Gardening , a sad Boy
I grew up in an agricultural background , we always got everything for we needed for consumption from the farm — this made life simple and low budget as possible. Despite this , I never really had much passion for it , farming meant unending compulsory duties. I found a way of escaping , I slowly eased myself into being the designated cook whenever there was a major farming activity — my brother can attest to this.
The exceptions were tree planting , bee keeping and catering for this cow I loved named Kadogo. I loved this cow so much that it came a time when my mother wanted to sell it , and I convinced her not to and she sold another one instead. She was this tiny black cow , mild and calved some of the best cows we had during that period.
In the city , my indifference towards farming continued — I found it a lot of work to cater for the small garden here , it felt like one of those high school punishments. This changed in 2019 , I had an overwhelm of enthusiasm for gardening , I would be in the garden till night time , digging , transplanting , uprooting weeds , applying compost , pruning , mulching , prepping nurseries you name it — and mostly just watching and admiring the thriving crop.
I have had kales , spinach , coriander , managu , amaranth ( chepkarta ) , nderema ( vine spinach ) , strawberry , sugar cane , papaya , capsicum , mint , custard apple tree , tomatoes , rosemary , maize , kunde , pumkin , kisaagek , bitter herbs , even the Itet tree used for producing soot ingredient for preparation of mursik is here. Our need to buy vegetables has been at a minimum since this endeavor — it has also been an healthy option because the produce is largely organic.
Why I am sad? It finally dawned on me — all this is soon going to be history , this is probably my way of dealing with this reality ; to get to a place of acceptance of the fact — I hate that I am powerless do anything about it. I might be accused of being an overly dramatic cry baby but damn , I have had some special attachment to this garden and it was only getting better. You never know what you got till its gone. My predicament…
