The Farmer Umbrella

On a tour of Theresa’s Backyard Garden by two wonderful visitors to Grenada, it started to rain. Nothing heavy, but hard enough to look for cover. Selwyn from the tour company were the guide for the day and was a little way from where we were. I was busy explaining about the guava and my visitors were busy picking and tasting.

The rain started to fall harder and by that time, we were looking around for Selwyn. He was happily sheltering the rain under what he called the farmer umbrella.


The farmer umbrella is a banana leaf. The idea is you stand close to the tree and pull a leaf over your head. If you stand sideways, it will cover your shoulders as well.

That was great! I would not have thought of it if Selwyn were not with us. He calls it the farmer umbrella because when he is in his garden he always has a couple of banana leaves just in case it rains.

It was an experience, not only for my visitors to Theresa’s backyard Garden, but also for me.

This is one of the lovely and unusual experiences you can have when you visit Theresa’s Backyard garden.