Senior citizen encourages gardening
Tsakane – Senior citizen, Maphuthego Maseko, has been running a vegetable garden for the past 16 years at Micheal Zulu Primary School in Tsakane.
Maseko not only tends her garden but supplies the school feeding scheme with her produce and teaches the learners how to grow their own vegetable gardens.
She says her love for gardening started in 2003 and she hasn’t looked back since.
“I saw the need to grow my own vegetables so I could sell them to the community and also assist the school I once worked for.
“Through agriculture I believe that people can sustain themselves and also enjoy a balanced diet with the vegetables they produce,” she explains.
Her biggest wish is to see learners at the school furthering their studies and learning more about agriculture so they can come back to the community to teach others and get community members into the habit of having their own gardens.
Maseko’s garden has grow each year, allowing her to have more produce, and she says she would be happy if big supermarkets operating in the community could buy her vegetables as sometimes they rot because of not being harvested.
Deputy principal of the school, Mathapelo Mokhine, says Maseko’s contribution to the school feeding scheme has allowed children who come from disadvantaged homes to eat a balanced meal everyday at school.
“Her gesture has also taught our learners that healthy eating habits are not expensive if they put in the work of tending their very own garden,” she says.
