Magowe In Love With Her Nursery Trees
Onalenna Kelebeile | Monday December 3, 2018 14:42
SELEBI-PHIKWE: “Nursery trees are a true companion, my husband and my son, faithful friend who would never have differences or grudges. They respond quickly to my emotions before any person could and they pick my moods even when I try to pretend that I am ok.
“In the morning when I wake up I forage and fondle my trees, caress their leaves and communicate with them. I consult them when I leave my home and report back when I return. This is when I also can pick if they also have something to complain about.”
This is the bond that one must have with her plant nursery. Tshotlego Magowe, 48, who stays in BCL location, shares what a united and intact family that she and her trees are. In this way she is able to identify the plants that are sickly or had an attack of some sort. Though she has lost count of her trees because they have multiplied excessively, she knows them like one would know his flock and the pain of losing a beloved one usually strikes when she has to sell one of them. However, she never mourns like he who does not have knowledge because she knew she has to generate income out of them. She says whenever there would be a major announcement either of happiness or sorrow she picks it first from her trees. “One of them would show. The same thing applies when there is serious illness or death amongst those who are close to me. One of the trees would just die without cause or wilt away. After dying I remove the soils and add it to another plant. Then I would know that there is something,” she says.
Her nursery is one of the best in Selebi-Phikwe with almost all the plant varieties and says it is because of the undivided attention she accords them. She says just like one’s children they miss her when she is away. “If I am away and I ask somebody else to water them on my behalf, I would find a difference in them even when they received enough water because they know I am not the one watering them. I know their moods and I can easily tell when they need their soils to be changed, manure increased or watered enough,” she says. They flourish as if they are never attacked by parasites. Selebi-Phikwe is known to be the best in nursery plants as a majority of homesteads have nurseries such as that of Magome. Women particularly in BCL location keep beautiful nurseries though some of them had a challenge of water supply following the mine’s closure when they now had to pay their own water bills. Nurseries have been their source of income as they sell and hire the plants to others. The love for nurseries even spread to other areas of the town and they exchanged knowledge and skills with others.
Magome on a good day would make P2,000 out of the sale of the trees. However, this has significantly dropped following the mine’s closure as there are no longer enough potential customers walking down the street to notice the plants.
The fact that she is working means she does not have the whole day to market her plants. She started in 2014 buying two from a friend. A friend then taught her that the same plant can generate more of its own when she cuts branches and plant them in the soil. They multiplied significantly. “I do not buy into the belief that ‘ditlhare di kgona go gana batho’. There is nothing like that. These are living things, they can detect so early if you do not own them from within and once they feel rejected they feel they are better off out of your life,” she says. Magowe notes that generally it is not too expensive to keep them because she collects suitable soils from identified areas or buys from those selling in bulk.
She only buys manure and the plastics, the thing that she puts money into she raised from the sale of the same trees. She never uses chemicals to control pests because of her allergies and the fact that they pose a health hazard to children. Instead she dissolves dish washing liquid in water and spray the plants. Sometimes she just rubs it on the affected part of the plant and it gets healed.
There had been an incident where one plant owner died due to inhaling chemicals. Last week the Department of National Museum and Monuments held a plant show to accord nursery owners the necessary skills to improve their nurseries and promote planting of indigenous plants as well.
“I learnt a lot from them because I did not know that we can even have nurseries for indigenous plants to conserve them and that we should not kill the insects that prey on our plants because they suck fluids and convert them to manure needed by the very same plant,” she says.
She adds that they were also encouraged to turn their passion for plants into businesses. She says she also discovered that the plants they keep are exotic and some may affect the biodiversity of the country.
SPEDU’s director of Investment Promotions, Louis Sibanda says the plant show complemented the agency’s mandate and poverty eradication programme. Sibanda reveals that they are in the process of developing monuments at Mothudi and Lepokole in their quest to contribute towards diversifying the local economy. He says there is need to support any poverty eradication programme by addressing all aspects of poverty, saying some plants around the town area were adversely affected by the mine pollutions hence the need to raise awareness on rehabilitation of the vegetation and plant conservation strategies. According to Sibanda, Botswana is generally a dry country hence there is need to promote propagation of indigenous plants so that the small amount of water in the country can be used for domestic purposes.
He says most of the exotic plants need ample water to thrive and are vulnerable to diseases and pests while some of them are invasive aliens capable of degrading and replacing the natural vegetation which is the food source of livestock and wildlife.
“They invade wetlands and have an impact on biodiversity. Some suppress the growth of indigenous plants and once alien invasive plants have spread they are difficult to control.”