permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

One duck hatched today, it has three ducklings. I have included images of the new vegetable beds, there is now a large area for collecting runoff around the beds. The maize field is coming to life, both the maize and cowpeas I planted last week have started germinating. For the years that follow, I am not going to try new things for maize growing except for working out how to incorporate cowpeas in the field, I learnt this year from my maize planting disaster that I need to be content with what I now have for the maize growing process.

We got 5 new ducklings again today, this one surprised us because we were expecting the little ones to come after the 20th.

Now that we are done with making beds, we have started working on composts. Kumbi and my sister were helping with gathering organic matter, it was like a little production process and having many helping hands always makes things so much easier and enjoyable. We got all the organic matter from the yard and the only thing we will be buying will be animal manure. I remember how gathering organic matter used to be a headache and it would make compost making a challenge.

I am quite grateful that I have nut shells available for mulching the maize field. It's very hot and though we are watering it is difficult to keep up with the extreme heat. The additional tap connecting to the drip tank has also been another blessing as we can use gravity when watering, it cushions us a little since electricity is not always available. I watered an area early in the day and the water would feel warm just a couple of minutes on the ground, the sun will be out as early as past 5am, I took an image of how the surface of the area we watered dried up a few hours after watering. It's like we are joking around in the field.

We are mulching all holes that have germinated cow peas, I know the holes that we mulch will buy us time and make our work a bit meaningful.

I was invited to join an NGO called regenerate Africa. It's something that's being built from the ground. It came just when I have been questioning myself about my ability to connect with a bigger group, with regards to regeneration. I think I have put in so much work and money trying to grow from being an individual, I never saw this coming and it is a relief, because it's inputs I made during the gigatonne challenge and also, my attempt to connect with small businesses that has allowed me to be noticed.

The NGO's goal is to bridge the resource gaps between those passionate about regeneration and are willing to walk the talk. If we succeed in developing a functional team, I couldn't ask for anything better than this.

Thinking about your area and the weather patterns. I wonder if planting the corn on the tops of the hills wouldn't work out better for you. The roots will reach down to the wet holes where you currently have the corn planted. But if you have a very heavy rain, the corn plant roots will stay dry enough not to rot. Maybe you could try a few corn hills, just to see.

A weird question, do you have access to coal?

Hi Thom, I am not sure I am understanding your suggestion. Are you saying, within the field, I maintain the holes, but instead of growing maize in the holes, I use the space in-between the holes? As for coal, no I don't have access to it.

We made a beautiful compost today, I managed to buy goat manure. We are now filling all the maize holes with shells even those that do no have germinated cowpeas yet, with no rain I fear I might loose the maize crop.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:Hi Thom, I am not sure I am understanding your suggestion. Are you saying, within the field, I maintain the holes, but instead of growing maize in the holes, I use the space in-between the holes? As for coal, no I don't have access to it.

We made a beautiful compost today, I managed to buy goat manure. We are now filling all the maize holes with shells even those that do no have germinated cowpeas yet, with no rain I fear I might loose the maize crop.

Yes, that is what I am suggesting. We had a long drought last summer, and my corn in hills did well. I did carry water to the individual hills several times, but no other irrigation. The corn was planted on flat ground and the hills gradually built up around the growing stalks. It seemed to help keep the root areas moist.

Your way of putting peanut hulls or other organics into the corn holes is good. My concern is that you are coming into the rain season (I believe it is Nov-Jan there) and if a heavy rain, may drown the roots. Perhaps next year put a few plants in hills to see if there is any difference. Or this season, hoe dirt over the corn bases to build up a small mound.

My question about coal. Charcoal also works well added into the organic mix.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:
The NGO's goal is to bridge the resource gaps between those passionate about regeneration and are willing to walk the talk. If we succeed in developing a functional team, I couldn't ask for anything better than this.

Well you are certainly walking the talk Rufaro well done! I found the regenerate Africa site online - looks like they have some good projects going on - big goals though! Every bit helps.....
I think your plot would make an excellent place for people to come and learn from. Or maybe you could write about it as a report for them of what you have found to work, before and after yields and inputs etc.

We are finally done with the mulching of the maize and that's before the rains have come. It was so hot, it was making the job so much harder. Two days ago, Kumbi came to us (which he rarely does), to just check on our progress and I am sure I heard him chuckle a laugh, but didn't say much except to acknowledge that he was seeing our effort. The following day at 7:30 in the morning when we got to the field, he had filled holes almost equivalent to the area we had done in two days and all he said was "I like seeing work that starts and finishes". I did not even hide how extremely happy I was, it was such a good surprise.

Another good thing again this week is, the project at the plot, is no longer my project, but "our" project with my sister. I used to ask my sister for help when things at the plot were overwhelming and she would help, but on Monday she just changed, when we got to the field and she helped out with the mulching. After we finished our day's work she started talking about how we should do things the following day. I no longer have to ask for help, it's now our thing as long as she hasn't gotten something else to do. I love this, because she brings a certain twist to things she pushes us,  and together we have managed to mulch the field without outsourcing help (except for the help we got from Kumbi). Now that WE are done, we are going to be planning the planting and maintenance of the raised beds. Because of the heat, most seedlings that we have been putting in the beds were drying up even when we would adjust the watering the best way we could.
We will see what changes we will bring in the next two weeks.

