healthy soil biology, protect plants from disease and ensures nutrients and water reach them directly.

Louka, a 43-year-old British-born Cypriot, has been studying permaculture since he moved to the island several years ago.

“I was always very passionate about the environment but felt helpless about global warming and the seemingly worsening situation. But after coming to Cyprus I did a wonderful permaculture course that opened my eyes to new possibilities and gave me hope for the future,” he says.

Inspirations cited by Louka include Zimbabwean ecologist Alan Savory, author of The Grazing Revolution: A Radical Plan to Save the Earth, and Elaine Ingham, an American soil biology researcher developing methods of biological agriculture without pesticides or inorganic fertilisers.

For Louka, one of the big attractions of permaculture is its use of materials that are easy available, easily sourced and low budget.

“Collecting chemical-free materials from wherever you can is the way to go,” he says. “Any organic matter will break down and become humus eventually.”

Recycling is one of the other main principles of permaculture, he adds.

This philosophy goes along well with the Oasis Project Centre whose whole existence revolves around donations and volunteer efforts.

The centre has a wide range of activities directed at making the life of Cyprus-based immigrants a bit easier.

One hub of activity is the social café where visitors and clientele can talk, play games or simply relax. Greek and English language classes are available. Clothing is distributed. The centre also offers film screenings, sports events, barbeques and a range of workshops for the handicapped and for skills development. An informal translation/interpreter service is also in place to help clients in need of assistance when visiting hospitals or government offices.

Once a week, on Mondays, the centre prepares around 75 bags of fresh vegetables. These are a welcome treat among the resource-strapped families who visit the centre, providing them with nutritional choices and variety that might otherwise be unaffordable and unavailable to them.

Heather hopes the vegetable plots created in the centre’s garden during the Permablitz will add to this by allowing a number of families to plant and harvest their own vegetables.

“People are very excited about this garden,” she says.

“They keep on asking me if they can plant whatever they want. One guy came and said ‘I like onions. Can we plant onions there’, and I said, ‘OK, we will have onions’.”

Louka calculates that the plots he designed will provide a meal a week for around five to ten families each. His association will provide the training for the potential gardeners and will oversee the whole process.

The idea of the garden originated from a conversation that took place some time ago between Heather and Maia Woodward, a daughter of Oasis Project volunteer Andy Dyason who died suddenly last December. At her funeral, the family collected 600 euros that was donated to the centre.

Heather suggested the best way to commemorate Andy would be to use this money to create a garden in her memory given Andy’s tireless efforts on behalf of others and her great love of flowers. It was then that Maia came up with the idea of using the permaculture philosophy to make the project more sustainable and ecological. Other donations soon followed.

The garden has been dedicated to Andy and a plaque commemorating her will soon be placed there. Then will come the living testimonial – the plants.