permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

You said that you need to meet with Ngoni to plan out the year, which is something that might not be done well in a casual discussion. If you come into the meeting with concrete plans and ideas that you don't normally discuss, then a separate meeting makes perfect sense. If you are just going to talk about the day to day stuff that you always talk about, a meeting is going to make both of you nervous.

Have an agenda, not necessarily written but simply a list of things you want to discuss with him. If you have that list firmly in your head, the meeting will go there.

I know that as a child I had no opinions, and admitted to no emotions--it was simply safer that way. It took years before I could have a simple discussion with another person and state an opinion contrary to their own. It's one way my brain tries to keep me safe.

As an adult I still find myself echoing others opinions rather than stating my own, which is a form of self-betrayal.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:...

So, I have been looking for a non religious or non scholarly book to read in our house, "a close to mission impossible task". ...

I think so too. Almost every book has something like a religion or belief behind it, because it is the point of view of the author.

I met with Ngoni and the best thing I took from the meeting is that we are still together for some time. We talked about a number of things mainly focusing on expectations and clarified that we are both responsible for meeting our expectations.

With the maize sales we made, we can borrow from the maize account and get feed (cow dung and chicken manure), to boost the feeding of the soil we have been mainly putting grass in our vegetable beds because there is a big area to cover. We will also buy onion seeds, my sister (who wanted to get the seeds for us), has too many things going on for the month and l couldn't bring the onion seeds issue. But for the sake of having something we work on together, (which l believe will bring us closer if we have the right intentions), l will see if she is still interested in the onion project in the coming months and reimburse the "maize account". At least with my brother, his ducks are at the plot and somehow they make us talk when we plan on how to get his project running, from a distance, even when sometimes we could have had nothing much to say to each other. So the place has a potential of keeping us together.

We  need to have a product we can sell like we did with maize. We added the sweet potatoes, beans did not give us a good yield. The cow peas plant had so many leaves but has no pods which is puzzling.

Hi Rufaro,

1998 I visited the Mana Pools National Park for 30 days and it was breathtaking.
Swales and Ponds are sure great water catchment systems, but I found something else in Zimbabwe what was breathtaking.
A Thunderstorm and the enormous masses of Water coming down.
It lets me guessing swales are a permanent maintenance factor and lots of fertile just built up soil will be washed into the ponds and so create another maintenance factor.
Beside this I guess also your ponds will not be capable to catch up all the water and erosion.

may be I was lucky to witness an exceptional huge rainfall but if not there is another solution that loves wet, drought, sun and heat and humidity.

Did you know when you plant Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) in dense rows,  it will benefit the soil, it will protect from erosion by acting as a filter, it will even build a natural barrier that keeps a certain amount of water on the fields, it shade out weeds and especially corn bugs will prefer Vetiver Grass before corn, only to lay their eggs on the leaves and stalks where the developing caterpillars will fall off and die from starvation.
Flood cannot harm established Vetiver Grass rows because their dense root system will go within one year up to 4 meters straight downward into the soil.


If you have grazing animals they will love this grass in the early stage (Cut and feed all 2-3 month) which has lots of protein and a huge amount of other benefits...

It was in Thailand introduced by our Royal Highness King Bhumibol and it was difficult to open the minds of traditional farmers.
Places where Vetiver rows was planted as a substitute to swales, neighbors quickly copied this cheap and lifelong solution from the first farmer.

I haven't been long enough in your country to come up with a great idea, but this might be a helpful tip I wanted to add here.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:Selling of the green mealies is going great. We decided not to go to the market with the mealies and we have been reaching out to people in the neighborhood and it's working perfectly. We have been going with the maize to the customers, and now some know that we are selling and they are now coming to the plot.

From this test we are glad because we can still maintain a very low carbon footprint from growing the maize up to when it gets to the customers' plate. We have not used any form of transport other than a wheelbarrow and our muscles so there was no fuel to burn, the maize grew from grass and a little bit of compost as any form of feed to the soil eliminating our contribution to greenhouse gases that could have been as a result of the application of artificial/human made fertilizers (minute contribution but worth it). We had no pests to worry about at all this time. Then there was no packaging, we get back our bags as we deliver. So it's an achievement worth celebrating.

Hi Rufaro,

The Mealie / Corn looks great keep up the good work. Remember to keep the biggest cobs for next years seed.

By the way a lot of people have never seen or eaten white corn, all they know is sweet corn.  When ever I have a BBQ - Braai I make
up some pap and sauce to go with the meat.  Standard fare in the bottom part of Africa.

Cheers
Anthony

some pap and sauce to go with the meat

That right there is so typical of a braai in my local area.
There is a section in the  field that we didn't grow maize this time, that is, the sandy section. We had put some beans but these all drowned when it rained. We decided to put vegetable beds on this part. This is the best way we can improve the soil, this area was giving low maize yields with so much effort, so we will see if we get something  meaningful  profit-wise from this space after we try this. We put onion seedling beds and we will  put other vegetables. For protecting the seedling beds from too much sun we first put maize stalks, supported by the ridges, as a frame for suspending the grass so that it does not rest on the soil within the beds to avoid damaging the seedlings once they emerge.

When I read about the planting of grass , I am thinking of permanently partitioning the field  step by step and maybe l could use this grass in between the partitions. I  can  dig the area on which I intend to grow the grass to form a trench which will allow most of the troublesome water to flow away  from the  beds faster while at the same time allowing what we can, to sip into the ground and we will also have our own mulch right in the yard. Would a two meter space be wide enough for a grass patch?

