permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

A friend brought her husband to the plot to show him how we are growing our maize. He is based in Harare and they want to work on their rural home where they intend to relocate. They are mostly interested in the substitution of fertilizer by manure, zai pits and the importance of covering the ground.

I have included images of a fairly knew residential place, where roads and sewers started being worked on in 2010. All the houses were built by individual families and for most, they raise the money as they build. People no longer build small houses, most of them fill up almost all of the space within a stand and it is not dependent on the size of the family . It is still a wonder how the finances are being raised. It is clear though for those in the diaspora. The area I have shown is the ghetto side. The low density areas have mansions.

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

Great idea! We had passion fruit at our home when I was younger. I will surely run this idea by my sister.

We have started selling chomolia and onions consistently since last week. We have been selling eggs also, these are on demand we actually have some booked in advance,  but we are still working on being able to produce a crate everyday. The eggs have dropped in number, to almost a quarter of the expected quantity. When we go to collect eggs, we find some of the eggs eaten by the chickens, I have slowed down on experimenting with stock feed.

Apart from just focusing on making good quality products, we want to try and produce products and somehow keep our expenses more or less constant, which will allow us to have a constant selling price, also we are making consistency a priority. So far we have succeeded on keeping a constant price especially on eggs, because we have had friends help us out with chicken feed (this is the main expense we have to control soonest). Chomolia has minimum expenses, we plan to boost money from eggs, with money we will get from selling chomolia, which we will then use for purchasing stock feed. We will then work on alternative chicken feed intensely as time passes by, until the chickens become profitable on their own.  Instead of most of the chomolia being sold at the plot, we have started selling in the high density area, which is more densely populated. It was so slow in the beginning most of the days we would not even sell any bundles in a day, but we decided to display anyway, until people get used to chomolia being sold at our place, now the sales are slowly picking up. We then use the unsold chomolia as chicken feed supplement.

I have added images for this month's progress at the plot, flower bed and the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden plants are still a problem, termites are chewing on the transplanted seedlings. What is better now is an almost stable supply of seedlings from the banana plant patch. After planting some at the beginning of last week, I had emerging ones and I have now planted some already, this will guarantee some kind of stability and continuity in the kitchen, we have covered great strides with the growing of maize so for the starch we are somewhere. Having stability in our personal expenses, will support our goal to maintain a constant selling price of any of our products.

I got beetroot from a neighbor who is now harvesting his. It is really big. We went round his garden and he showed me his mature compost that he has already started using. He divided his garden into different beds and he has grown multiple vegetables and we could be drifting from having gardens filled with chomolia. We share a garden space which is where our neighbor grew his beetroots, as three families and in this area we have one bed. I will not take credit for this neighbor's progress, neither will I completely right off the possibility of spreading of ideas through casual talk and being the example, without necessarily sitting down to talk about change.

I like the idea of exchanging ripe garden products because I think in addition to visually appreciating a garden by just seeing, actually eating a product sends a message even better. Just going around his garden was refreshing, as I was going crazy because I am failing to control pests in the kitchen garden. Only one bed has been close to 100% successful, in terms of bringing out the idea which is within my head, which is being able to have a plant growing at any given time within a bed and making sure there is variety within one space. The bed had pepper and before the pepper reaches the end of it's life, there are onions now dominating, I have beetroot and lettuce to take over when I get to harvest the onions.    

This year my mum is the one concentrating on the maize field, planning and all. She has already started working on her compost, I went to the plot and had a look at it and we turned it with the help of my cousin, and the compost is looking good. The other successful thing that I have noticed with mum is on the improvement of research skill and use of the internet as a tool, she is the one who looked up information on what causes chickens to eat their eggs and what we can do to improve and she did this all by herself. Of late mentally I feel so exhausted and it difficult to concentrate on planning, reading and writing and I have not done anything significant recently. I am concerned with whether we will be able to catch up with the changes occurring around us. What I have been able to do is to crush most of the rubble on one side of the lawn into smaller stones it is looking so much better.

There is a garden being started really close to our place, I have included images, I will includes it's images. Usually the owner grows maize in her portion, this time there is possibility of growing vegetables, I will just include her garden and hopefully she will have a variety of different plants.

Beet greens are also edible.

It sounds like most of your progress is social at this point, which isn't a bad thing. As other people start to notice and improve, it expands the pool of ideas (intellectual capital) and possible innovation.

