Ivor Markman
As the spirit of the Bedford Garden Festival continues to grow, more and more people in this beautiful small Eastern Cape town are opening their gardens to the public. One of the latest to open her home is Nonsebenzi Roffouw, who lives in Bedford's Polla Parka township.
Nonsebenzi knew very little about the garden festival until she started working for the Trollip family.
One day, in November last year, her employer's daughter, Katherine, offered to take her home to avoid being drenched during a rainstorm.
"Katherine came here and said 'Haai, you've got a nice garden, you've got a very nice garden'.
"She said 'Don't you want to be in the festival?' I said I can't because 1 work and haven't got the time:'
"She said 'We will make time for you';' said Nonsebenzi.
Trollip told her she would try and place her name on the festival programme so she could display her garden.
NONSEBENZI ROFFOUW
RED RED ROSE: Nonsebenzi Ruffouw prunes a rose in her Polla Parka township garden in Bedford.
EARLY RISER: It's not unusual for Nonsebenzi to get up at 4am to give tender loving care to her plants.
Boosted by the success of her vegetables, she decided the time was right to plant flowers.
"I planted flowers for their beauty. I love flowers and love working and keeping the garden,” she said.
She pointed to a plant in the flower bed.
"You see that pink one?" she said. "It's my first flower:'
She cut slips from the plant and planted them at other spots in the garden.
Her first rose came from a slip from her mother-in-law's garden in Uniondale.
The plant thrived and soon she was cutting slips from it.
Now she has three rose bushes growing in the garden.
When she found employment she was able to purchase a rose.
When she changed jobs and started working for the Trollips she bought another.
Nonsebenzi kept on planting, collecting all the plants and slips she could lay her hands on.
She tried planting grass, but found it didn't do well.
Undeterred she kept on, and now her garden boasts an apple tree, a fig tree, avocado tree and a grape vine.
"My favourite plant is a wild verbena because that's what I started with,”' she said.
Unable to afford fancy fertilizers, Nonsebenzi uses goat droppings and cow dung of which there is a plentiful supply in the neighbourhood.
"It's good fertilizer, but I must wait for six weeks before using it," she said.
As an insecticide she uses Sunlight liquid soap mixed with water and sprays the leaves.
She is a dedicated gardener and it's not unusual for her to rise early in the morning to work in the garden.
"This morning, I got up at 4 o'clock to water the garden because I now work.
“My husband also works sometimes and I like my garden to be nice.
"I think he now loves the garden a little bit, a little bit," she said with a chuckle.
Text & Photographs: Copyright Ivor Markman 2013.
"But this is the first time now, for me (to exhibit);' she said.
Nonsebenzi's dream of showing what it was possible to do on a tiny township plot came crashing down around her during the garden festival.
Despite the fact she took time off work to be at home to receive visitors and talk about her garden, Nxuba municipality officials failed to inform her the roads were too bad to allow visitors into the township and they would not be sign-posting the township gardens this year.
They also failed to tell her she had won first prize in the township garden category.
As if that was not enough, a contractor broke the pipe supplying her house with water and for nine days she went without water.
Born on a farm outside Alexandria, Nonsebenzi has loved gardens ever since she was a young girl.
"My mother was always planting and selling flowers.
"She taught me about gardens.
"When I married I thought I would do the same as my mother;' she said.
Nonsebenzi started by planting vegetables in her small yard.
“We have something to eat when I plant vegetables.
“I plant cabbage, onions, everything I can afford," she said.