permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

One recording I wish could have been possible was capturing my mum's words yesterday evening. She came in from the plot and just said from nowhere, "It is bare", I looked at her trying to make sense of what she had said and she continued, "the field is bare". I could feel my eyebrows raising and my mouth open so wide. It is one thing to have my mum agree to having trees in her field, but having her see how bare the field is, is huge, it could be a reflection of how she now perceives things (like it is no longer an external influence, it is internal), i.e in relation with the importance of trees in her place.  

It is not the only thing she has done to surprise me with. She made a huge compromise this morning when we were discussing the issue of how we want tasks to be carried out, especially with things we engage the help that we hire, it is not the first time we have been talking about this and it is among-st one of the things at the top of the list on issues we see differently and are trying to find common ground on. We were discussing on routine work for the person who is staying at the plot, and I feel that we would rather do one thing at a time, and master it and then add more things as we go. As opposed to, trying out everything we come across or hear about, especially when we hear someone has made so much profit from it. I think it keeps us from growing as we are open to be blown anywhere the wind blows, and it majorly frustrates the person we will be working with because we will end up overloading and expecting too much from him in a short space of time. But if we focus on a few things with the plan of expanding as soon as our capacity allows us, we will be able to use our resources to the fullest. We have not agreed on anything, but my mum today just said she is willing for us to work out what it is we think is of priority and we break it down into daily chores (at least as a guide). Anything else that crops up, will be on me and my mother solely and if we cannot do certain tasks we will get help elsewhere, except interrupt the man staying at the plot.

Why I think this works for now is,I believe at full capacity, chomolia and egg sales will be enough to cover the expenses for the livelihood of the man staying at the plot together with his family, as well as other running expenses, without my mum having to take money from her personal pocket, which she more often does. So we could start by allowing this family to produce the maximum possible from this area. Our job there will be to find all the resources and to come up with the best  and easiest and efficient ways of growing chomolia as well as rearing of chickens and also to sell the product. If the plot can take care of itself, it means that the family staying there is not going to be an expense to my mother, but they are working for themselves. Then when we have established what we can get from chomolia and eggs, we will be in a position to know how much extra things to add, in order to expand and diversify.  

I found a simple solution to a problem I have been having with my flower bed design. I made raised semi circles as small beds for my flowers to allow for as much water collection between the flower beds and the lawn, without drowning the two, as there is a lot of water that collects on that area during the rainy season. Unfortunately I had not ridged the sermi-circles to avoid water from flowing down when I water the flowers. I had tried to raise the edges but it would only collapse the semi circles, and redesigning was difficult as I have some picture of what this place can be with the semicircles and a runner plant falling over as a live mulch. Only last week, or the other week it dawned on me that I can take soil from elsewhere and mold raised edges on the semi circles. The place holds mulch better and already the flowers look greener.  

I laughed at myself a little embarrassed at how my flower bed came out, but I think for now lets see what is on the ground and acknowledge, but work with the vision in the head, in order to keep the momentum. I will see how the simple solution makes a change in the next month or two.... ha ha ha (I do not have the embarrassed emoji but it is really convenient at the moment).

Today is that day of the month where I get to pick more than one plant from the kitchen garden (as I mentioned in an earlier post I intend to have at least one day every month where we get not less than three different vegetables). I will not take credit for the tomato, it just grew on its own and I never watered  or cared for it, I just let it live. That is the last tomato from the plant, but there is another tomato plant growing on its own, this time I put a support on it.

Make sure you get seeds from those tomatoes! Any time you get something growing without help, GET SEEDS!

I got more flowers today and planted them, the flower bed looks more lively now. I was not prepared for the new flower prices, I went thinking the fern is at most $5, since I had bought it for a $1.50 the last time. I found one place selling it for $20 and the other which has very cheap seedlings was selling them for $15. I was fortunate to have the decision maker on site, When I mentioned I had not anticipated such hikes, he asked me how much I had thought they would cost and I told him $5 maximum and he sold four ferns to me for $5.

It is the third time I am replacing the flowers, as they end up drying, this time I know it will be different.

