Winner urges: Plant your own backyard garden

CANE END RESIDENT, Olivia Da Silva, the woman who won top honours in the 2025 National Independence Committee’s backyard garden competitions is urging everyone who is capable to plant a back yard garden.

“I spend less because I do my own lettuce, I do my own cucumbers, I do my own tomatoes. I have spinach… these are necessary vitamins that you need,” Da Silva said on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, from her back yard garden in Cane End.

This year, Da Silva captured two major titles in the annual Independence competitions. She placed first in the best backyard crop garden, and the best flower garden competitions. In 2024, she won first place for her flower garden.

Da Silva said her backyard garden has significantly reduced her food bill.

“Sometimes I look at the market prices and just shake my head because I know I have mine coming up,” she said, while revealing that despite the abundance, she does not sell her produce, instead, she gives to her friends and the church.

The retired educator said she grew up in a farming family, learning by watching her parents, both now deceased, how to work the land.

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