This is from September 2003: bricks, mud, sand, cement...the garden but a distant dreamI have not always been a keen gardener. As a matter of fact, I was postively uninterested for years. However, when we moved to Malawi as a newly married couple, the house we moved into had a relatively large garden. As is customary here, we employed a Malawian gardener and I was perfectly happy to let him dig the beds and plant the seeds I managed to get from shops. As far as I was concerned, he was the expert and I had nothing much to contribute. I did wonder, at times, why did we need so much Chinese cabbage or why only some of the veggies ever ended up in our kitchen, but this was not a big issue for me.
The turning point came, when we moved into our own house. Suddenly, this was a different matter altogether, since the garden had to be created from scratch. Luckily, a friend, who is a seasoned gardener herself, agreed to design one for us. The plot was basically a mudfield and I had difficulties in trying to imagine, what it will look like with various trees and flowers. My friend, who came to discuss the plans, might as well have spoken a foreign language I did not understand - I was just happy that she had a vision. For example, there is no such thing as creating the grass simply by rolling a ready made pieces of grass on the ground, bought from the nearest garden centre. No way. In Malawi, grass is planted with runners - each and every runner has to be planted separately. This is - of course - a very time consuming and labour intensive process. In our case it took at least a month, if not longer, to have the grass planted.
Two rainy seasons late - and voila! Here was the garden.
Then one day I was walking in the garden and it actually started bothering me that I knew nothing about the flowers and trees growing there. I started to consult gardening books and websites, I talked to friends and visited the garden centre nearby to learn more.
And then it happened: I got the bug.
Since that day, a new totally new world has opened up for me. A curiously secret world, where I meet a different tribe: people, who are passionate about gardening, both expats and Malawians.
I feel that there is a story to be told - after all, gardening in Africa is very different compared to Europe or America. Also, beautiful and enjoyable things are meant to be shared - so, let the adventure begin!
The turning point came, when we moved into our own house. Suddenly, this was a different matter altogether, since the garden had to be created from scratch. Luckily, a friend, who is a seasoned gardener herself, agreed to design one for us. The plot was basically a mudfield and I had difficulties in trying to imagine, what it will look like with various trees and flowers. My friend, who came to discuss the plans, might as well have spoken a foreign language I did not understand - I was just happy that she had a vision. For example, there is no such thing as creating the grass simply by rolling a ready made pieces of grass on the ground, bought from the nearest garden centre. No way. In Malawi, grass is planted with runners - each and every runner has to be planted separately. This is - of course - a very time consuming and labour intensive process. In our case it took at least a month, if not longer, to have the grass planted.
Two rainy seasons late - and voila! Here was the garden.
Then one day I was walking in the garden and it actually started bothering me that I knew nothing about the flowers and trees growing there. I started to consult gardening books and websites, I talked to friends and visited the garden centre nearby to learn more.
And then it happened: I got the bug.
Since that day, a new totally new world has opened up for me. A curiously secret world, where I meet a different tribe: people, who are passionate about gardening, both expats and Malawians.
I feel that there is a story to be told - after all, gardening in Africa is very different compared to Europe or America. Also, beautiful and enjoyable things are meant to be shared - so, let the adventure begin!
No comments:
Post a Comment