permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

This year our maize germination was not as good as the past years.  We redid the Sandy side completely, but now almost all the maize has germinated. The rain is still inconsistent and the only maize that has grown is for those with a supporting water source. The rain has delayed  this year. We have put beans and cow peas together with the maize. We are getting some of the seed from the beans we planted within the choumoullier beds.

I just came from the plot and l feel very lucky. I could not go to the plot for the past 3 days and l had been going almost on daily basis, except for Sundays. I was a little worried, something at the back of my mind has made me believe that for things to work l need to show up every day, though l trust the family that's staying at the plot.
I am not gifted with the ability to delegate, it is a skill l am learning to master. So with work that needs to be done in the field, we kind of just talk casually about our wishes and through this we get things done. When l got to the plot, every single thing we had talked about was done to perfection. This family is certainly not doing all of this for the money (this l know for sure) or out of fear. I believe there are two things that are usually worthless that we invested in, that is, building a relationship with this family and also building hope. Instead of only money being an incentive these two things are making this family stay with me.

A few months ago, they proposed we sell airtime (money for making calls on mobile phones) to help stabilize things. Because I am desperate to keep them l was open to trying out small little projects just to have additional income for them and for me. This project has given us only about $16 US equivalent in the last two months. So in terms of monetary value it's close to valueless but when we split this, l managed to buy a bucket of maize, which covers this family's mealie meal requirements for close to 3/4 of the month and the icing on the cake is with their share they bought tomatoes for re-selling while at home (i.e. at the plot). This is an amazing opportunity for me, they are increasing their own income while staying at our place and when we talked about how their small business is a 'customer' for the products we sell, for they can buy all the products we grow at whole sell price, they are so charged up, they want more production because the more products we have from the field, means the more they will have for their stall so it's a win win, they are giving the plot the time to develop.

I like the fact that it's not just money that is acting as an incentive and there's a chance that we both might just benefit from our relationship.

We have started planting sweet potatoes. This year, getting vine cuttings has been easy, we grew our own in October, we usually ask around from neighbors. The area we planted is going to give us more vine cuttings in the coming weeks, to plant on the rest of the portion we intend to grow sweet potatoes.

We recently received enough rain that allowed us to grow sweet potatoes, and Ngoni who is helping at the plot wouldn't let me or his wife plant the sweet potatoes. He believes he is the only one who has the "hand" for sweet potatoes. Both he and his wife were telling me how, back at their home, there was one woman whom people would ask for her to plant the sweet potatoes for them because there are some people who, when they plant, the sweet potatoes will be so thin. We eventually convinced him to have us plant a small area and we will see if there will be a difference between his sweet potatoes and ours.

Are you growing the sweet potatoes for the edible leaves, for the tubers, or for both? I am curious about what color the tubers are. Here in Hawaii we have many different colored tubers,

Sweet potatoes are grown mainly for the tubers. The colours we have at our plot are white and purple and then we might get different varieties in the mix this season. I picked vines along my way to the plot (some that grew from places where sweet potatoes would have been harvested) and these are the ones we planted in October, in preparation for the growing season.

As for the leaves l think l learnt for the first time that they are edible about two years ago and we tried them last year. I wonder though if there is a special way of preparing them. When l learnt that amaranth is eaten, l would just cook the leaves. A few days ago, my cousin who grew up eating it showed me the leaves that they pick and how to cook it. The really tender leaves are the ones that are picked and when cooking the leaves, the water that's used to boil it the first time is strained. It did not taste too strong this time around. Today we went to pick blackjack together with amaranth (weeds) from the maize field. I have never eaten blackjack and l am learning how to prepare these as well.

It's a little funny to know that we will have a meal out of 'weeds' from our field.

I totally enjoyed the blackjack relish, we had it for supper, it is soooo tasty and it's cooked the same as amaranth.

The plot looks green and alive. This year the rain delayed but it is now raining continuously. Our maize is developing tassels, the ducks are multiplying and the vegetable beds are thriving. We have replaced maize with beans this year on the sandy side. The goal is to keep this place alive and I think this year so far we have managed.

I have gotten support through this platform in many ways and I want to say thank you. Also I wish everyone a Merry christmas for those who believe in it and for others a happy and peaceful rest/ holiday.

