If you know me well I am not a gardener. I don’t have a green thumb and I am one of
those people who have always had plastic plants in the home. I have been known to kill a cactus plant or
two in my time, it is that bad. Plants
and gardens have not been my forte and I have either had a husband or a place
with no gardening required. Like a lot
of things that have changed for me since my move to Kenya, I have finally
decided to ‘green’ my courtyard and see it as a challenge to keep my green
protégé’s alive and do my bit to improve the ozone with my small plants in my
part of the world.
When I moved into my place in Nairobi in January last
year, I had a choice of 2 apartments.
One was on the ground floor that had a small balcony overlooking a
banana plantation or a lower level/ground floor apartment that had an enclosed
courtyard the length of the apartment. I
took the lower level unit as I had visions of getting some plants and chairs
out there eventually and the other bonus was there would be no walk through
traffic as I was in a corner place. In
2013, I had a lot of traveling and I didn’t see the value in buying plants and
then not being here to look after them so the whole project was put on hold
until I got back from my travels in January 2014, but every time I went out to
my courtyard I had a vision on what I wanted to eventually do out there.
Why try to explain miracles to your kids
when you can just have them plant a garden.
Wanting to get the vision started, knowing I would get to
work after I returned from Australia in January, I decided to take the first
step, and that was to at least get the chairs purchased and then I could hit
the ground running in the new year. Once
I set my mind to something, nothing stops me and I am the kind of person that
wants it all done yesterday. So 4 weeks
before I left last year I purchased a wooden bench/seat that I bought from one
of the carpenters that are located by the side of Limuru Road. They have handmade furniture that you can buy
and if they don’t have what you want or it is the wrong size they can make
something for you and generally within a few days it can be ready. That is one of the good things about Kenya,
if you can’t find what you are looking for you can generally have it made and
all for a reasonable cost. Expats have
their ‘iron makers’ their ‘carpenters’ their ‘plant’ guys, their ‘basket’
people and a big one is dressmakers. I
do have my ‘own’ carpenter, Peter, who has done all my shelves, drawers and
picture frames, but I have been known to be a little impatient and I wanted to
buy my outdoor seat rather than wait to have to have it made. I got my measurements together and set off
with Steve one in August last year to have a look at the ready made timber
chairs. I found one that fit my size
requirements, got a good price of 7,000KSH (93AUD) for a 2m long solid wooden
bench chair. The guys were going to
clean it up (as it is an outdoor stall where the stuff is just covered at
night), give her a little spit and polish and then for 500KSH (6.60AUD) the
chair would be delivered tomorrow. SCORE!! I got all the dimensions of the purchased chair
and on our way home, I stopped off at my ‘couch’ guy, where I bought my lounge
room chairs earlier in the year and got a quote for them to make cushions to
fit my new chair. After a bit of
negotiation I got the long base pillow, 3 back pillows, 2 small square pillows
and a roll pillow all for 7,000KSH (93AUD), I picked the material that I wanted
and they would be ready in 3 days. This
is how 90% of things are done in Kenya.
There really isn’t a one stop shop as such for things like this. There are pockets of specialties all around
the city; it is just a matter of knowing where to find them, and ones that do good
jobs via referrals and feedback on NES.
Common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow
in everyone’s garden.
I am known for being an organized individual; so while I
was back in Australia I had the foresight to purchase 40m of fairy lights (it
was Christmas so this was easy and cheap), some solar path lights, clips and a
shade cloth to cover a corner of the courtyard.
These things are either hard to find in Nairobi or expensive. I then had to put some thought into how and
where I would organise my plants and after speaking to Elsabe, she suggested
that I get shelves made that would attach to the wall rather than the bookcase
style stands so as not to make my already small space seem smaller or over
crowded. As it worked out, Els needed
some work done by ‘her’ iron maker and after sending through a photo and the
measurements of the planters I wanted made, I was given a quote of 4,500KSH
(55AUD) for each shelf and I wanted to get 5 of them. So knowing Els guy, Sammy, does a good job, I
asked if he would include delivery and the installation of them and then we had
a deal. I may have paid a little too
much for them in Kenyan terms, but something like that back in Australia would
have cost that or more, so I was happy, Sam the iron guy was happy and he said
he could have them all made in a week!!!
You beauty. I LOVE that you can
get anything you want made here. Exactly
a week later, Sammy called that he was on his way and after getting stuck in a
little traffic, getting here at 6.30pm at night, complaints from the neighbours
about the drilling-I had 5 perfect plant holders all attached to the wall and
ready for their green additions.
A society grows great when old men plant
trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.
This was the fun part.
Like anything else there are 2 main ‘nurseries’, which happen to be on
my side of town, but their plants are a little more expensive and if you are
looking for a particular plant or advice, this is where you would go to get
that. There are also roadside nurseries,
where the plants are cheaper and they are found all over the city, literally by
the side of the road. Plots are cover in
all kinds of plants in an outdoor environment.
You basically pull over, get out of your car and walk around their small
plots that have hundreds, if not thousands of plants to choose from. Being a newbie on how it all worked, I had an
old hand, a fellow gardener, a friend, to come with me the first time and lend
me some advice. Derryck and I visited
the 2 nurseries, bought a few plants, and then he took me to ‘his’ plant guy at
the Runda estate entrance. What was a
shock to me was the cost of the plants.
As I am only after small pot plant type plants, the prices started at
80KSH (1.06AUD) through to the most expensive I paid that day of 200KSH
(2.66AUD). The larger plants start at
200KSH through to 500KSH and cactus plants which start at 100KSH (1.33AUD). They were so CHEAP. It made me feel better that if I had a few casualties;
it wasn’t too much wasted money going down the drain.
To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.