You're probably crushing the eggshells and giving them back to the chickens (calcium) already. Anything growing that isn't used as mulch can be fed to the chickens, or you could move the chickens to where the food is.

I was thinking about the termites, in that sense. I'm not sure what you're dealing with is termites, as they usually eat only dead and woody materials. I was wondering about the possibility of giving a few of your chickens a small enclosure where you're having this problem, one of your beds, maybe--let them eat everything there, then plant and see if the problem comes back and how quickly. Maybe even the chickens that are eating their eggs, if you can identify them. Or maybe it's one WAY to identify them.

The chickens are really a resource in more than one way--turning garbage (plants, leftover food, corncobs and leaves, etc.) into useful manure, getting rid of insects, etc. One of my friends has "chicken tunnels" which he moves around to areas where he wants the chickens to get rid of pests. He made them out of old lawn chairs and chicken wire. Simply a metal or plastic arch with the wire stretched over the top. Easy to move and assemble, and he says the chickens really like it when he moves the tunnels.

Yes we have been crushing egg shells for the chickens. The area with the chickens, i.e the plot, is a  30 minute's walk away from the place with the kitchen garden. I am not sure it is feasible to put chickens in the kitchen garden, the kitchen garden space is the area between houses that is left unattended and some use these spaces for gardens, in other spaces there is garbage or just grass, it is not within our yard.

“People care” To add onto food stability, home care is one of the things we have been working on, and I believe a home with enough food and some order can result in a warm and welcoming home, because we will expect less from our visitors. The past month was a school holiday and we had visitors, my cousin and his son. When I learnt they were visiting, it sent shivers down my spine. I was mostly afraid, my cousin’s child would have forgotten me, for some reason it was so important to me, if he would remember. Other things I was afraid of are, if we would be good hosts and if our home would be a good environment for them. They once stayed at my mum’s place for some time, with the intention of having them as long as was necessary, but they left. Then, they were three, with my cousin’s daughter, but she is now married (she is very young) and I feel we as her family, let her down, we were not ready the first time they came to stay with us (but I also know there is nothing as too late, I hope we can be a part of her life, as we develop ourselves and also work on building a relationship with her father).

During their first days, I could tell my cousin was so protective over his child, it completely changed as he trusted us more and more, which was a wonderful thing. They left today and Taku my cousin’s son, did not want to go back, we had to trick him into going back, it felt so good to know he felt at home with us.  
We are expecting my grandfather from my father’s side, I hope it is going to be a good encounter. I hardly ever used to be at home when we had visitors around, it is either I was at school or work, hosting people is a really new experience.

My mother would tell me how they grew up. They had such a strong social network, which had really dark sides but there was a very beautiful side which was broken down by modernization. I have probably mentioned some things in my past threads. It was impossible to feel lonely, villages were true families, and most of their values were the same. There was some social balance across all ages, any grown up held a guardian’s position and disciplining a child was not left only to a biological parent, or someone paid like a school teacher. Imagine if we could merge things we are learning to make life convenient together with the strong social structure that existed…!

Another very good thing today is, all the onions that were brought from the plot, got finished very early in the morning. People are getting used to us selling at our place, and despite a very high rate of inflation we have prices that are almost fixed, well for now and I guess that’s the thing doing the most marketing.
We want to encourage less selling at the plot, which will open up more time for taking care of plants and animals, also the plot will attract less attention and the probability of theft there, (theft is generally on the rise) will be maintained at a minimum.

Whatever is eating my plants used to be selective and it would damage the emerging seedlings. Now it has graduated to well developed plants.

I noticed though that a cabbage plant I grew in the midst of onions escaped this creature, so I have planted onions around holes I intend to put cabbage seedlings, well in advance. I am also trying out cabbage surrounded by marigold and so far so good.

My Sekuru (grandfather) is home, I am happy and I am proud of the lawn area, it is a beautiful sitting spot for him, as he watches me crushing stones. I am enjoying his company a lot.

We have decided that for the money we get from any sales, instead of holding onto it until the month ends, the moment we raise enough money for a sack of feed, we will buy and about two weeks before end of the month we can then concentrate on raising money for the one helping us. Yesterday we went looking for feed and it had run out, when we checked again the following day, feed had gone up, we were fortunate we had enough to get a bag.

About the chicken eating their own eggs:
Do you know the roll away nest boxes?
It is best to get new chicken, who are not used to their hay nest box. When they grow up with roll away nest boxes, you have the cleanest eggs, and no problems of eiting their own eggs. Requires some carpentry skills to build, and testing of the angle.