The tomatoes from the kitchen garden have started flowering. Two plants are looking healthy, the other one is wilting, and it is the one that started flowering, but the yellow part of the flower has not come out yet, though it has for the others. I am out of ideas as to  what it could be and I am crossing my fingers it does not affect the other two.

It's normal for plants that have begun flowering and fruiting to be more sensitive to changes in the environment. They need more water, more nutrients, etc, so they wilt more easily. Just keep an eye on it. If your soil is slightly acidic, maybe put a little ash around it for potassium and phosphorus. I wouldn't suggest that if your soil is alkaline, since ash is highly alkaline on its own.

The woman next to us is inspiring. She does not give up easily. Part of our gardens were destroyed last year, when the city council was making depressions along road sides to allow for water flow, during the rainy seasons to reduce water bone diseases which was on the rise. We both (our neighbor and us) re-fenced our gardens, and our neighbor used poles completely whereas we added some wire. Lately, electricity hasn't been readily available and the demand for firewood shot very high and the trees are becoming fewer and fewer. People started stealing poles that were used as fence for gardens and my neighbor was not lucky as some of her poles were stolen. She decided to remove the remaining ones and use them as firewood. But she did not give up, I have been seeing her watering her garden and it was not clear what exactly she has been watering. She is growing a hedge, a live fence for her place! It is so genius of her. We had a chance to talk about wick irrigation as well as putting an inverted bottle as a way to water her hedge. We sampled the inverted bottle and we will see if she likes it.

The main reason why it is a must to fence is because we have donkeys on the loose. I hear in the hey days, it was forbidden to have animals like donkeys in the urban residential area, but now they are all over. They are used by people who are into firewood business as a mode of transport and this is a thriving business at the moment.

I am glad the two chomolia beds we made last week have suckers with life in them. We have a new guy helping us and he has some experience with the growing of chomolia. The work he has done so far is so much more than what my mother and myself could have done in two days. I now have a chance to make a shield for the two trees we added in the free range area for the chickens, as well as to look into maggot production. I am going to try and cut the fence which surrounded the kitchen garden, but was buried in the soil last year. On the down side our pump for the borehole is cutting after a few minutes of running as of yesterday, we are hoping it is not a serious thing. We are suspecting it could have something to do with water level in the borehole going low. My uncle told me that their dam has reached a level they have never experienced in his lifetime. Crocodiles are now exposed for most part of the time, which was uncommon, he suspects the weeds that he uses also take up a lot of water. He promised to send some images when he can.

I managed to cover the trees, the cuttings had grown leaves on them, but they were all eaten by the time I finished. I tried the fence, the holes were too big, tried using grass but the birds were pulling out the grass and eventually we ended up using sacks.

I also gave the chickens maggots, one seemed initially scared and flew away when they moved but the meal was finished in seconds. Now I need to work on a way of producing plenty of maggots.

Another neighbor who has started working on her flower bed.

I had a look at carrots which were growing healthy and something that I have not caught yet is eating them. I had replaced hot pepper plants that were also eaten. I am suspecting termites so the next seedlings will put, l will make sure I add some ash.

Another neighbor who has started working on her flower bed.

I had a look at carrots which were growing healthy and something that I have not caught yet is eating them. I had replaced hot pepper plants that were also eaten. I am suspecting termites, so the next seedlings l will put, l will make sure I add some ash.