The already existing NGO called Regenerate Africa is a different one from us, I am not quite sure if ours is a branch of this or it's a completely different one, I will update when I have all the information. Right now I am just happy I got the invite from others, (I am not a misfit in this field anymore) but I do not have too much detail yet on who we are exactly. If we work on anything I will be sure to share.

We have started working on the raised beds. We are starting with weeding beds with some life in them and we are using the remaining shells to mulch the beds. I soaked some chicken manure, so we will start feeding the beds weekly with the chicken tea. It's a lot easier to work on the soil in the beds because of the ridges.

We have a bed we tried planting new seedlings and covered it to protect them from direct sun, still some seedlings are being burnt.

Wow! Serious amount of work you have put in. Impressive!

Thank you Thom, I am glad it shows. It's such a strange coincidence, when I was checking the seedlings, it struck me how much work we had done this time around.  Kumbi and my sister were resting, hiding away from the sun and it was around 10 am. We had already turned the compost, weeded and mulched some beds and Kumbi had watered a few beds.
It's definitely not the money that they are getting that is making them put such effort, I believe it's the hope that the land is now giving. In the midst of sad things we mostly hear of, locally and across the globe, our small piece of land is finally giving hope and drawing positive energy from all of us which in turn has results that are now showing.
There were even so many worms than most years in the field when we were weeding in the maize holes and it was a wonder to me since it's been so so hot.
Having an external person validate our effort is very motivating.

I have just checked the weather it had indicated it would rain today, I checked agained today and things have changed, it's not raining today or any day this month. I really hope the prediction is wrong, I am not too sure if we can sustain all our crops. All I know is the break we thought we were going to have is farther than we had thought. We finished the raised bed mulching today. We now have to start watering the maize tomorrow even with the mulch, it's not looking good and I don't want us to get to a point of no return.

Rufaro Makamure wrote:

I have just checked the weather it had indicated it would rain today, I checked agained today and things have changed, it's not raining today or any day this month. I really hope the prediction is wrong, I am not too sure if we can sustain all our crops. All I know is the break we thought we were going to have is farther than we had thought. We finished the raised bed mulching today. We now have to start watering the maize tomorrow even with the mulch, it's not looking good and I don't want us to get to a point of no return.

Praying for your rain!

This year's garden was very dry, and everything didn't sprout for weeks. I thought is was done, but a few rains in late June saved things. Carrying water in jugs was a lot of work and I sorely wished for a hose!

It didn't rain. When I got to the field instead of seeing how difficult things are getting, I chose to say that for every blow the weather hits me with, I will try again 10 fold. So I first replanted the bed with new seedlings, we didn't make it, the last ones got burnt and this time we made a thicker shade and it's suspended.
We also found out that there was no electricity, so we had to use the hand pump to draw water for the maize. I thought we are even lucky we have a well that's still giving us water, we are hearing that most wells are drying up. We pushed ourselves until my sister felt if we go any further she would find it had to walk back home. Mai Kumbi volunteered to help with the remaining area when power gets back.

I was happy because I need the next coming days to organise something for my sister's birthday and now that the maize had been watered and beds mulched we can break. When we got home things went south for me. I spent less than 10 minutes in the house and I got sick and sweating. I am kind of sure it's not what we ate, it's what we have been eating daily before going to the field.

I had to ask the birthday lady to go and pay for her cake, payment was due today. I am a little disappointed because I needed to prove that this alternative system has awarded me time to plan nice memories and this happens.

* A good accident happened. Before mulching the younger maize I had planted cow peas on a small area and then when the heat proved too much I mulched over the cow peas. They are popping up through the mulch and the germination rate is really good. I will be working on the cowpeas the next time I go to the plot.

It is possible that one is not defined by the work they do or their carrier choice though I will be honest that it is going to take some time to gain confidence and feel that with the lifestyle I have chosen, I am just as valuable as anyone else. Celebrating my sister's birthday was a success and the experience showed it really is possible to live a balanced and quality life even if one choses an unconventional lifestyle.
The weekend went way beyond what we all had anticipated or imagined. I could'nt surprise my sister as we had hoped to, she ended up helping me to organise things. We had a photo shoot since she loves photos, we went to see rhinos and we did an impromptu virtual reality activity, which was such an adventure. We even had a small party with our family. Our other sister who travelled from where she works for this was more than impressed.

An interesting thing that happened was I broke an unopened wine bottle on the evening we had a party and I won a wine bottle the next day, when we went for the rhino encounter. I was so happy because I was later on told of the extra effort one of my sisters had put to buy the bottle that I had accidentally dropped. The birthday girl is very happy and for all of us, virtual reality was our highlight.