Good morning lovelies. Hope am d first to wish you a happy morning. But plsease, i dont mean to interrupt your sleep. Early this year during planting season, my mother- inlaw visited me. She was surprised that i have not done anything in my garden, she asked for my reason which i don’t even have one. The truth is i was still nursing a baby then- a very clingy baby that won’t even allow me to drop her and refresh myself unless she’s sleeping which she was not good at.
As a result, i felt tied down, incapacitated, coupled with the accompanying post partum depression of having to do all chores in one hand while carrying a baby with the other hand. She saw all these in her brief visit and understood the condition, though she couldn’t offer any help in that regard because she herself wasn’t that strong for the work unlike other times when she would atleast clear the garden for me because she likes vegetables and usually get alot from my garden.
So, oluchi, my husband’s cousin who accompanied her to the visit offered to help me work in my garden. She said “big sis, dont worry i will help you plant the vegetables before we leave” i was overjoyed. Oluchi did not tell me she had no idea of how to plant a pumpkin. With all seriousness, she cleared the area, tilled the soil. As i watched, she was doing great job until i entered my room with my baby, while my mother-inlaw retired to sleep, leaving oluchi all alone for the work.
Few minutes later, Oluchi called me to bring out the crops i wanted to plant. Out of excitement, i gave her a bud of pumpkin to plant first and told her i will plant other things by myself. Little did i know this girl didn’t know how to gently open the bud to bring out the seedlings for cultivation . The next thing i saw marvelled me and I almost cried. Oluchi raised her hand the way Abraham raised it to kill isaac for sacrifice before God intervened, and cut the bud into two. Cutting and smashing almost all the seedlings. The way i shouted at the sight made my mother-inlaw to fly out from her sleep thinking there was an accident( maybe oluchi has cut her leg with cutlass or hoe)but she was wrong. When she saw how the seedlings were cut and smashed, she was dumbfounded. We lost hope in this year’s yield. She put them in the heaps of soil she made feeling so sad that she had spoiled the day.
The truth is that the seedlings did not perform well at first, shooting out tendrils was as through fire, and when they finally did, after more than a month of cultivation i was happy. My mother inlaw who had been calling to how the crops were, was also happy with the news.
As time progressed to when the female ones should start reproducing, I saw nothing. I kept it out of my mind, stopped checking for a new bud but was mindful of how i harvested the leaves, keeping hopes alive. One day, i was staking the stems when i saw an already grown bud.
Wow! I was joyous! At least, i had an ‘heir’ for next year’s gardening. I shouted “it has finally paid off” my mum inlaw and oluchi was also happy to hear the news. The work is worthwhile.
#gardening# #hive gardening# #agriculture# #gardeningisfun#
