Published: Thursday, October 4, 2007
Garden makes life better for Somalis
Many of the gardeners were farmers in Somalia.
COLUMBUS (AP) — For more than 20 years in her native Somalia, Asli Huba worked a family farm with her eight children.
Then the civil war in the east African nation took the lives of four of her offspring, hurled the country into chaos and sent Huba to Columbus, where she has made her home for the past year.
Huba doesn't know the language in her new nation, but she does know the earth.
She has transferred her knowledge to a small community garden on the city's north side.
With her hands in the dirt, she feels useful and at home.
Even her aches and pains disappear in her garden, the 64-year-old said recently.
For almost a dozen Somali immigrants, mostly women, the garden near the Capital Park Apartments provides food for their tables and nourishment for their spirits.
Horn of Africa, which offers social services for African immigrants, started the garden three years ago to help families in the apartments for low-income residents. With a grant from the Columbus Foundation, 20 raised beds were built on a 1.5-acre lot in the neighborhood.
The garden has become a place where the gardeners have also undergone changes.
"Most of these people who are doing this used to be farmers back home," said Mussa Farah, who heads Horn of Africa. "They have been depressed in their home, doing nothing, having nothing to do. It's friendship. Most of the women didn't know each other."
With their long skirts dusting the ground, the women, laughing and chatting, tend the garden.
Each gardener has a plot from which she harvests a variety of vegetables, including green, cayenne and jalapeno peppers as well as squash, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and watermelons.
Huba likes the "original food" from the ground.
Essential food
Because the women cook daily, the fresh vegetables they harvest are considered essential to their meals.
"It will save them money even if it's small," Farah said of the gardeners, many of whom receive public assistance. "It is money they can save for another purpose."
Ayan Hashi, daughter of Huba, has a plot, too.
They save about $100 a month growing food for their table, the 20-year-old said.
With the vegetables, Hashi cooks soups, stews and sambusa — meat and vegetables in a pastry shell that is fried.
She shuns canned and frozen vegetables.
"The ones we grow from our hands are sweeter," Hashi said.
She numbers among the eight gardeners who work their plots after attending an English language class.
Beth Stock, who teaches English at the apartments, sometimes conducts sessions at the garden.
"It's been a real community experience," said Stock, who has toiled in the garden on weekends. "It has forged community. It's like a magnet. It just attracts good energy and good people."
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