permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

My youngest sister hated reading--She was 12 when she plowed through a 500 page novel in a few days and never stopped. The novel in question was FAR above her grade level, but that didn't matter once it engaged her imagination.

I had a similar experience--I loved my older sister, and SHE loved reading. I didn't (this was first grade, maybe 6 years old) but I wanted to be just like her, so I walked into the school library and picked a book that looked interesting. Read it front to back and never stopped. : ) I still remember the book.

A nephew it was science. A niece loved animals, so I gave her animal novels. Remember that some like novels, but some will do better with biographies, tutorials, or other types of books. Whatever they're interested in.

We have planted the germinated beans and this time more came out. We have more trays we planted in the past week and l plan to add more as we keep creating room for putting the bean pockets.

More are still coming out from the batch l selected the plants l planted today, so l will write the final number of the seeds that germinated successfully sometime later. So far, out of a total of 156, l planted 34 (making a success rate of 21%), l could see 44 still sprouting, meaning the rate can easily get to 50%. I even dug out some of the seed that showed no sign of life and one had a little root coming out and k stopped disturbing, so it could be way better. I need it to be above 50%.

With seedlings I intend to sell, they were not looking too great before but there is some light now. I am doing them in batches also, to help me master the skill of growing them without risking too much.

Of all the plants the sprouting of the bean seed is the most fascinating. We placed the planted seeds  right behind  a door that slides up and the first place l go to when l get to the plot is this place. I can feel my heart beating more and more when the door is sliding up and for all the times we (my niece and I) have seen the sudden presence of an elongated sprout  we both gasp spontaneously. I don't  know what happens to the plants  during the night, but the mornings are coming with a little miracle and we are loving it.

I have sold the first seedlings and it's exciting, they have more value.

We are still digging the holes in preparation for maize planting and l am putting a lot of grass in each hole. My hope is the grass will retain a lot of water underground in case we fail to mulch the field. We are also picking cow dung daily on our way to the plot, I am sure we will have a lot by the time we start planting and, we will  mix this with the kitchen compost and also the ash that we are piling up. I do not intend to put any financially demanding input in the field this season if l can help it. We already have left over seed from last year, we will use time and energy to cater for the rest, i.e. labour and feed.

Today I got 14 more bean sprouts, taking the germination rate up to 30%. This is so important to me, because my two main tasks are

exerting energy that yields results

finding crops of value that we will be able to grow as well as sell

 

We  have  sprayed bicarbonate of soda solution on our plants. We left one bed though, for us to look more into the soil properties, some of the new bean plants already look yellowish and I worry that it could be something to do with soil properties. I saw some tests we can do using household items, like testing for pH...and these are worth trying. It could be, something is inhibiting nutrients from being absorbed or we have a deficiency entirely.

We now have a total of 69 planted bean plants from the 156, making our second germination rate rise to 44%. We have a 3rd batch which we started planting today. The objective was to fill up all choumollier beds that do not have onions in them, but I am going to stop for sometime and work on how to make the existing plants healthy.

Today we received some showers, it was such a welcome surprise and it helped put a lot of things into perspective.
The prayer;
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
is what has been helping me of late, but the past few days were so rocky in all areas.
I remember going to the plot and seeing the bean plants continuing to turn yellow, the seedlings that were being asked for are the ones that did not grow properly and all of a sudden nothing was working. I started seeing unfairness in life generally and the above prayer did not make much sense. But the rain today made me realize it's not fairness in life that I seek, it's the ability to embrace life and appreciate the opportunities. I am lucky to be here, to see these lovely tiny droplets of water, all l need to do is keep on trying as a way of 'saying thank you', for another day and another opportunity.

The bean plants are becoming greener, we increased the watering frequency and we put fresh cow dung soaked in a lot of water in some beds and we soaked chicken droppings that were over 2 months old in other beds. The part with the cow dung mixture is changing faster than that with chicken droppings.

We are almost done with filling maize holes with grass and we are now toping with the kitchen compost as well as ash.

I have seen how healing the land makes some underlying opportunities that could have been out of reach to be accessible and this includes healthcare as well as providing a child with the right to protection and education.
My niece has left and she finally has an opportunity to go to school as she waits for her mother to heal.  (I am not a fan of the current education system, but because there is no alternative I think every child is entitled to at least this education). Her mother got badly burnt and circumstances surrounding this incident led to my niece coming to stay with us. I believe the time we spent together, especially at the plot, growing things together, allowed her to open up and she trusted us. She also came when we were ready for her. As we were working on growing the soil, we were changing some aspects of our characters (mother and myself). We were being healed from some of our fears and insecurities, we were creating time and improving so many other things unconsciously which made us more stable and ready for a child in my niece’s position.
Mum has taken in a number of children in her life time with the hope of helping them, but as years passed the benefits of this seemed to diminish for reasons that we could not put a finger on. (here is a story I wrote in 2016, which brings out how the will to help was there and mum, who is the aunt in the story, tried
(webpage , webpage )
My cousin, the one who got burnt is one of the girls whom mother took care of. Things did not turn out as mum had wished but the relationship they created then, made my cousin trust my mother with her child when things were not well for her. I am glad she gave us this second chance to be there for her and I know we didn’t fail her and her child.
My cousin is still with me healing. She was in hospital for three months but mum had to take her in and out of hospital because of accruing hospital bills as well as other factors, mum was a nurse by profession which made home based care a feasible option. Last week my mum’s sisters came and brought with them a bark from some tree so that we could use this as an alternative medicine for the wound. I was totally against it but I was too afraid to say it out. Traditional ways of healing are very uncommon and they a negatively viewed, they are almost demonized.  I had no trust in this method at all, even though ironically I am an advocate for the use of natural resources. We have been using the medicine and it’s miraculous. We soak the bark in water, sieve any suspended particles and then pour the solution over the wound and it does its magic. My cousin and I are both very happy with how the wound is responding to this medication. Since we started using it, her pain decreased so much and she stopped using pain killers which she had been taking every-day for the past six months. We are also no longer using the big bandages and some cream called SSD cream.
I look at how so much has been made possible just by improving our environment as well as sharing of knowledge and good relations and I am so happy. It has also proven that many things that seem inaccessible because of lack of finance are actually quite accessible if we open our minds to all alternatives.
*AND WE UNDENIABLY NEED TREES*  

