UNDETERRED by fierce winds off the Karoo and a succession of sharp frosts, a new generation of gardening entrepreneurs is diligently nurturing plants for sale at the forthcoming Bedford Garden Festival (from October 19 to 21).
Since the festival was inaugurated 14 years ago, assistants employed in the district’s show gardens have been encouraged to propagate and sell plants in personal nursery areas. This is part of one of the festival’s founding principles: to share the economic benefits as widely as possible.
Although some employees declined the opportunity, others have developed thriving micro enterprises, turning over up to R8 000 over the festival weekend.
Momo Doyi’s is one of these ‘budding’ green businesses.
“My target is 150 plants sold at R20 each,” he says of his personal challenge for plant sales during the forthcoming garden festival.
He obviously intends to exceed his target, judging by the number of healthy plants he has already established.
His personal project is one of the perks of his full-time job at The Long Garden on Cradock Street. He has a sheltered nursery area behind a garden shed, safe from frost.
He recycles containers and uses growing medium from the garden’s large productive compost bins. After two years of festival sales, he has started supplying customers throughout the year.
He speaks highly of the garden festival as a source of inspiration and fresh energy to local gardening. He helps to host visitors at the garden and says many of them want to talk about their own gardens and problems they encounter. “They ask us for advice the whole time,” he said.
Momo started life in King William’s Town and, as a young adult, headed north in search of employment. He had advanced to a clerical job in the mining industry before the call of the Eastern Cape Midlands proved too strong and he took a package and came home.
This is his first gardening job and he says he finds the work interesting and satisfying. The Long Garden was designed by Franchesca Watson and its maintenance requires considerable horticultural sophistication.
There are formal elements with a steady gradation down a long erf to an African interpretation of a prairie garden. A low-lying area is prone to repeated severe frosts and a number of the plant specimens have to be protected with fleece during the winter.
There are six raised vegetable beds where spring greens are already coming on impressively. Momo has mastered a range of skills ranging from clipping formal topiary to managing a self-seeding “meadow” area.
He knows all the plant names and keeps a record of seasonal activities in a journal.