permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

We managed to get a sack of pearl millet (mhunga), a bucket of sunflower and a bucket of soya beans. The more these grains become a part of our daily lives the more real and closer we will be to having them as part of our field products.

Consider using the sunflowers to shade other less hardy plants. I let them get about three or four feet tall, then chop and drop and let them grow back. I've never grown the other two.

One thing I do (if I have enough seeds, which it appears you do) is to scatter the seeds in various areas. What comes up tells me where that particular type of seed likes to grow. Then if I want to expand I know where to put them or how to change the environment so they'll grow well.

It is interesting to watch how wicks suck water, the tomato holes are soaked with the watering. The first bottle is finished and I guess I put the hole to allow the thread through into the bottle, a little too low.

There is progress in the kitchen garden. There is an area, which is directly under a tree, that has plants with retarded growth as compared to others. It could be too much shade or the roots from the tree are affecting the plants' roots. I put the remainder of the compost from last time on all the plants and part of the lawn, so I will see if there will be any difference. I also just turned the compost I am making, so there will be a constant supply for the kitchen garden.

I have included pepper planted on the same day, but has differing growth rates

I had a look at the gigantic carrot in the garden... and I doubt if I will wait for a seedling to be ready as replacement for the carrot after removing it. I am itching to see how big the whole carrot is.


Tomorrow is the first day I am officially combining house maintenance, kitchen garden and duties at the plot. The number of eggs being produced by our chickens has decreased to less than half, so I have decided to look into this, the food and everything else that might be causing this reduction.  

I managed to get three different vegetables from the garden. The target is to maintain a variety coming from a small space and having a steady supply throughout the whole year, since we can grow things for the whole year. In the past two months, I have been picking pepper only, now there are carrots and beets, meaning from this month going onward I have to strive to collect at least 3 vegetables once every month, and then increase on frequency as time passes.
I might have found a second plant from the wild that we can domesticate.  I discovered the use of amaranth as feed for chicken and it grows uncontrolled on some patches. The leaves seem smaller though, than the ones I have been seeing on the internet, even the seeds are so tiny and they are black.  
Is there anyone who knows if it is okay to feed any type of amaranth to chickens?

We were storing peanut shells we use as mulch, in sacks and drums.As we work on improving the care for the chickens, we realised we can lay the shells, for the chickens to scratch, that way we can get even more out of the shells.

Some changes are occuring, a garden just after our house was mulched yesterday and the family who gave me some of the rubble, covered part of their place with rubble, it seems they are also working on their outside yard. Small individual efforts could actually lead to a great space with protected and covered soil, we will have reduced washing away of soil in the long run.

My sister sent her story and how she decided to consider exploring more on sustainable living

2018 September I decided to move out of a bachelor's flat that I was renting, and move into a tiny house.
Mostly it was inspired by my sister's stories of sustainable living, which led to my increased interest in alternative lifestyles. Watching amazing videos for example living big in a tiny house by Bryce Langston, opened my mind up and I decided to make some changes, starting with a realistic look at my financial position and taking charge, this is the reason why I had to move out of a bachelor’s flat.
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Having done my small design (that suited my budget and schedule of materials), it was time to look for the items in the market. For a moment it looked like an impossible task and the temptation of reversing my decision seemed to be the only logical thing.
I had planned to use some reclaimed materials and I would get them from the nearest auctioneers.
That month prices of goods started to go up, they tripled and they kept going up at a shocking pace. So I had to rethink my design and find much more affordable solutions. The best solution ended up being a wooden cabin I bought from a friend. I moved in, during the rainy season, so water to use was readily available.


I was lucky that I had family to support me during my relocation, my mother and twin sister for financial support and encouragement and my young sister for moral support. I started my journey to a minimalist lifestyle. I had to get rid of most of my furniture  , the comforting thing was that the money was really useful in my transition period. Other things I had to give up, included a convenient location, where I could get everything I needed at a walk-able distance from my home, including walking to work. It meant I had to change a lot of things.

I view my position as a chance to be innovative and to discover if I am able to create a comfortable and convenient home for myself, as I make positive steps towards financial stability.

 

One lady who has been helping in our plot for the past years, has just started working on zai pits in her own field and it is exciting. She is also talking about adopting compost making so that she substitutes artificial fertiliser.

I got pictures from my uncle of how his garden looks towards the end of winter and it looks good. He is also getting weeds from the dam which he puts in his beds.

Rufaro, I'm really interested in your stories! Thank you for posting them here.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:... I discovered the use of amaranth as feed for chicken and it grows uncontrolled on some patches. The leaves seem smaller though, than the ones I have been seeing on the internet, even the seeds are so tiny and they are black.  
Is there anyone who knows if it is okay to feed any type of amaranth to chickens?

Hi Rufaro,
do you feed the leaves or the seeds?
Some species of amaranth may contain lots of nitrates in the leaves, therefore should not be fed in too high proportion of the feed.
About the seed color: in other species, dark seed indicate difficult to digest compounds. Again, if it is just a part of the diet, no problem, but feeding them exclusively on dark amaranth may become a problem.