The thing you need to keep in mind, even though the
plants are cheap, they come wrapped in black plastic, so they need to be
re-potted into proper pots. You can buy
cheap clay pots by the side of the road, but at the time there wasn’t enough
for my first haul of plants and after checking Nakumatt (retail store) I
decided to stick to a theme and buy green plastic pots that came in all sorts
of sizes. I am proud to say I bought the
shop out of all their green pots (I only wanted green ones) for the first few
weeks and I became fast friends with Vincent, the staff member in charge of the
gardening department. He let me know
when the new stocks were to arrive and any other questions I has he was more
than happy to answer. The smallest
plastic pots cost 80 bob for the no.1 size (1.06AUD) through to the no.4 size
that cost 235 bob (3.13AUD), but adding in the cost of the plant I wasn’t paying
more than 5 bucks for a plant and pot.
No too shabby at all.
Life started in a garden.
Elsabe’s gardener came and re-potted my first 40 plants
for me that cost me 300KSH (4AUD), which again was worth every penny and then
over the next 3 weeks I bought another 65 plants and re-potted them all myself. This doesn’t sound like much of an achievement,
but for someone who has never, NEVER, re-potted a plant before, there was a
sense of accomplishment, trying to do it all with the least amount of mess,
trying to not get soil everywhere, let’s say after 65 plants, I started to find
my gardeners groove. Even after all
that, I tell you my shelves still looked only at 70% capacity. As I am 2 flights of stairs down from the
carpark, I pay my escari (security guy) to help me lug all the plants that I
buy down the levels and tipping him 100KSH (1.33AUD) and for more trips he does
the more money I pay 200KSH (2.66AUD) and it is worth every penny of me helping
and having to only do half the amount of stairs. I can see his eyes light up when I drive
through the gates he has just opened for me and I ask for his help. He carries everything, and doesn’t even need
any help, from massive book cases, suitcases, packing bags, to a large rubber
plant that Elsabe gave me in a massive clay pot which would have weighed over
30kg. He also carried 4 large bamboo
plants that I bought as a cover screen between the neighbours place, and let me
tell you they also weighed a tonne. He
carries it all for me to my front door and then it is up to me to get it into
the house after that and let me tell you that is a challenge for me to move it
just a few meters. My escari doesn’t speak
a lot of English, but we do have a personal running joke that he is getting big
muscles from helping me all the time.
Everyone’s time is money, he is happy to earn a few extra bob and I am
happy to not have to carry all the stuff down2 flights of stairs. It is a win win for us both!
The earth laughs in flowers.
Over the next 2 months, my fairy lights went up (I did
this myself), the shade sail went up with the help from Charlie and the small ‘Bernie’
touches were added including a ‘Bernie’s Backyard’ sign I got made for 1500 bob
(20AUD), a clay bird feeder with seed I bought for wild birds, some ornaments
from the Masaai Market, some masks, some hanging baskets, hanging mini lanterns
(powered and bought in Australia), solar path lights and of course more plants. I would buy more plants, more pots for said plants
and I think I have found a new addiction.
I would go to buy 5 plants and I would leave with 10. I can’t just buy one or 5, I needed 10! But I figured at the cost of a buck a plant,
it is an addiction that I am happy to talk about and one that my back pocket
does not feel the impact of too much. I travelled
to London in the middle of March and out of the 120+ plants that I now had
there were 3 that were looking a little sad, not a bad strike rate (for me
especially) and I was pretty proud of that stat. I did take note of the saddest plants, as I
had Charlie, my building manager, coming in everyday to keep my plants from
getting thirsty, watering them every day in my absence. I told him I knew how many plants I had, pointed
out the 3 sick plants I had ‘killed’ and to see how many plants would survive
my 2 week trip in his care!!!! He looked
worried, but I was just playing around with him, again for the cost-I was happy
to wear a few more losses from the ‘family’.
Friends are flowers in the garden of life.
On my trip to London I bought some more fairy lights, another
25m to be exact, but this time they were solar ones, so they would go on each
day which I liked the thought of as the other ones that were strung were run
from a power outlet. A garden can never
have too many fairy lights and it is like a magic garden at night time when I
have both the solar and power lights are switched on. I now have over 800 lights out there now,
just magic!!!! I found a garden gnome in
the Pound Shop, no garden is complete until you have a garden gnome-right, and
he even made it back in one piece to Kenya!!
I also purchased a hose in London and not just any hose it is called an
X-hose. It is a magic hose that doesn’t kink
and when turned on my 25m hose expands to 50m and when it is switched off it
shrinks back to its original size! What
a great garden invention, the hose, and after buying an 8 way hose nozzle, I
have to say using the hose has literally changed the landscape for me in my
courtyard!! I LOVE my hose, I love my
courtyard and I love the time that I can now sit out there, in my sanctuary I
have now created. Charlie did a great
job keeping my plants alive and he only lost 3, and in his defence, they may
have been on their way out before I left, but I wouldn’t tell him that! As usual nothing is for free and I tipped
Charles for his time each day coming to water my plants and again it was worth
every penny.
My garden feeds my soul.
So my garden continues to grow, and it is amazing to see
how much it has actually grown in the last 3 months. The biggest challenge, besides keeping them
all alive is to try and make more room for the plants that I continue to
buy. My green thumb seems to be thriving
here and I don’t even mind the few worms I come across when I re-pot and the
slugs that I have to occasionally remove from my plants. I am proud that I have transformed a bleak
tile and concrete courtyard into a living, green environment. Even though I can hear the birds, I have not
seen them feed at the bird feeder, but the seed has been eaten-so maybe I have
got the thumbs up from the local feathered residents as well. Would I consider myself a fully fledge
gardener? I’m not sure if it is a little
early to make that call, but I am certainly on my way and I look forward to
watching all the greenery grow around me in the coming year.
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