Keisha Shakespeare-Blackmore, Staff Reporter

Shirley Leslie kisses her plants which, she believes, helps them to grow. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Shirley Leslie's backyard garden has saved her at least 25 per cent on her monthly grocery bill.

Despite the limited space she has to work with, she has utilised the space quite effectively. Currently, with rising food prices, her backyard garden makes a great difference.

On her little 'farm' she grows banana, hot pepper, callaloo, cassava, dasheen, June plum, sorrel, and mangoes. She has also recently reaped corn and tomatoes. And, from time to time, she plants cabbage, lettuce, and pak choi.

Leslie began her garden last summer but she is no stranger to farming. She grew up in Maroon Town, a farming village in St James. Her father, Adonijah Brown, was a sugar cane and banana farmer. She developed a love for the profession from an early age.

Leslie, 54, shares a special relationship with her plants. Every morning at about 5:00 she attends to them, even talking to and kissing them.

Passionate about her crops

"I tell them how pretty they are. I believe that helps them to grow. Though they cannot talk back, the next day you may see them with a lovely bloom, that's how they respond," she said.

She is so passionate about her crops that in February when her peppers developed some form of disease she called in Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) to do testing. However, she has not received the test result as yet. She notes that it was RADA that gave her the cassava plant. She said that it takes about nine months before it yields, but it can give her between 20-30 pounds of cassava when it does.

She told Food that her garden has helped her out tremendously. "I don't have to buy things such as callaloo. Plus, my callaloo is softer than that I would buy." She notes that at times when she reaps her crops it is so much that she has to share it with the neighbours.

Satisfaction

Leslie said that farming gives her a certain satisfaction, especially knowing that she can eat what she grows. "Plus, I get joy from knowing that I can make a meal from my garden without having to go to the grocery store."

She strongly encourages everyone to plant something even, if it is in a little pot. "You will be surprised how quickly the time goes by after planting, and before you know it, you will be reaping what you plant," she said.

Leslie's backyard garden is also cost-effective, in that she devised a very resourceful way of irrigating her plants. She uses the waste water from the kitchen and laundry room to water the fruit trees, but use regular tap water on the callaloo and pepper. This saves her a great deal on water usage. Leslie is a seamstress by profession but uses all her spare time to attend to her 'babies'.

For information on backyard gardening, contact the RADA office in your parish or the head office on Old Hope Road, St Andrew.

Left: Shirley Leslie cuts callaloo in her backyard garden. Right: Shirley Leslie checks on her bunch of bananas, one fewer food item she needs to purchase, especially with the rising food prices.