In the past years I remember the delay of the rain would bring so much anxiety and restlessness and this would show, because the period of waiting for the rain to come would be a story on it's own and the pressure would leave room for nothing else. This year has been different, the anxiety has been there, but it is lower than all the years, even though this year's rain delayed more that most years, we started receiving it normally in mid December, we almost had a dry 2021. We have grown in resilience and we are going to keep building on this. This resilience is bringing opportunities that would have never been possible before, especially time-wise and being in the right frame of mind.
I have started looking into growing beyond just the plot, to make sure I create a safety net which is not bunched in one basket. I am looking for a regenerative related activity and because of the pressure which is lower at the plot I managed to get time to enter a challenge called the gigatonne challenge, which gives targets on carbon dioxide abatement. We entered as a team from my neighborhood and we ended up being 5 in the team, and our task was to collect compostable waste from nearby dumpsites, that would otherwise just rot away or from people's homes that they would burn. We managed to collect waste that reduces carbon dioxide emission by about a tonne. This challenge brought an opportunity which we are going to explore of selling compost, (first we have to bring value to the compost and we will do this by initially sharing it with some of our neighbors and somehow market the compost hopefully it will be appreciated). This is the first climate change related activity we have done as a group from my community and it feels so good to be a part of people who are contributing to the reduction of the climate change crisis.

We did a compost pit as well as a thermal compost

Welcome spring! What a gorgeous difference and what great things you're doing. Merry Christmas, Rufaro, and i hope this new year brings you success and happiness.

Happy Holidays, I always enjoy reading your posts.

I had a beautiful time at the plot the past few days. The family that stays at the plot went for their holiday and I spent some evenings alone which is something I had never done. The slightest sound would make me imagine not so good things, so l did not quite enjoy the evenings. But the mornings were especially nice. I don't even know how to describe how it felt, waking up and just having the field right there in front of me, walking to feed the birds...e.t.c. I am meant to do this and l actually have the privilege to experience this.

My sisters came and as long as we have home to come back to, there are memories that will never be erased (an even bigger reason to keep this place running). I loved watching them walking in the field and appreciating the good memories that we will always have and being happy.

I planned to involve my sisters in my daily activities and talk about regeneration and sustainability as much as possible. Well, I found myself spending 3/4 of my time enjoying unplanned girls time. We did talk about regeneration briefly and I was more of a listener this time around, it was eye opening. I realised how it is easy to forget that we are existing in a system that has it's rules and norms and change is a very gradual process. It gets easier if a few individuals prove that a certain lifestyle is a "successful" way of living, making it an available alternate way of living.

I did get help in planting Russian comfrey that I intend to use for the next rainy season. I got a lot of shoots from the comfrey  I planted a few months ago.

When I eased up on my plans I opened up to a more playful holiday. It was fun to just be with the girls, I won't forget particularly one jumpsuit incident. I really like jumpsuits and I own one which has a design that would confuse me. The pockets seem to have been sewn backwards.  I mentioned this to my sisters and they were in stitches. They told me the jumpsuit was for a person larger than me and my other sister who is relatively bigger than me wore it to show me. Well I still think the baggy version of the design is good, so there maybe a one size fits all garment after all.

I am optimistic about 2022 and just as I would treasure our season's harvest, I now treasure moments especially unplanned ones that I get to spend with people.

This year, l intend to plant onions in all possible places all at once, and l knew that l would not be able to afford the seeds. I talked to one of my sisters and she has agreed to invest in this idea. Talking to my sisters especially about money was not easy but l am glad l swallowed my pride. I think l really need to prove to them that my project works and that there is a different way of living which can both sustain and satisfy one. Because of this it was difficult to ask for support because it was as if l failed.

I am reading Richest man in Babylon with them. For the sake of continuity with the projects at the plot, there is need to include everyone in the dream for an abundant plot. We all have little foundation on financial literacy and this book has worked in helping "us" (mother and myself), to begin our path in changing our financial understanding, which helped a lot with projects at the plot. Now it's almost like I am starting afresh with my sisters. We are relearning what money is together and how we can work with what we have to experience wealth.

It is a lot more challenging with my sisters because of their different life exposures. Though we understand life differently, we got to a conclusion that there is need for radical change for there to be some freedom financially. The challenges that were being brought about as reasons why it is almost impossible to become wealthy, ended up being the things we need to feed on to fuel our desire to want to find a solution to a stable life.

Another thing to consider is to keep some of the very best onions and let them go to seed. Unless you have wild alliums in the area.

From one onion you could get hundreds of seeds, and continue to adapt them to your plot year after year.

We now have an area specifically for sweet potato "seed". I am interested in making my own onion seed, so l am going to plant onions in this area for the seeds. Will they need any special treatment/ care?