Taking it one ‘apple’ at a time.

So I am now in the third stage of copying my mothers garden and I have reached a crossroads; should I carry on?

Winter has tested the limits of me and my tomatoes endurance. Firstly, we had to deal with the movement of the sun. My plants were no longer enjoying full, direct sunlight, and so we pulled a mirror out of our storage closet and everyday position it in such a way that some rays of sunshine hit the plants. I say ‘we’ because my husband has now become a caretaker of the garden. (Haha).

Then my curious toddler bless her, found new joy in picking my unripened tomatoes off their stalks. She still does it to this day and affectionately calls them her ‘apples’.

On top of that, I had a pest infection and a number of my plants succumbed and died.

So, as you can imagine, my plants are in a sorry state, but you would not believe what gems they have been nurturing. We are, in the middle of winter, 60 days later, eating tomatoes from our own garden! They are beautifully rounded red things, some not fully formed, some big enough to make the plants heavy, but all, unmistakably, tomatoes!

It’s been quite a challenge, the watering, the replanting, the digging, the mirror, buying soil and trawling garden refuse for sticks long enough to keep the tomatoes tall without having to spend a fortune. A friend of ours saw the work we were doing and decided to pass on an entire bucket of unplanted seeds to us, and now I am looking at the potential of growing chilies, spinach and other vegetable goodies.

With all the work we had to do I am still wondering if I should carry on, but there’s something magical about watching something you’ve nurtured grow. So maybe I do want to see those damn chilies push their way out of the soil, or eat fresh spinach green from my earth, and sitting hunched down in the dirt of my garden every Saturday morning with my daughter is so amazing, but if I want to do all that, I will have to put in the work. In the meantime the tomatoes are keeping us busy, so I am going to take it one ‘apple’ at a time.

Sharon Kasanda Emvula

Written by

Author, Editor, Wife, Mother. Naturalista. www.facebook.com/shaztheauthor. http://www.wordweavernam.com/authors/sharon-kasanda

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