DJ mixes it up in his garden

Whether it’s a small kitchen garden at the back of the house or an extensive ten-acre plot for wholesaling at the local market.

What motivates many people to start their own vegetable garden, is the fact that it is an easy way to save money. That peas plant that costs $1 can easily provide about three pounds of peas over the course of a season.

With a little advice from your neighbourhood agricultural shop, a passion for the activity and the imparted experience from those who practised the science with success, anyone could start planting their own food.

Planting a garden that includes vegetables could turn a potential eyesore into an attractive landscape feature, and not of course, there’s the benefit of knowing exactly what grows in your own food.

One such person who is discovering the joys of gardening and the benefits, is local DJ, Marlon Pierre, aka Marlon Mr- Muzik (MMM). When not on the airwaves, Pierre who won the International Soca Awards for Best Soca Radio DJ in 2010 and 2011, tends to his backyard garden.

He loves to show the fruits of his labour with posts on social media and invited Newsday to visit his small garden which has been a labour of love for the past two years. Pierre said he really enjoys gardening now and has outgrown the allocated space.

AMM. What made you decide to start your own home garden?

MMM: Well, my uncle had a kitchen garden and I visited him often. So the frequent visits and seeing the fresh vegetables all the time is what peaked my interest.

That’s what started it. Seeing him picking it fresh and then cooking it.

What crops did you start with? I started at the side of the house because where I live is a concrete jungle. Celery, chive, tomatoes and hot peppers were the first to be planted. I was unwilling to start because of space, so my same uncle told me to use buckets, barrels and drums cut in half. Seeing the produce I got from that motivated me further.

The next step was to fence a piece of land behind me and do it on a bigger scale.

How much space are you using? About 150 feet in total.

What crops are you growing now? pommecythere (grafted), thyme (different varieties) and avocado.

How costly was the project to start? I bought dirt, manure, bricks, wire, some tools, spray can, pipe system, fence and water pump. I wanted to start a little bigger than usual, so I fenced off an area. Everything cost about $8,000 to start.

How much money do you believe you are saving? Not sure, about $600 per month for my personal use. You have to remember as I said, I also give away a lot. But for my personal use, it’s around the $600 mark.

Tell me about your watering system and how often do you water your crops? I started going around to have a look at what other people who were gardening were doing, so I could get ideas. I also inquired at the hardware about sprinklers, and a pump system for the garden home. I also visited some small farms so I could look at their watering system. I did spoil a few fixtures in building my own system but I got good at it.

How difficult is it to maintain your garden? It isn’t very difficult. Just a little every day would do. I clean like once a month and spend about 15 minutes to wet and tend to them.

Have you had any previous experience in gardening? No experience whatsoever.

Didn’t even know what was blue corn. I was wondering why my plants wasn’t looking like the other farmers’ own because I didn’t want to use any chemicals.

How many crops have you lost due to ignorance of gardening? Lost about 40 plants because they were too close.

Planting the pimento too close to the hot peppers caused the growth of the plants to be stunted.

But when I started giving friends and family and posting pics of the crops online, I started to sell a little because people’s interest grew.

One person from Sangre Grande came because he knew it had no chemicals in my plants People telling me I should sell more. What do you think? What kind of nutrients do you put in and is insecticide used for all the crops? All I put is the blue corn for nutrients and one insecticide.