Rufaro Makamure

I have planted two more trees, guava trees. These will surely make a difference in the future. I have included the bed that has been mulched from the beans section, it's still just one from yesterday.

Mai Kumbi started putting mulch in her bean beds. Kumbi has also been putting a lot of mulch in the older kale beds. This time individuals are doing what benefits them in their beds, so it's encouraging seeing that they are putting mulch. It means for all the years that passed and we would use mulch, enough time has passed to show the benefits of mulching, such that it is something that does not need some convincing anymore. I can concentrate on intercropping, experimenting with things until I get a combination that works for us. The beetroots I planted together with kale were eaten by chickens and some were covered by sand when it rained.

Today I failed to take any pictures, before I finished my planed job for the day I had shortness of breath and I had to go home. I am finding a couple of home remedies and if it persists I will see what I can do then.

I was pulling out some beetroots and there were worms on the roots, this is a win for me. The keyhole garden has so many garden worms.

The new project behind the house is shaping up. The number of bags with things growing in them is increasing. I have added potatoes to the mix and I picked up a cow peas plant that was growing on its own close to the banana tree, and transplanted this into one of the bags, I will watch if it grows, we can eat the leaves as we wait for the sweet potatoes.

I am getting some of the trees I will be planting at the plot from this corner.

I got a peach tree from the keyhole garden and my sister planted it at the plot. Its very hot these days, I hope the tree will survive. We surrounded it with mulberry tree branches.

I have included the rest of the spaces, Kumbi, my sister's and mine. We will be looking at the changes as we go. My sister is having problems with germination, but she is not giving up. Our soil is sandy, it needs a lot of patience.

We are four people now with portions we are working on. Mai Kumbi, Kumbi, Jackie and myself. I will be taking pictures of these different areas, the focus will be on
1) time and effort should show without words

2) how the land is treated as we focus on getting produce that benefits us. The things I will be looking at mostly are mulching and no commercial fertilizer use.

Today I took a picture of two spaces that are looking really good, these belong to Kumbi and mai Kumbi. The beans section and the new kale beds. The only thing I will be waiting for in this area will be whether there will be any mulching that will be put in some of the beds that are bare and how long it will take before  its put. I am hoping I won't have to push for this to happen.

Today has been one of the funniest. We decided to upgrade from the traditional sweeping broom to one we can use while standing and we decided to do a DIY using vetiver grass. We watched a video which looked fairly simple and we followed the steps. What we got versus what we expected are two different things. My sister was on the ground laughing the moment I tried out our broom for the first time. It's as stiff as hell..., but it gets the job done. Well, for now we will do with this broom but definitely it will be replaced. At least there is no bending as we sweep the outside.

I am so excited! The place I took a picture of the day before yesterday was weeded. Kumbi is on fire... On his side there are no beds that have weeds anymore.

Yes, most people have and are preparing their fields. This year, I am not going to grow maize. I have a completely different way of seeing things this season.

I will grow beans on part of the field we would grow maize, and the rest I will leave without anything. We will be getting grass for weed tea and mulching from this space. Before, I was all about spreading regeneration and growing our own food. I am still very much into this, but from a different perspective. I want to make a lot of money (I never thought I would say this), so I am starting by doing things that will avoid me from loosing any.

I need people on my side. I was looking across the fence, watching my neighbors and their workers as they build. Their progress is very visible. The thing that is making the men there work in the scorching heat is because they are being paid. I looked at my sister and Kumbi working and I need them to want to be working with me, the only thing that will make them keep working is if they get the value of their work in the form they understand, money. So I want to make this money with them. Kumbi got a contract for a month, but it ended, and since we started going to the plot, he is working on his beds with some energy that is commendable.

Because of El nino, I won't grow crops that will need a lot rain for them to thrive. We will work on our vegetable beds and we will use money we get from the beds to buy maize.

I am going to be big on intercropping, working with the beds we already have first.

Kumbi today was mulching. His beds look so much better now, and the intercropped beets are becoming healthier. I will add a picture of the beets weeks ago and now. I have also added a picture of a bed of kale, that resembles what beds would be like at their best outside the rainy period. This best was not the best and it's changing. The beds that are being worked on by Kumbi are responding to what he is doing to them.

I now believe in myself more, my sister is  excited to be at the plot and Kumbi is working on his own initiative. I know this momentum can be maintained if we start getting money that makes sense, so all the concentration is going to be on an area that we can manage to water well and produce for selling.

We have been getting herbs (parsley, cilantro, dill and coriander) from our garden and it's exciting. Plants like bottle gourd, ginger, sweet potatoes...e.t.c can be boring to water because they take forever to mature and the spaces with these plants will not give anything until after three months or so. So in the spaces I grew these, I put plants that take no time to be harvested, like lettuce and different herbs so that I get some produce within a short time and remain inspired to water. This has worked, the short term plants will push you to water them because you can see them developing fast and now the other plants are healthy looking and are easier to water.  I am mostly excited about ginger, which took its sweet time to pop out of the ground, such that I was beginning to think it was not going to grow.

The bottle gourd and the long Thai bean plants are sharing one pot and I was concerned about how I would split them as they grew. They were in the same wire mesh which they have outgrown  and I managed to split the two.

I used to celebrate harvesting spinach and beetroot leaves, I am so used to this now, I have ceased to celebrate this harvest.

The boiler maker didn't go to Apo's. When I talked to him he said he will see what he can do tomorrow. So we will wait.

At the plot, plants that are under the shade of trees are thriving more than the ones that have no trees closeby. I have some mango and guava trees from my nursery, I will start planting the trees where the vegetable beds are. My original idea was to  grow trees starting in the maize field, but looking at the reduced effort needed to successfully grow vegetables in the high temperatures when there are trees, I will start with where the gardens are.