permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

We finally talked with Kumbi and we discovered that he actually needs our help. At least he opened up, so we are teaming up with his mom to see if we can help him.

One of the pumpkins that I covered is growing successfully and it's exciting. I don't know though if I have to leave the pumpkin in the plastic until it matures. We have a lot of water we are trapping in the yard and eventually I think I have to start calculating how much water we are stopping from running off. It's been almost a day now without any rain and the shallow part of the water we are collecting gets to the ankle. This is water that could have been washed away. Now we are able to plant things and not water, because the area has its own water source for now. When I  went to the water harvesting pit, something black and relatively big swiftly moved on water towards some grass to hide, and I am so sure now that I love animals but I am definitely afraid of them. I am not proud of this but I need to be honest with myself. I would have loved to find out what it was but I chickened out, I stood quietly by the pit's side for a couple of minutes and my imagination started running wild, and it grew bigger than my curiosity, and I left.

I am now working on growing a hedge outside our yard which will help with privacy and also be a source of organic matter. The hedge grows so fast and wild, so all the trimmings will be going into our weed water. The organic matter we feed our beds with, dissappears as if no organic matter was ever put. We need to catch up with our soil's demands and it helps for us to have as much control as possible on most of the organic matter. During the dry season is when it is hardest to get organic matter. Mai Kumbi is now really invested in the field which means I need to be extremely organised in my planning. I gave Kumbi a break for him to clear his head and also so that he knows that working in the garden is not his only option. I went to him the first time when we started working together and he can easily think that the reason I helped him is because I cannot do without him, a position I do not want to be in. He will join me only if he wants to and he will be the one coming to me this time.

I've been following your recent developments and am glad to hear you're making some headway with Kumbi.
We right now are in the same weather situation-- lots of water, bordering on too much, the rain doesn't stop and we're getting a lot of soil washed away and diseases. Your raised beds are great!

I wonder if your garden visitor was a snake or a large lizard-- do I recall you had rats chewing on the pumpkins? Maybe this new "visiting employee" might be part of the solution. Warrants a little extra care dealing with areas where they might hide, but generally (as you saw) they are more eager to avoid you than to make trouble.

I am not sure about covering the pumpkins. I would think once it starts to dry out, condensation might get trapped inside the bag, and then attract insects/animals who might want water? I suppose you'll see as time goes on.

I hope things keep on going well!