One good intention can easily result in a disaster, but with beautiful souls, a potential disaster can be avoided. In the past few days I met with most of my extended family, and I had the opportunity to be with my uncle from Hurungwe and my cousin whom I had given the money I had received from a friend, to buy some wire for fencing the garden in Hurungwe. It has been six months since we got the money and we were not sure if our cousin still had it. It was a relief to discover she still had the money, she had just failed to top it up in order to buy the fence as she had promised and because of the distances she had not found a way to return the money.  We then decided we would buy the things that would enable the smooth working of the garden until my uncle becomes comfortable enough to survive off it. He had ideas of his own which we respected. He wanted to top his stock of seeds, so as to avoid running out, buy pesticides and also to find help with watering his garden. For the help, he intended to use beer as an incentive for the men he would engage, as he said beer was the cheapest and easiest way for him (when he had run the idea by me the previous night, I was not too surprised, as I based my knowledge on a common practice called "nhimbe" that I would read about or hear from others on how beer was/ is used in the rural area, when people help each other in the fields, I had asked him to also talk to my cousin about his intentions). But because my cousin (the one I had given money) experienced both a rural life and a town life, she knew a better and more durable way to solve the same problem,which was for him to work on his cart, a thing which turned out to be affordable, with the given budget. This led to a heated argument which did not end well between the two, as my uncle was fixed at doing things his own way, and would not be moved despite how all the other family members who were still present explained the advantage of fixing his cart and the temptation of misusing the powder for beer brewing for pleasure, instead of obtaining watering assistance. The catch 22 situation was that, the cousin my uncle exchanged strong words with was the one to help him with the buying of his things as she is the one based in Harare city. There was a very high possibility that my cousin would refuse to help, since she had absolutely nothing to loose in all this. When she had cooled down she is the one who looked for my uncle and took her time to explain why she thought her solution was a more lasting one, and after my uncle consulted with other people he discovered that indeed the other solution was the best. He was helped to shop around and now he is back in the rural area ready to fix his cart.

All the drama happened when I had already left for Gweru. Before this, I was seeing how extended family in the modern days, is slowly leaning towards a disadvantage rather than an advantage. The common thing nowadays is, in a family the successful person ends up taking care of the bulk of the family for most of his or her life, as they will be the fortunate ones. Instead of those who are helped to act in a way that eventually lessen the burden on the helper, they relax because they know that even if they do not work hard enough, someone else will clean up after them. Also when family would meet, it was rare to discuss issues that mattered. For a change, a family ganged up to help in the selection of an optimum solution to a member's challenge. And because of the deeper relationship that existed, there was patience, tolerance and understanding. It also took someone who really knew in depth alternatives, to solving my uncle's watering problem in his environment to find the best solution. Discovering that just giving someone money might not be a guarantee that things will work out, it is a relief in this case, to know that there is a support structure that will help us in our quest to make things work in the garden.

I have included a link to an article I found with more information on "nhimbe".

webpage

It looks like nhimbe is similar to the european idea of a barn raising or house raising, when the whole community comes together to finish a task. Reciprocal barn raisings were common, where everyone would get together to build a barn or a house for neighbors, one after another, until they all had what they needed.

I'm glad your uncle was able to work things out. The beer may have brought in workers for a few days, but the cart will likely last years.

In the U.S. we generally include pizza with the beer for a volunteer work party.  It works great for a few hours, up to a whole day occasionally, as long as there's not too much beer.  It isn't a long term solution though.  If you use it too much, you burn through your social capital.

I also had the opportunity to see my sister’s cabin (temporary accommodation) for the first time and her work is incredible. She did pretty good improvising what she had, to come up with a decent place. She reused most items, e.g. for curtain rods she used bamboo, hammered together wooden planks to make beds, using the space under her bed as her cupboard…and a lot of other innovative things. She outdid herself…
This move she made is way-out of the normal, I will include an image of what the normal buildings being built by a general person are like, (these days, building houses is the most trendy thing around).
We celebrated the victory of making the first steps, to getting out of what is a seemingly superficial success, where it is important to put up a “I have made it front”. We want to find out if it is possible to start a completely new life, in an honest way through hard work and family back up (my sister) and also, what it takes to carry on and improve a life from an older generation,(myself).

Great tiny house!
but if I may: the tin roof is going to fry her and make life unlivable in there. A solution to this would be to build a kind of frame above it, like a pergola, and grow some vines on it. This would shade the roof, and the evaporation would cool the area down even further. In colder climates, it is done with grapevine.

Do passionfruit grow at your place? Or luffa?
Then you would have two uses for the structure, or even three if you divert the water next to the vine.

Is it feasable to gather material which lasts for a few years to cover the roof? Like a few metallic posts, and some wire?

On wikipedia you can see a few examples, without building underneath.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergola
All the best