Rufaro Makamure wrote:
When I read about the planting of grass , I am thinking of permanently partitioning the field  step by step and maybe l could use this grass in between the partitions. I  can  dig the area on which I intend to grow the grass to form a trench which will allow most of the troublesome water to flow away  from the  beds faster while at the same time allowing what we can, to sip into the ground and we will also have our own mulch right in the yard. Would a two meter space be wide enough for a grass patch?

The Grass is best suitable for making Barriers around the grow beds to keep the fertile soil in place and build up (the Grass will go higher accordingly with the soil build up.)
You can make great  impenetrable barriers for even finest silt like soil if you allow Vetiver Grass to build up about 40 - 60cm Clumps with the right spacing, then you can harvest the outer slips and continue to "fence" more parts of your Land, mulch around trees or make more grow beds.

This way you also recover "lost"  Nitrates that are washed up to 4 meters into the soil out of reach for your veggies.
Before flowering you use then the cut from time to time to cover the beds with an excellent mulch layer using chop and drop method.
And yes, also the walking paths between the beds can be covered which gives a very comfortable surface to walk on.
 

Vetiver Grass neither will spread from underground roots nor it produces seeds. The easiest way of propagation take slips off and replant them somewhere you want them.
AND Vetiver will stay in the same place for Generations or until you cut them at the roots, easily removing the heart of the plant completely.

Vetiver Grass Roots are also high valued for perfume industry buy I guess the most hardest part is to find a buyer for it, but the Value as erosion control is the main interest due to its long fast growing straight downward root system and thick clumps above the surface.

I am an absolute fan of Vetiver Grass and now where we just bought 24000 sqm land I will use it for many things even Livestock food and checking how Geese like it as they a sole grazing animals.

The fantasies of use are unlimited and sure to much to list.


 

This sounds really interesting. Thank you.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:The cow peas plant had so many leaves but has no pods which is puzzling.

If it's like other legumes, too much nitrogen will do that.

Was sorghum or millet ever grown traditionally  in your area ?, i have only ever had a go at ordinary bird seed type millet so no experience  , african millet has been a major food crop in south africa and i have had the occasion to drink the millet beer ---its an aquired taste --sour --and quite filling ---very low alcohol --more refreshing drink than something to be going overboard on ---(but i have seen people do exactly that)---makes good chicken feed as seed ---what does seem to be an advantage is its lower requirement  on water than maize. Sorghum i tried to grow a small patch but never got  to harvest ---we are to wet cold and not enough sun--and then wasps tore into stems so much they caused it to topple over---they were after the sweet sap --my plan was to see if i could grow my own sweetner---we do have sugar beet here but its a bit more to it to get the end product out .Used to seeing sugar cane more than any other crop being grown and harvested, another time long ago , was where i saw cane/grass cutter being caught and braai ed ---never got a chance to try it ---local people had high regard for it--nigerian  agricultural department has a big drive on it to farm and improve breeding --they raise them on agricultural left overs---pure vegetarian animals.  Do admire your tenacity to keep going ,making best of what ever comes your way , with what you have  to hand  , you are a true farmer.

Towards the end of last year we got someone who offered to give us free cow manure. We did not have a means of getting it to the plot till the day before yesterday. Unfortunately when we went to the lady who had offered, she said the offer was not on the table anymore, and that was a blow.

We are proceeding with our usual approach, so as we make new vegetable beds, we are levelling out the other beds with choumoulleir already in them. We would raise beds and put most of the soil at the edges of the beds, so now we are pushing most of the soil to the center making the beds level, to help with water distribution when we water the beds. We are also clearing the yard of weeds, and all the yard waste is going straight into the beds as mulch.

The day l got to hear about the cow dung not being available anymore, l found that beans was being sold to people at the plot. I was super confused because Ngoni kept on emphasizing how our yield was not at a scale big enough to sell, which l totally agreed with. I was surprised he was selling the beans. I do not know how to digest this at all, Ngoni was trying to say something to me but l did not hear much and l have no comment yet.  Trust has gotten us to the point we are at, l am not sure how to even feel because of this incident.

I really need this family, they are amazing people and l hope they open up more so that l know what's going on.

The bean and nyemba experiment had results that are not too convincing, if one is to try to sell the idea of inter-cropping with them in maize as well as in choumolleir beds. I strongly believe it works so I will try again this year. I learnt that I need to take care when to plant, the bean plants that grew on their own in the veggie beds, after the rains had already come look so healthy (will insert the picture when I get the chance). Also I need to separate my bean seed that I am already harvesting. Some are for pole beans and some are bush beans, the pole beans will be for the maize field and the bush will be for the veggie beds.

Hi Rufaro,

Have you heard about the 3 sisters plantings that was used by the North American  Indians. It consisted of growing corn, beans and a pumpkin/squash. You start with the corn and when its up about 2 feet you can plant three beans at the base of the corn and a small type pumpkin/squash in between the  corn. The corn acts as a stake for the beans and the pumpkin/squash provides a ground cover to keep in the soil moisture in the ground. Three crops in the same space as one, and each one giving and getting something it needs from each other. A true monoculture in one bed.  You could try sweet potato for the ground cover as the young leaves are edible.

Cheers
Anthony