Ta’ Qali gravel will enable grass to grow ‘more quickly’ – junior minister

By Hot Malta Newsroom

The dusty, sun-baked expanse of Ta’ Qali National Park is poised for a green revolution. Junior Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights Alicia Bugeja Said told Hot Malta yesterday that a newly-approved layer of graded limestone gravel—sourced from local quarries in Gozo and the south-east of the island—will act as a “moisture-locking carpet” underneath fresh turf, allowing grass to take root “up to 40 % faster” than traditional topsoil methods.

“We’re not just throwing seed in the wind,” Bugeja Said quipped during an on-site walk-through, boots crunching on the freshly-laid aggregate. “The gravel’s micro-pockets retain dew and irrigation water, while its pale colour reflects heat so seedlings don’t fry. In Maltese July, that’s the difference between a lawn and a memory.”

The announcement lands at a symbolic moment. Ta’ Qali, once a WWII airfield and later the beating heart of Malta’s 1970s craft-village movement, is entering yet another metamorphosis. Its football pitches host village festa tournaments every summer; the adjacent farmers’ market is where Nanna stocks up on ġbejniet before Sunday lunch. When the grass finally carpets the bare patches left by last winter’s motocross event, organisers say the park will be able to absorb an extra 15,000 visitors per month without the soil turning to dust.

Local resident and dog-walker Etienne Calleja, 34, watched workers rake the gravel yesterday morning. “My beagle used to come home orange from the dirt,” he laughed. “If this gravel means I won’t need to bathe her every night, I’m all for it.” Calleja’s sentiment echoes across Facebook neighbourhood groups, where a recent poll run by the Ta’ Qali Residents’ Association showed 78 % support for the project—provided the promised irrigation system uses recycled greywater rather than the precious public supply.

Bugeja Said insists the ministry has listened. “The gravel layer sits above a closed-loop drip network fed by the new Kirkop treatment plant,” she explained. “We’re literally watering the future with yesterday’s dishwater.”

Cultural impact goes beyond convenience. The Crafts Village—home to glass-blowers, filigree artists and the ever-Instagrammable Ta’ Qali Farmers’ Market—has long complained that swirling dust deters tourists. “Visitors love the glass demo, but they don’t want grit in their pastizz,” said Josephine Borg, who runs a silver stall opposite the old RAF hangars. “Greener surroundings mean longer stays and more sales.”

Environmental NGO Friends of the Earth Malta has cautiously welcomed the plan, praising the use of local limestone instead of imported aggregate. “Every tonne we don’t ship in is a tonne of carbon saved,” coordinator Suzanne Maas noted. Still, she urged the ministry to publish soil-moisture data so the public can verify the 40 % claim.

The first shoots could appear within six weeks, according to turf specialists brought in from Sicily. By next April—just in time for the traditional kite festival that paints the skies above Ta’ Qali with fluorescent dragons and Maltese crosses—the park should resemble the emerald carpet that once graced the RAF officers’ mess lawn in 1943 black-and-white photographs.

In the meantime, the ministry is recruiting volunteers for a “Roll-On, Green-Up” weekend on 15-16 July, inviting families to spread the final seed mix and snap selfies with ministers in high-vis vests. Free ħobż biż-żejt will be served from the market’s wood-fired ovens—because nothing says Malta like eating tuna-and-capers sandwiches on what will soon be luscious grass, under the watchful gaze of the Mosta Dome on the horizon.

As the sun set yesterday, sprinklers hissed to life, casting silver arcs over the pale gravel. Children chased stray drops, already imagining barefoot summers ahead. If the junior minister’s calculus holds, Ta’ Qali’s next chapter will be written not in dust, but in chlorophyll.