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Get Dirty | Ergonomic Tools for Food Growers

@getdirtyza

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⛏️Tools for gardeners and farmers
🇿🇦 Proudly SA-made & farmer-tested
🛒Shop online | Marketplace
👇Get dirty & start exploring

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A little intro to some of our existing Retool range, including some available soon! Locally and ethically made for home growing and small-scale farming 🧑‍🌾

Starring:
▪️Stirrup hoe
▪️Midi range - grubber hoe, trowel and rake
▪️Long handled shovel (available online in July)
▪️Long handled rake (available online in July)
▪️And of course the lovely hemp dungarees (available online in July, most smaller sizes unfortunately sold out)

Check out our website www.getdirty.co.za for our Get Dirty tools and other locally made tools and products 🤘

Thanks @urbanharvest and Mary Kihn School for having us 💚

#GetDirtytools #Locallymadetools #MadeinSouthAfrica #Gardentools #Wemakeemliketheyusedto taken in Mowbray, Cape Town by @getdirtyza

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This is what community looks like 🌿

Real growers giving real feedback on our locally made gardening tools that help you work with soil health in mind. Every review you leave builds trust, knowledge, and connection between people who care about the ground beneath them. Our tools are tested in gardens and small-scale farm across South Africa, designed for growers who value quality and sustainability.

Thank you for supporting local and growing with us 🌱
✅ Explore more tools in the Get Dirty marketplace via the link in bio.
✅ Leave a review and help other growers choose the right tools for their soil and garden. taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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8 months ago

🌱 Agroecology in action at Bushbuckridge

We were delighted to see our long handled shovels being used in some biochar innoculation with indigenous microorganisms, and elephant dung vermicompost (yup, how cool?!) 🪱 in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

The Growing Leaders Training of Trainers programme in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga was an intensive 10 day theoretical and practical programme in agroecology and organic best practice.

The graduates of which will grow the farmer database and PGS groups for the province and support farmers with technical knowledge.

Crucial work to build smallholder farmer resilience in the face of the upcoming El Nino 🌱 Keep up the good work on the frontlines!

💚 Thanks for the video @alexgreenkruger taken in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga by @getdirtyza

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🪻 Women are growing our food, feeding our communities and keeping our food systems going.

Women farmers and farmworkers play a huge role in agriculture across Africa, yet the work they do can still go unseen. Their work is tied closely to food security, healthy communities and the food we put on our tables.

There is another part of this conversation we need to have.

Gender-based violence affects women across South Africa, including women living and working on farms. Safety, health, land rights and labour rights all matter when we talk about the lives of women in agriculture.

@womenonfarms works alongside women in farming communities in the Western and Northern Cape, with a focus on GBV, women's health, land rights, labour rights and agroecology.

The women growing our food are part of the backbone of our communities. They deserve to be safe, heard and supported in the work they do.

💜 When we protect the women who grow our food, we protect the future of our communities too.

✅️ Want to support this work? Contact Women on Farms Project to find out how you can get involved.

@womenonfarms taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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🌱 Weed Awehness Wednesday | Nettle

Nettles might be known for their sting, but their nutty flavour combines well with leeks to make the perfect soup 🥣

With the warmer weather arriving, nettles will soon be out of season, so this is a good time to make the most of them while they're still growing.

🥣 Today's simple nettle soup combines:
🌱 Fresh stinging nettles and mallow
🥔 Baby potatoes
🌿 Leeks (or onions if you don't have)
💧 Cooking water from the boiled nettles and mallow
🧂 Salt to taste
🥛 Double cream yoghurt and egg yolk

*don't forget to give your offcuts back to the soil - this time powered by @wigglewoofarm

We harvest the nettles with gloves, rinse them well, then steam the nettles and mallow. The cooking water is kept and used as the base for the soup, together with the potatoes and spring onion. Once everything is tender, it's blended into a smooth green soup and finished with yoghurt and egg yolk for extra richness.

Nettles are a nutrient-rich edible wild plant and can be a useful addition to a varied diet when correctly identified and prepared. Vitamins A, C, K, and several B vitamins, as well as minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium, and 25% protein!

Learning to recognise edible plants growing around us is another way to make the most of what our gardens have to offer.

⚠️ Always eat wild plants only if you can confidently identify them, and harvest from areas away from busy roads and where you are confident no chemicals have been used. Dog wee or even human wee can be washed away, but not glyphosate!

💚 Save this for your next nettle harvest or follow along as we explore the world of edible plants taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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📢 UPDATE: Extension to 9 Sep for comment according to African Centre for Biodiversity.
📧 Email template link and more info available in our bio

There’s a draft national biodiversity plan currently open for public comment, and some of the proposals could have a much more practical impact than they might seem at first.

The 10-year plan looks at how South Africa manages its natural resources, with proposals that could affect food production, biotechnology, small-scale communities, traditional knowledge and the way water is managed.

The plan is still a draft, which means there is an opportunity for people to read it and submit their views before it is finalised.

Public comments close 7 September 2026.

📧 nbsapcomments@dffe.gov.za

The draft document is available from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

For enquiries:
📧 MSPhoshoko@dffe.gov.za
📞 066 420 0215

✅ If you grow food, work with natural resources or are interested in how these resources are managed, take a look at the proposals and consider submitting a comment before the deadline. taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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🌱 Not all forks are made for the same job.

If you’ve ever used a garden fork to loosen compacted soil, you may have noticed that it can take quite a bit of digging and lifting to get through a bed.

A broadfork works differently. Its wide frame and long tines allow you to loosen a larger area of soil at once, opening up compacted ground without turning the soil over.

This can help create space for air, water and plant roots to move through the soil while keeping the existing soil layers in place.

