When you move to a new country- nothing is easy

Life as an immigrant always has different stories. These are a few examples of my struggle to continue my interest in vegetable gardening. 

I like to vegetable garden out of my passion for environmental conservation, the same way I like to buy second-hand stuff. During my studies back home and my professional career, I was involved in environmental conservation work. Composting has always been a good starting point for a household on that journey. After I came to this new country, it took me a year to understand this place in many aspects.

I continued my passion for environmental conservation through volunteering in different environmental organizations. I used to talk with other native volunteers and got the impression that rain is a detrimental factor for composting here in Dunedin at the household level. During similar volunteering, I got in contact with a lady who was giving composting training. I participated there and realized it was not as difficult as it had been in my mindset. After that training, I started shorting out degradable and non-degradable waste from my kitchen. Another struggle came instantly, how to do the composting then- pile composting or box composting. It would cost me money to compost the box, as I had to buy it. But I was not in a position to invest money to buy the box. So, I chose to compost the pile. I started doing pile composting in the corner of my rented flat in a concrete ring. I guess that concrete ring must have been there at my place to put cigarette butts as it has sand in it, which I cleaned to start composting. However, the concrete floor of that ring and the lack of drainage for leachate and water have been my major problems. Anyway, I didn’t throw three months of household waste in the bin and saved my money. But my compost is partially ready after all these eight months of starting it. I still need to shorten the way out. I haven’t succeeded in making compost to date, but this has been fundamental learning for my son, who is heavily inspired by my attempt to compost in a closed concrete ring.

While making the compost, I had placed pumpkin seeds in that composting bin, which would otherwise have ended up at the landfill site. After the winter was over and the sun started to rise high up in the sky, one morning, I saw some pumpkin seedlings popping up in the compost bin (that concrete bin). I was excited, and so was my son. My son recently read a book about growing pumpkins in his year one study book. He asked me if we could also grow pumpkins and make pumpkin soup. One day, I was trying to transfer that sapling to a bigger pot; my neighbour saw me doing that and gave me a potting mix to put there. I mixed the potting mix with some soil from the concrete bin where I had been composting. I also added a few earthworms that have been helping make compost in the compost bin. Thanks to my neighbour and good weather for about 20 days in late January, that sampling grew very well. The sampling seemed big for that pot. I had two pots of sampling, one of which I gave to the neighbouring family who had a kitchen garden in the house. For the remaining one, I could not give it away so easily. My son wanted to see the pumpkin growing in our own home. For a week, I saw that sampling growing, and every day, I thought of an option to make it possible to grow here. I thought of borrowing some soil from friends and growing it in the sack, but I needed to be assured about the quality of the soil. Finally, I went to the Bunning and bought a 50 kg plastic bin and 40 kg of pot mix. I took my son with me; he was so happy and excited about it. I have no words to express his facial expression at that moment. We transferred that sampling to this new big pot. Now, it has started to rain here in Dunedin, and I don’t know whether pumpkins will be growing or if sampling will be a part of the compost in a few weeks’ time.