Reel Gardening, inspiring South Africans to grow their own food

Image via Reel Gardening

What was your inspiration?

In the early days, we thought we’d have the greatest impact by planting large gardens. However, over the years we’ve found that enabling people to grow in any small space they have available, whether that be a large backyard garden or a series of pots on a balcony, has the biggest effect on connecting people to where their food comes from.

How has your company changed over the years?

We’ve developed our product offering to focus on urban growing. We recently launched our Grow Pod for people who would love to grow their own food at home, schools, or workplaces but are unable to because they either don’t have enough space or they have poor soil.

What’s your most popular product?

It depends on the season. For example, right now our most popular boxes are the Winter and Soup Gardens In a Box. And in spring and summer, our most popular boxes are the Summer, Mixed Salad, and Herb Gardens In a Box. Our Kids Get Growing boxes are also popular with parents and their kids, and they are great as party pack solutions. Our school and community vegetable garden projects are also popular for companies that are interested in Corporate and Social Investment.

There’s no excuse not to be growing your own food.

What milestones have you had?

We have branched out into the USA through The Girl Scouts of America. We also donated our Grow Pods and soil food to 2,308 schools all over the country through the Pick ‘n Pay Foundation. Fostering a one-person-to-another connection is part of our commitment to making a greater social impact, besides the obvious impact on food security.

What’s been difficult?

One of the challenges we’ve always faced was the fact that the people who need our product the most often can’t afford to purchase it. In response to this, we introduced the Buy One Give One Business model. We’ve also grown through the Securing Water For Food Grand Challenge and are partnering with Pick ‘n Pay and Unilever on a wonderful educational campaign called Groweez.

Image via Reel Gardening

What sets Reel Gardening apart?

Our unique, patented, seed tape technology and our holistic view on the process of growing food, which we hope our clients get to experience when using our products and services. We’re also a positive, authentic, approachable company that loves creating custom-branded cause-related solutions for our corporate clients.

What do people love about Reel Gardening?

In three short steps, you have a vegetable garden planted in five minutes and our app, The Planting Revolution, guides you through the entire process, from planting right through to harvesting and troubleshooting for problems in your vegetable garden. There’s no excuse not to be growing your own food.