Greetings!
Before the rainy season started, I had in mind to use the little space in my compound, a room of an uncompleted building, to grow some vegetables and yams to help me save money when they matured. These days, things are very expensive, especially food items, and growing some myself would help a lot to reduce expenses.
When the rainy season started, I quickly hopped in, took my cutlass, and cleared the grasses that had grown there already. The grasses weren't much, but the place was a kind of bin where people threw all manners of trash. It isn't their fault because the space wasn't used for anything.
So, I cleared all the rubbish there and noticed that the place contained bottles, both whole and broken, buried in the ground. I was very careful not to cut myself while using my hands to pack out the stuff and pull out some grasses.
When I was done, the place was as neat as a playground. Unfortunately, that day, I only had a very small portion of yam, more like a seedling, to plant. I should have gotten enough in the market, but procrastination held me back. So, I dug a hole for the yam to be planted.
Here, we don't make a heap (ridge); instead, we dig a hole in which the yam is buried. The hole is big and deep enough to make the space within the yam soft, allowing more room for it to expand.
I planted it and left it to germinate. It took a long while before it germinated, and at one point, I thought maybe the yam had gone bad in the ground because there was hot sun during the period I planted it, and I totally forgot to water it. I was happy to see it come up, and I waited for a while until I found a stick to stake it, allowing it to grow properly.
When I was clearing, I saw some water leaf plants, so made sure I didn't clear them off.
I have plans to grow pepper and pumpkin there, but I've been finding it very hard to get the seeds to plant. I've been to two markets near me to buy the seeds, but I haven't found any. They keep directing me to a very distant market, which I haven't had the chance to visit.
Guess what?
When I was clearing the space again for the second time, because the grasses were growing so fast as if they were on fertilizer, I noticed a pumpkin growing there.
I was amazed because I never planted it there. I quickly used a stick to peg it, and later on, I'm going to make a structure for it to mount and expand.
I'm still trying to find ways to get the pepper seeds and more pumpkin seeds to plant. One of these days, I'm going to sacrifice my time and go to the distant market to buy them. I will keep you updated as my small garden continues to expand.
Thanks for reading.
