permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

That's a beautiful nursery area!

Dear Rufaro, it is so good to hear that you and mom are doing well! No rain from Cyclone Idai? Even so far south I hear such distressing news from the cyclone, and am only happy to hear that you and yours are OK. What a tragedy, just as you are recovering from the recent troubles too.

Like you I am learning to be thankful  for small mercies.  The way everyone is pulling together and trying to send help warms my heart. I remember how parts of Puerto Rico have not had electricity for eight months and then I see how from government to civil society people are contributing to make sure that no one waits for help in vain. In action we are showing that we are one species, one ecosystem.

Your  beautiful seedlings give me hope too. Such triumph over adversity! Warm hugs.

We finally had enough courage to check out some cobs to see how we have done and also to have green mealies. Most of the cobs have dried up though, but we still have some maize with ears that are still coming out. I think we will be okay. I was now being blinded by an area that had failed to do well. It is not even a significant fraction of the field, but it almost made everything blurry. The ambition to get at least 10 bags has more meaning than just getting a good yield. It means we can.We can have ambitions and follow them through. I wrote quite a lengthy personal story about how all of this came to be on my blog and the link is:
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Do you know what the difference is between the two sections? I'm curious to see what works and what doesn't under your circumstances.

Our field is on a termite mount, or at least what used to be a termite mount. So the field has a slope and the sandy area lies at one of the lowest sides. The part with the stunted plants seemed to be the easiest path for most of the water flowing through. It was not too different from the rest of the sandy soil area before, but now the path is distinct, the rest of the sandy soil has improved greatly.

Dear Rufaro, how are you? It is good of you to check in! Your harvest looks delightful! Well done!!!
I hesitate to alarm you, but it is only fair to tell you that there are rumours down here that the amount of water in Mozambique is so high the secondary rivers are flowing back into the Cahora Bassa Dam. They are going to have to open the sluices of the dam sooner or later, it is only a matter of time. And choosing whether a slow inundation is better than another flood.
I have no way of checking if the rumour is true, nor do I know where you are in relation to the dam, but wanted to warn you in case you need to do anything to prepare for flood and to warn your neighbours. At least beware when you cross dry rivers so no lives are lost.

Your thread should be renamed "too much, too little water" :)

With your sandy patch I see nothing that more humus cannot improve. Making it the focus of your compost building efforts should make it the ideal mealie field, especially if it is at the bottom of your slope where you can slow down the flow of water off the field, always with an easily removable midpoint in case of flood. This site has many discussions of the pro's and cons of hugelkultur swales, I have never had the opportunity to try it on my dry land, sunken hugels are the only thing that works for me. Still, I suggest you look into whether it might be a possibility for your land.

Praying for you!

Hi,

I wonder if you have read the many posts here by Joseph Lofthouse about his work in plant breeding. He has been able to breed varieties of plants that are well suited to his particular climate and soil conditions. In particular he has been able to do things like select for plants that ripen their fruits earlier. I wonder if such a plan might be helpful in your circumstances to get your crops ripened early, while your soil still has moisture.

Joseph has written extensively on her and elsewhere about how plant breeding. It should be possible for you to copy his ideas.

Thank you so much.
We are safe. The cyclone affected mostly the eastern side of the country and we are in the midlands.

That is good to hear!

Thank you for sharing your learnings and insights with all of us, Rufaro. Really looking forward to hearing how things will evolve in the future -- so please do update regularly!

I will put more effort on regularly updating. We are waiting for the maize to dry up and this season we decided to let the maize dry a little longer while still in the field, as we have lost a lot of maize due to poor storage. The waiting period is kind of putting everything on hold. You know how when something symbolizes something bigger than it is, in this instance this year's maize harvest could be a symbol of growth in the ability to plan, learn and adapt.  

Our neighbor and her son visited us at the plot, at the beginning of the year and I went around with them showing them what we were doing. Yesterday she called me at her place to show her how to make a rocket stove out of standard bricks.
It is over months and it was really nice of her to remember about the rocket stove.

People are noticing. Progress!

We have managed to harvest all the maize and we are now shelling. In the past years, we would shell the maize and every morning we would bring the shelled maize outside for drying and carry it back inside for drying. This has proven to be quite strenuous, and today we realized we can utilize space above our chicken run to put some of the maize out for drying. That way it will be okay to leave the maize outside even over night.

Prices of things have been sky rocketing in the past months. A 20L bucket of maize now costs $15 against its range of $4-$8 last year. We might be one of the very few lucky ones, to be able to avoid inflation in some areas of our lives, thanks to homegrown food and improved resource management.

I received images from my uncle in Hurungwe of his garden...! Simple thing but I know the effort he put in sending them, and I had lost the ones he had sent earlier. To think of his hopes being raised has lifted my hopes up.

In the past months I could see a dream getting weaker and weaker as I watched how things were turning out at a national level and my fears were getting the better of me (a little still).
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But when I got those images yesterday it dawned on me that I can choose the song I am going to dance to. I am not immune to what happens around but I can chose to focus on what problem might happen or do my best to make things better the best way I can in the present.  It is hope that keeps us going and two songs sum that up for me, one that shows it is possible to rise above any situation and the other one to remind me of my dream (Transcendence (Orchestral)- Lindsey Stirling; Tracy Chapman - Dreaming On A World)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGg47MvCG8k