Having Sekuru (grandfather) around is like having a window that sees into the past. Of interest to me is, how communities developed common values and of course how they used to grow their food.

In my Sekuru’s youthful days, they never used to put things that “burn the soil” as my sekuru puts it across, not even compost or manure, they would just plant and harvest bountifully. The feature that attracted his fathers to move to where they are staying now is a river called Chivaka.  They never used to cross the river because there were plenty of long deep stretches of water within the river, which served as habitats for crocodiles and hippos. The river has since become so shallow, they sometimes survive out of riverbed water, “mufuku”. Zach Weiss’s talk on water cycle restoration, clouded my brain as I listened to this. The changes that have occurred within a century, show how much we have taken for granted the gifts given by nature and misused them. Knowing we can reverse things is a really promising thing. webpage

Below are images of mufuku and an update of the two flower beds that belong to my neighbours. I will write about how the community in the hey days, kept drawn together in my next thread.

I have seen the third tree being cut right in front of our houses, in a space of two months. Trees are being cut seriously, now even the few trees that are very close to houses are not being spared. The man I saw cutting one of the trees, just said, "there is no option, we do not have electricity, gas is not affordable and we no longer have trees in the forests close by so the ones in the residential areas are the closest ones". I have a couple of observations I made as I tried to figure out how we have gotten to where we are now. It would be unfair to completely put the blame of the destruction of nature on the one guy who is cutting trees. It is a series of decisions for long periods that has led us to where we are.  
webpage  

Dear Rufaro, here is a video on how to make your own solar cooker. You can do it first from cardboard and then when you have made one or two you can try using wood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5CdNH3sQT0

There is also an entire rocket stove forum here on permies - rocket stoves are designs that allow you to use less wood, even twigs and brush rather than logs. A heat preserver (Wonderbag) is also a piece of equipment that meets speedy uptake in the communities I have worked in.

You can also go really old school and heap some thick rocks in a hollow and line with foil. They will get hot enough to fry an egg in, don't worry.
I am sad for the trees and the climate, but more than that it seems only a matter of time before they are all gone. Might as well start working on the solar cookers while you still have time because it is the inevitable option. There will be plenty of sun this summer.

Hugs, Yvette

Natasha Abrahams wrote:There is also an entire rocket stove forum here on permies - rocket stoves are designs that allow you to use less wood, even twigs and brush rather than logs.

I wonder how the tree cutters would take to being given plans for how to create a rocket stove? Particularly if Rufaro builds one, it could be an amazing example. Cutting the trees is only going to increase the problems in the long run.

** Sorry, Rufaro. I forgot you already had built one!

As we were going to the plot, I saw fields being prepared for the next farming season, time does fly fast. This year is the first year we did not spend most of our time working on what to improve, for the maize growing to be a success. We have some degree of certainty that the work we have done in the past years will allow us to harvest as expected without any additional costs, with reduced time dedicated to the field, and the field is a lot more resilient both to the climate and economic conditions.  

I have had more time for the chickens, kitchen garden, seedlings and the yard. I am happy about the seedlings, they are now growing so well with almost zero effort. We have also managed to separate my mum's personal income from the plot's revenue, and the changes are remarkable, we have sold so much more than ever before and we are growing more, so as to improve on our quantities. A simple decision to put onions within chomolia beds has given us much more for the same effort and space. We now use less water for the kitchen garden as well as the onion bed right next to our yard. With the onions all we did was to change the level bed into furrows and we saved water by more than half and from the same bed we got over two buckets of extra mulch. The simplest things are proving to be the most beneficial solutions.

It had been a long time since I had heard from my uncle who is in Hurungwe and there is an update on the cart he was fixing that I am eager to hear about. I only learnt yesterday that his plants were eaten by goats and I think the reason he was not communicating is that he feels he failed.
I think nothing beats trying, never giving up and always improving   in order to make things better. The last time he spoke he had mentioned that he did not grow his garden throughout the whole year like he did this year. I am yet to get full details on this, I had assumed he grows his plants throughout the year. If thi is true, it is an achievement on its own to be able to keep the garden going for the whole year. I have one very beautiful picture of his VIP clients, “his wife and child” feeding off his produce, which he had sent about a month ago. I was saving this as I thought I would send it together with the update on the finished cart to show progress. Well I hope he will continue working on his garden and sending updates, whether things are going well or not.