The planning

Like all new ventures there is need for planning, budgeting e.tc. however, my gardening venture started as a homeschool lesson for my 6 yr old, we had exhausted a lot of activities and were looking for something new and exciting to do. My little one came with a beaming face one day and said 'mummy let’s do an experiment'. We brainstormed for a while and most of the ideas we thought about, we did not have enough material and during the Covid 19 lockdown meant we couldn't access the store.

We were in the kitchen and as I looked at the patch outside, an idea came to mind. Our garden was started off with seeds from vegetables in the fridge we had bought from the supermarket. We extracted seeds from butternuts, tomatoes, mixed peppers. At this point we only had 2 small bags of top soil and compost in the shed and no proper tools, just a small garden fork, a shovel and one pair of gloves.

It was an exciting lesson to do and answering questions from this curious little lad. He understood that our experiment takes time to see the results and we need to constantly nurture the patch and be patient. Initially it appeared like it’s a walk over and soon we will be enjoying the fruits.

Having felt accomplished, l felt like l can work on the rest of the patch, so on my next shopping trip l included some gardening materials, l thought we needed. l am grateful of my relations who are garden addicts and l could call anytime for guidance.

I bought almost everything l read or heard would be necessary for a successful veg patch. I did not count the cost. It became a daily ritual to do something in the garden. We planted more seeds.

l wanted all my favourite vegetables in that patch and ignored advice on spacing plants or growing indoors for the first few weeks. My defence was it’s warmer in the South of the country than up North and was adamant that they will succeed. As time went on l learnt my lessons. There were gains and losses, however the wins outweighed the loses.

It was costly both financially and time consuming and due to lack of planning and budgeting in the long run. However, it was good for our mental health and the harvest was bountiful.