GARDEN
Our philosophy is: try growing anything once and if it grows well and you enjoy eating it, grow it again!
Our mission is to promote food diversification in the areas affected by food insecurity. As we all know, maize is still the dominant staple food in Malawi although it has little nutritional value once milled into refined maize flour. Moreover, crops like vegetables, fruits and animals are produced in small scale. Even those farmers who grow these crops primarily sell them for money, not consume them.
To address the challenge of diet diversification we want to overcome the high maize dependency through: 1.) Encourage alternative crops, i.e., fruits, vegetables, legumes, animals, etc. (indigenous as well as those introduced) and medicinal plants (local varieties and introduced such as garlic, ginger, neem, etc.) throughout primary schools and communities nearby. 2.) Provide education to students, parents, teachers and community chiefs on sustainable ways of farming and permaculture.
In the garden you will find vegetables, fruit trees, herbs, spices and sometimes flowers. When people cultivate their own vegetables they enrich their diet with several nutrients. The addition of vitamins and minerals is very important, as other foodstuffs are often short of these nutrients
We designed the garden in harmony with nature, using natural ecosystem as a model for growing food, linking plants, animals, and microbes.
PLAN
MAPPING / DRAWING THE DESIGN PLAN
We took a walk around the primary schools together with teachers. We discussed ideas about what resources there are to capture, and what might go well where and why. We took in consideration the buildings, the current layout of trees, the slopes, where North, South, East and West are, the direction of the usual winds, where there is erosion, organic matter, and a list of all your resources.
CONSIDERATIONS RESOURCES The students of the schools were in charge of bringing the necessary tools for the actions – hoes, shovels, wheelbarrows, manure, and compost. We also collect a list of existing resources on each site like old bricks or timber suitable for garden edging.
SOURCE OF SEEDS
We provided all the seeds. Some of the seeds we got from Portugal at the market and also from ours Grandmothers, others we picket in wild places, roadsides and in the Headquarters of DAPP, like avocado pears and moringa seeds.
THE SPACE NEEDED FOR PLANTING
The space needed for planting: We started to study about companion plants, reading permaculture books and articles. After a deep search we could design our gardens matching plants that works well together and using all the space. All designs were mixed, not mono-species.
ZONES OF USE
Defining zones of use is a simple permaculture strategy for helping reduce the time and energy we need to spend gardening. These zones help us locate food plants according to how frequently they would be harvested and needed maintenance. Zone 1 is used to locate the activities we do most frequently like picking vegetables or herbs, so we create this zone close to the school. Although fruit trees harvested seasonally further away in Zone 2 or Zone 3. Considering that we planted the fruit trees around the school, in Zone 2.
LIFESTYLE, HABITS AND DAILY TASKS
We considered the way that students were living in the school. We found more suitable to create a garden in the yard of the school since the students could see the progress of the garden, identifying different species and also recognizing what tasks are needed to be done in order to maintain it healthier. Moreover, when the learners mop the floor they can easily throw the waste water into the garden.
LAND USED FOR PATHWAYS
When we started designing the areas we wanted to look at how we could create features and encourage people out into the garden by creatively using the paths. We also took in consideration that all food should be reach without stepping on the planting area. We needed to create some paths made from bricks in the center of the gardens in Bawa and Chasato.
FENCE
Fencing is not always necessary, because our model should be seen by as many people as possible. At Chasato it was needed to create a fence since goats and chickens were around and also to protect kids from walking on it. The best option was to create a living fence of plants and trees, but we needed something quickly so we decided to place available materials around the garden `s edge, such as: branches and thorny hedges. In Bawa some of areas already were surrounded by living fences, so we planned to create the garden in that specific areas.
ACTION PLAN
We wrote an action plan for each school and then we shared with respective principals.
Participants were introduced to some of the concepts of permaculture and organic farming, to different approaches to problem solving and individual learning styles and how to use these tools effectively in team work.
PREPARING THE AREA
We followed some of the Sepp Holzer`s fundamentals to create our garden mimicking what nature does.
All together we clear the place, cutting out the sod and after that we dig 30 cm deep trench and we filled it per layers. On the bottom we put branches and logs.
According to permaculture technics, the logs and branches act like a sponge. Rainwater is stored and then released during drier times.
Note: The more wood inside your bed, the less water it will need.
Additionally, the gradual decay of wood is a consistent source of long-term nutrients for the plants. A large bed might give out a constant supply of nutrients for more than 10 years. Soil aeration also increases as those branches and logs break down, meaning the bed will be no till, long term. Note: Hard woods break down slowly and therefore your bed will last longer, hold water for more years and add nutrients for more years. Soft woods disintegrates quicker.
We mixed soft woods and branches, to give off nutrients first, with hardwoods, to give off nutrients later. Then we covered the logs with a mix of sandy soil, clay, green and brown compost and some manure. A kind of upside down turf.
In Mbiriwza we decided to create a road side bed and divided it up to make it easier to access. What we pretended with this modal was to demonstrate a keyhole path as method of providing access to harvest the veggies without sacrificing too much space.
PREPARING SEEDS FOR PLANTING
Some seeds do best scattered directly on the surface, such as very small seeds. Other seeds prefer to be under the ground. We sow all the seeds directly in the garden but at the same time we created also nursery beds to supplement the garden.
Adding biodiversity is one of our mantras. We believe that inter-planting with species can provide ecological functions that helps the vegetables and fruits trees to grow healthier and more productive crops with less intervention. For instance, just mixing fruit trees together rather than having single species rows has been shown to reduce pest damage.
Together with headmaster and after long considerations we walked through a process to select food plants for our garden, considering not only the ecological functions of each specie but also their match with other species, if they are good companion or not, in other words if they work well together or if they don’t.
Some of the teachers had already a list of their favorite food plants in their mind. So, we decide also to take it in consideration.
Note: Went we bought some seeds here in Malawi and also in Portugal, we always searched by non-hybrid seed so that they could self seed
Companion plants selected for some beds:
We plant the seed with space between them to give enough physical room to grow both above and below ground. Too high density means that the planets will compete later on.
MBWIRIWIZA
Through this demonstration gardens we hope that students get a new way of thinking about growing food. They should be able to plan their own garden and landscaping around their parent`s home, where they currently live, or their future home.