At Get Dirty, we stock the Aardfork, a broadfork designed for this kind of work. It has five long tines and a wide working frame, making it useful when preparing beds or working through compacted soil.

➡️ Swipe through to see how a broadfork differs from a garden fork and how the Aardfork can be used in your garden.

✅ The Aardfork is available on our website. Visit the link in our bio to find out more and shop online.
🌱 Have you used a broadfork before? Let us know how you use yours in the garden. taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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Where to get fresh produce in the Western Cape, Episode 9 🌿

This week we are visiting Love in a Bowl, a community-driven urban farming initiative based in Hout Bay, Cape Town.

Love in a Bowl is built around the belief that everyone deserves access to nutritious food, while empowering the community to become mindful stewards of the environment and the land. Produce grown on the farm is either sold through the farm shop or donated and delivered directly to the community.

At the farm market, you can shop for seasonal, locally grown vegetables including artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beetroot, turnips and more. What is available changes with the seasons, so there is always something new to discover.

Farm Market:
📅 Tuesdays & Thursdays (The last Saturday of the month)
⏰ 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
📍 ERF4061 Hout Bay Main Rd, Hout Bay, Cape Town

✅ Follow along as we keep exploring ways to get fresh produce across the Western Cape.
✅ Want to support Love in a Bowl or shop their fresh produce? Comment “Love” below and we’ll DM you the links to shop and support the community. taken in Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa by @getdirtyza

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🌱 Healthy soil is one of the best investments you can make in your garden or farm.

As we move towards the predicted El Niño and associated warmer, drier months, now is the ideal time to focus on the ground beneath your feet. Healthy soil stores more water, supports beneficial soil life and gives plants the foundation they need to grow well throughout the season.

Keeping your soil covered with mulch, adding quality compost and learning how to use inoculated biochar are all practical ways to improve soil structure and help it retain more moisture over time.

If you're looking to build healthier soil this season, we stock a range of soil-building products on our website, including @regenandbeyond Seabrix and insect frass and hopefully soon inoculated biochar

Building healthy soil doesn't happen overnight, but every season is an opportunity to improve it. The work you put into your soil today will continue to benefit your garden well into the months ahead.

➡️ Swipe through for practical ways to build healthier soil and prepare your garden for spring.

🌱 What are you doing to help your soil retain more water this season? We'd love to hear what's working in your garden. taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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🇿🇦🌱 This is South Africa’s first locally made paper chain pot transplanter, reverse engineered to be more heavy duty for Africa’s soils.

This incredible machine was first invented in Japan in the 1970s, and various versions are used by market gardens around the world to save time on planting - mostly on greens. We can’t take credit for this impressive engineering. Rather, we happen to know a few very clever fabricators, including a sharp old gent in Underberg named Athol who took an idea from a conversation and ran with it! He even made his own vacuum moulder to make the plastic seedling trays that come with it.

The paper chain pot transplanter makes use of a front plow to open up the soil, while the honeycomb paper seedling tray unfurls as you pull it along, planting the seedlings at equal spacing. Two closing shoes at the back cover up the seedlings, and the biodegradable paper means you just harvest when it’s time, saving you and your team hours of labour!

If you are a farmer or market gardener who is interested in finding out more, drop us a line. We have a demo unit available which we can send out for trial (along with the paper pots themselves), and Athol can manufacture to order 👌

#paperchainpots #locallymadetools #paperpots #timesavingmachines #marketgardentools taken in Cape Town, Western Cape by @getdirtyza

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🌿 Some projects deserve the spotlight, and the Liesbeek River Wetland Project is one of them.

For Mandela Day, we had the privilege of joining @friendsoftheliesbeek at the Liesbeek River Wetland in Observatory, where volunteers came together to support an inspiring restoration project that has been restoring this important ecosystem over the past few years.

The project is reconnecting the Liesbeek River with its natural floodplain by creating a seasonal wetland. This "sponge city" approach gives water space to slow down and soak into the landscape during heavy rainfall, helping reduce flooding while creating healthier habitats for indigenous plants and wildlife.

Together, volunteers removed invasive kikuyu grass and planted indigenous species, including Restios, Melianthus and Wild Dagga. We're grateful to have supported Friends of the Liesbeek and the incredible community working to restore this special place.

💚 Follow @friendsoftheliesbeek to learn more about their restoration work and how they're caring for the Liesbeek River.
🌱 Comment "RESTORE" below and we'll send you a DM with links to volunteer or donate to support the Liesbeek River Wetland Project. taken in Cape Town, South Africa by @getdirtyza

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🌱 Weed 'Awehness' Wednesday | Chickweed

Most people pull chickweed out without realising it's food.

🥗 With its mild, fresh flavour, chickweed can be enjoyed raw in salads or cooked much like spinach, making it a great seasonal alternative when it's growing in abundance.

🍋 Today's simple salad combines:
🌱 Fresh chickweed
🥣 Red quinoa
🐟 Sardines
🍋 A squeeze of lemon

The lemon helps soften the leaves, making raw chickweed even more enjoyable to eat.

Chickweed contains vitamins A and C, along with minerals such as calcium and iron. These nutrients support healthy vision, immune function, strong bones and the normal transport of oxygen around the body as part of a balanced diet. It's also a source of dietary fibre, which supports healthy digestion.

Learning to recognise edible plants already growing in your garden is another way to make the most of what healthy soil provides. Sometimes the most valuable crops are the ones we didn't plant.

⚠️ Always eat wild plants only if you can confidently identify them, and harvest from areas that haven't been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides, or contaminated by pollution or animal waste.
✅ Follow us along as we discover the world of edible plants by @getdirtyza

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