Cow poop and tomatoes

See these lovely little baby tomatoes, fresh-washed with rain? They were part of last year's crop, grown right in my garden - organically of course.

And what makes tomatoes grow big, sweet, dripping-juicy? Kraalmis - cow poop. The kind you buy in big bags from garden centres. Tomatoes love it! So do roses, and most other flowers and veggies.

I've just been up to my elbows in kraalmis again. The last of the veggies are planted out, ready to burst into colour and life and keep us in things yummy for months to come. New in the ground are two kinds of tomatoes, bush-beans, cucumbers, chilies and echinacea. Already doing their thing are onions, lettuce, basil, potatoes, strawberries, parsley, thyme, rosemary and chinese garlic chives. We've been gathering ripe plums and figs from nearby trees. One of the simple pleasures in life is delicious organic foods picked and munched within seconds. I'm hoping for a nice big crop of tomatoes especially this year.

Now one can draw all sorts of morals out of the act of gardening. Today's is this: after a year filled with cow poop, good things are growing. Deliciously enticing, fresh and enjoyable things that make me shiver with delight just thinking about them.

Sometimes all it takes a bit of cow poop and time to produce beauty.