When I first started the SocioTech training in February, I was quite nervous because I had never gardened before. Fortunately, Jabu and the team start at the beginning and teach from start to finish – from soil preparation through seeds, seedlings, and planting to mulching, irrigation and pest control. And they keep checking up on you while you are learning, so you don’t feel alone. If you have a question, there is someone to ask. Now that I have a tunnel, everything I have learnt is starting to show.

It is hard work to start a garden - all those deep trenches and collecting cans and bones takes time. I was fortunate that my husband helped me with the digging and my five children helped with the collecting cans. I wasn’t sure if I would like gardening. At the beginning I was saying: “this is too hard” but if you keep going you realise that it is not so hard. And after a while you start to enjoy the work. These days I smile and sometimes sing while I work. Even when I am not in the garden, I like to think about what I am going to plant next year. Imagining that future garden makes me happy. My kids tell me they want me to plant strawberries next year.

I have cabbage, onions, beetroot, carrots, tomatoes in my own garden, and chickens, so it is like an onsite 7 Colours! My kids love it – especially my 10-year-old who likes to help and is learning fast. He is growing his own onions and has already made enough sales to buy his school supplies for next term. 

When people walk past my garden, they see the quality of what I am producing, and they ask to buy. This community is far from the supermarkets, so people like me, who grow crops and sell close to home, are much appreciated. At the moment I only have this little area to grow vegetables, but I think that over time I can get more land and become a larger business supplying shops like Pick n Pay.