Gardening

Being a good citizen and all that, I have heard and responded to the Prime Minister's (PM) call to grow my own vegetables in my small piece of land at the back of my house. Ya right... Not. Nothing to do with PM, more to do with my own need to do something and have always liked the idea of planting a vegetable garden... please note the emphasis on the word idea.

As a person with brains, and who knows how to use it... I know that this venture is not financially viable. I dont understand how the PM can say on TV that it will save people RM20 every month... wow, they must have a huge garden.

First of all, I had to dig up the earth and prepare the beds. I charge RM200 per hour for lectures, and it took me around 5 hours to do this ... there goes the profit. But lets say we dont count my time. Had to buy earth, chicken manure and compost as I did not have any of that on me, with me, or around me. Surprise, surprise. Earth cost money. Some time back it was RM1 a bag, now its RM2. With chicken manure its RM3. Compost cost RM16 per bag. The cost of going to buy these products (Diesel in this case, and my time again) was high. Diesel aint cheap. Remember the price hike recently?

Yet I persisted.

As I said, I liked the idea of having a garden.

My wife helped to sow the seeds. Now we have some sprouts of vegetables growing. Some tapioca (for the leaves), sawi, kangkong, brinjal, serai, and even bananas (but thats another story).

From a financial point of view... this is gonna be the most expensive vegetables ever.

From a personal perspective, there is some pride in seeing the garden grow.

Will let you know if the garden does provide any returns.

Ernest