“I’ve Noticed Improvement”: Woman Starts Backyard Farming, Betters Her Poor Health

• A Cape Town woman, Thembisa Kulana, shared that she started backyard farming after contracting COVID-19
• She improved her health after she planted spring onions, spinach, carrots, cauliflower, rosemary and other herbs and vegetables
• Thembisa also completed a two-week course after discovering a farming training programme, which improved her skills

Thembisa Kulana, a former laundromat employee, contracted COVID-19 in 2022, leading her to leave her job. However, all was not lost for the Cape Town woman, who improved her life and health with homegrown herbs and vegetables.

Backyard farming betters woman's health

According to Food For Mzansi, Thembisa, who lives in the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, shared that after she resigned to focus on her health, she turned to backyard gardening, planting green onions and spinach.

The woman, who lives with a chronic illness, stated:

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"I only sell spinach and spring opinion on request. Otherwise, this garden is for me and my family."

She started to prioritise her health, cutting out junk food, improving her family's diet and saving money on groceries.

Raking in farming knowledge

After discovering a farming training programme through Abalimi Bezekhaya and completing a two-week course, Thembisa learned many skills, such as maintaining her crops, enriching sandy soil, and transforming vegetable scraps into fertiliser.

She shared with the above-mentioned publication:

"Before, I used to buy animal manure, and it was expensive. Now, I make my own bokashi from vegetable scraps, which works perfectly with our sandy soil."

Since then, Thembisa has expanded her garden, adding letters, pear trees, mint, rosemary, carrots, and cauliflower, which helps stabilise her blood pressure and lessens trips to the hospital.

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The Cape Town woman notes that living with a chronic illness taught her to include vegetables in her diet, adding:

"I've noticed improvement since I started growing my food."

Woman turns job loss into thriving farm

In another story, Briefly News reported about a young woman from Durban who transformed unemployment into an opportunity by starting a small-scale organic farm.

The woman cultivated a fresh variety of produce, including potatoes, eggplants, green peppers, onions and spinach.

Source: Briefly News