14 Aug 2018

Mmatone Modise is making a living through her backyard tree nursery called Mmatone Nursery, located in Rasesa.

She revealed this in an interview recently that she has long loved keeping and taking care of flowers and trees.

She explained that her life changed for the better after meeting someone who took her to the department of Forestry, where she graduated from the poverty eradication programme under the tree nursery project.

It was at training where she learnt how to do flower arrangement and which trees were susceptible to pests and bees.

At the moment, Ms Modise is growing flowers to be used in the next wedding season.

“Growing trees is the major source of my livelihood. Sometimes I buy the ones I do not have, but later I plant them.”

She said she used to grow trees as a hobby but when people started showing interest in buying them, she realised she could turn that into a business.

 “The business is able to feed my family as I am able to pay for my water bills,” she said.

She was given a net, tank and wheel barrow to upgrade her business through the poverty eradication programme.

She sources soil from Mochudi together with manure. 

“Gardening is a job; if you do it you can see a difference in your life,” she said.

The 56-year-old woman buys flowers from Gaborone and she is thankful for the continued support from the community.

She also rents out pot plants, noting that the costs depended on the number of days the plants would take at the person who hired them.

Besides selling, Ms Modise said some people normally paid her to plant trees at their places and she enjoyed doing it.

She has been able to hire one assistant who helps her take care of the nursery.

Her major challenges, she said, included lack of transport, high water bills and plant pests.

She explained that she incurred a major loss last year due to hail storms.

Ms Modise advised those who wanted to venture into gardening to have love for it as some plants needed extra care and pruning from time to time. 

Plants produce results after sometime and therefore perseverance is needed.

Her future plans include having a bigger space to accommodate every type of flower and plant to reduce purchasing flowers from Gaborone. 

Currently, she is growing shade trees as she wants to keep bees in the next summer. ENDS