Seeds of amaranth are however tiny, and can be sent posted by mail easily. Do you have a somewhat reliable access to mail?
I am quite sure if you ask here, someone has some seeds to share (I currently don't).

In case you are too shy to ask:
Does someone have seeds of amaranth to share?

Here is a variable landrace that is 60 cm tall, of all colors
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/grains.html

There are other varieties getting to over 2 m tall, under which you could keep the chiken and let them harvest the falling grains. You just need to keep the chicken out untill the plants are strong enough.

Below are images of my uncle making "fertility trenches"/raised beds. He takes out most of the topsoil on the portion he is concentrating on and then fills it up with organic material, it could be weeds from the dam, banana plant cuttings, cow dung or any other item, then he covers these with the topsoil he would have removed. He also sent an image of the dam he goes to fetch water from which is close to where his garden is.

The amaranth that I found wildly growing is the one I planted. The seeds haven't germinated yet, but I got a sample of both the seeds and the plant. I am also working on feeding our chickens with maggots. I have been successful in breeding the maggots using the chicken droppings. What is still puzzling me is how to have the maggots drop from a bucket I punched holes in, which I then transfer the maggot and chicken dropping mix in, I saw it online.

Wow, your uncle has created an excellent system! Fantastic!

Thank you for the photos.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:I am also working on feeding our chickens with maggots. I have been successful in breeding the maggots using the chicken droppings. What is still puzzling me is how to have the maggots drop from a bucket I punched holes in, which I then transfer the maggot and chicken dropping mix in, I saw it online.

I'm not sure what kind of maggots/flies you're working with. The black soldier fly which is often used in this kind of system has an instinct to climb, so a small ramp to the edge will have the larvae literally dropping over into the dirt. Other flies have different instincts as larvae, so what is the habit of this particular fly? Do the larvae seek out the light? Do they want the dark? Do they go for areas of more moisture, or less? do they climb, or burrow? How can you adapt your system to adjust for these and make the bucket self-feeding?

It's neat to have more information on your uncle's work. I did something similar a year ago (although on an entirely different level) since I had leftover sod/grass. Piled sticks and yard debris, then the grass upside down, covered with leaves, covered with woodchips, covered with more leaves, and soil over the top. Didn't work as I'd intended, but it definitely stays wetter than most of the surrounding area.

I promised myself I would send images for how our house as well as our plot will look after winter. The progress is so slow but I am still proud that we are going forward not back sliding. Most of the area we have control over has either stone or grass mulch (less washing away of soil and increased percolation), we are trying to improve on beautifying the place (which will add value and create a more loveable space), and we are still attempting to grow a variety of our own food. We are also still improving on self management in our daily chores, for improved use of time, this has created more moments to just talk.

The recent thing I have heard about my mother's childhood is about squash (the very watery one which is between a pumpkin and a water melon), we use it for making porridge. When they would eat the porridge, they would hunt for any seeds that would have been mistakenly left, while preparing the porridge. A child would feel so victorious when they came across the seeds (referred to as children when found), they would then throw the seeds in the fire checking out whose seed burst the most. I found this to be an amazing incentive as compared to the current "bring each other down competitive approach". The main idea then was to encourage whoever would prepare the porridge to remove as much seeds from the squash (victory if the porridge wound be finished without a single seed found) and for the kids to not complain so much if they would come across seeds in their porridge, a game was invented that actually made them look forward to a seed in the porridge. It was a win win.
Below are images for the house.
PS: kitchen garden might look like nothing is happening but some life is within that layer of grass. Of course I do admit that a faster pace could be attained.

I have gone back to the drawing board to see if I can de-cluster seemingly too many task and properly prioritize, with more emphasis on the important tasks and finding a way to deal with the urgent. I am able to do this, because  we got fortunate and got help with feed for our birds for some weeks, and this has released some pressure which was building up, we are very grateful. Images of the plot's progress are as shown below, I am mostly happy to see feathers growing back on most of the chickens.

My internet is slow for uploading pictures currently, but I will. One man from whom I get some of the mulch for the kitchen garden, called me to show me a space he has created for his flowers. They are still tiny but I really think it is a great thing he is doing. He also agreed to let me take images of his flower bed as time progresses.

I have also been successful with one area for seedlings, and this is thanks to the tip of trying places out, by randomly throwing seeds and watching how they grow. The area with the banana plant that we get greens from is so ideal for seedlings. for most part of the day there is an area that receives a lot of shade and because it is so close to the kitchen, it is almost always wet (we usually just throw water as we do chores), so there is no risk of seedlings drying due to lack of moisture. I placed the hosepipe holder on top of the seedlings to keep the dogs away, they have been a menace when it comes to my seedlings.

In the past month we had a fair share of meals with beetroot and we are slowly acquiring it as part of our needed vegetables, avocados have already passed and are now a part of our "common" vegetable in the house. I still wonder how something so cheap, readily available and so tasty was not a part of our grocery items, before this year. Beetroot is also so easy to grow and requires zero chemicals, I honestly think when it comes to increasing food variety at a family level, the bridge could just be a little knowledge addition. I am still experimenting with the spider leaf plant, it flowered before we even harvested any leaves from it, so I have to keep on finding the right way of growing it so that we can domesticate it.