I find it interesting that you are filling the holes with grass and topping them with compost. That is similar to the way ancient Hawaiians  farmed certain crops here in Hawaii. I’ve used this same idea for growing sweet potatoes and squash.

I’m also very interested in your observation about using manure tea from cows versus chickens.  I’m embarking in a new project where I will have the opportunity to try various manure teas on certain crops. I am wondering what differences I will see depending upon which animal manures I use.

I am very interested in following your story. Thank you for writing about it!!

Rufaro Makamure wrote:... Last week my mum’s sisters came and brought with them a bark from some tree so that we could use this as an alternative medicine for the wound. I was totally against it but I was too afraid to say it out. Traditional ways of healing are very uncommon and they a negatively viewed, they are almost demonized.  I had no trust in this method at all, even though ironically I am an advocate for the use of natural resources. We have been using the medicine and it’s miraculous. We soak the bark in water, sieve any suspended particles and then pour the solution over the wound and it does its magic. My cousin and I are both very happy with how the wound is responding to this medication. Since we started using it, her pain decreased so much and she stopped using pain killers which she had been taking every-day for the past six months. We are also no longer using the big bandages and some cream called SSD cream.
I look at how so much has been made possible just by improving our environment as well as sharing of knowledge and good relations and I am so happy. It has also proven that many things that seem inaccessible because of lack of finance are actually quite accessible if we open our minds to all alternatives.
*AND WE UNDENIABLY NEED TREES*  

The healing force of plants (including this tree bark) is not 'magic', the way it works only is not scientifically proved (yet).

Rufaro Makamure wrote:
Last week my mum’s sisters came and brought with them a bark from some tree so that we could use this as an alternative medicine for the wound. I was totally against it but I was too afraid to say it out. Traditional ways of healing are very uncommon and they a negatively viewed, they are almost demonized.  I had no trust in this method at all, even though ironically I am an advocate for the use of natural resources. We have been using the medicine and it’s miraculous. We soak the bark in water, sieve any suspended particles and then pour the solution over the wound and it does its magic. My cousin and I are both very happy with how the wound is responding to this medication. Since we started using it, her pain decreased so much and she stopped using pain killers which she had been taking every-day for the past six months.

Talk to your aunts about other treatments they know. Have them write it down. Even if these treatments turn out to be ineffective (and some might) you're recording knowledge that won't be available in another generation.

I am ridiculously healthy (probably due to Mom's way of feeding us as children) and haven't been to a doctor since I was in my 20's, but I'm collecting as much information and knowledge about herbal healing as I can. The pharmaceutical industry has proven that it's not interested in health but only in money, and I don't trust pharmaceuticals at all. Probably about the way you felt about this herbal medicine suggested by your aunts. Most pharmaceuticals started out as plants,/fungi and the effective chemicals have been isolated and created artificially to make pills and such.

Those effective chemicals still exist in the plants where they originated.

Some of the bean plants are growing really well. Below is a glimpse of the picture l had in mind of  a vegetable bed, where there is a thick layer of mulch to protect the soil and then a bushy plant not too far from the ground, to give good shade to the mulch and then a tall plant to just benefit us from the vertical space. Will see how it will turn out in the maize field.

There is a bean plant that grew on its own and we weren't paying any attention to it, but it's the most beautiful of all the plants. The soil it grew in is part of the field and l believe it has a lot to do with the soil as well as the partial shade so I am taking notes on the micro climate to create for my next attempt at intercropping beans.

I added more comfrey patches to try and hatvest the leaves for fertilizer.

Have you considered that the healthy bean might have been dropped from a previous harvest and just came up when the conditions were right? I find that "volunteers" are often stronger than those I plant on purpose, possibly because they have adapted to our conditions.

We planted maize 7 days ago. The temperatures have been very high. It rained yesterday and the holes in the field are so moist even when the surface sorrounding them shows signs of drying up and that's the first visible germination so far, it's exciting.

I have started harvesting Russian comfrey leaves for making a fertilizer, they are still a few, and l will be adding more as time moves.

The ducks we have had started eating their eggs but since the mulberries ripened, we haven't had that problem, they are also eating less from what we give them.