Tour of the Gardens
Today Debby showed Michelle, myself, and two visitors around her gardens. She explained farming methods she's experimenting with as well as other work that she's doing in order to help alleviate some of the poverty here in Rwanda.
We began in the backyard where she's planted this kitchen garden. 
It's made by piling dirt, mixed with fertilizer(manure or composted material), into a mound. You'll notice a small brick pathway between bamboo poles where one can walk up to put compost in the hole at the top (see picture on right) or to water the plants with grey water from the house. Debby encourages people to place one of these near their kitchen door for convenient access to popular cooking vegetables and herbs. There is enough room on the mound to plant 20-25 cabbages which is a staple food here.
Also in the back yard are some examples of sack gardens made of fifty pound sugar/burlap bags filled with half fertilizer and half dirt. In the middle is a column of rocks that allows water to reach all parts of soil in the sack. Small holes are made in the sacks to plant the seeds. These gardens are about 10 months old so much of the crop has already been harvested from them leaving large holes in the sides. A sack garden will grow about 10 cabbages, 10-12 green pepper plants, or about 25 onions. These are a very inexpensive type of garden. If you had to buy everything (sack, fertilizer, seeds) it would cost less than $5. The sack itself is only 20 cents.
The next stop was the garage where Debby had several rocket stoves. These stoves are designed to use a minimum amount of fuel while producing a maximum amount of heat. The body of the stove is made of clay. The small golden platinum plate in the bottom section allows for better air flow. Debby has trained around three hundred people in the making of these stoves. Recently they were tested by a representative from the UN milenium project. They were tested along with other models of stoves presently used in Rwanda and were found to be the most effecient of them all. To the right is a basket with a sawdust or cotton stuffed bag that can be used in conjunction with the stove to increase fuel efficiency. Rice or other food can be brought to a boil then placed in this basket for an hour or two to finish cooking. The basket is also an ideal place for making yogurt or for keeping food hot.
Next we moved to the larger field below the house. A newer experiment for Debby is rainwater harvesting. When it rains the water naturally flows down the road and into the cement ditch at the head of the garden. From there it flows into a 5ft. deep by 10ft. square pit. This water can then be used to water crops if there are a couple of dry weeks during the rainy season. Having this water can make the difference between bringing a crop to harvest or losing the whole thing. Unfortunately it is expensive to build, so Debby is looking into other methods for helping farmers when expected rain doesn't come.
The latest farming method that Debby is working with comes from Zaire and is called farming God's Way. This method was pioneered by a former tobaco grower who became a Christian and felt that he should plant food crops instead of tobaco. However, his food crops weren't profitable. As he prayed about what to do, God helped him make connections between things he already knew about farming in order to come up with a much more effective way to grow food in Africa. This is a non-tilling, mulch based farming method. It starts with laying down a good mulch using the organic material left over from previous crops. This mulch protects the soil from being compacted or washed away by the rain. You can see that old corn stalks are used on this part of the field. Using a hoe planting stations are dug at specific intervals. After the first rain seeds are planted in these planting stations with a small amount of fertilizer.
The next part of the garden uses a double digging method for growing vegetables. In this method the top layer is moved so that the subsoil can be broken up. Then the topsoil is moved back and mixed with fertilizer. By breaking up the subsoil, roots grow straight down instead of spreading out. This means that they can be planted closer together, yielding a larger crop in the same amount of space. This is a very labor intensive method of farming. In the next growing season Debby has plans to possibly combine this method with the Farming God's Way method. By adding mulch the field, the soil should compact more slowly increasing the number of years between the double digging process. (Right now she's been double digging it every year.) Here are some green peppers and egg plant that were growing in this part of the garden.
The second half of the field contained about 200 moringa trees. (Debby's nurseries have produced 3,500 since she started the project a year and a half ago.) The leaves are very nutritious. They can be eaten fresh, but many people prefer the dried powder form. The stems and branches that are left over can be fed to livestock. Animals that eat moringa tend to gain a third more weight than other livestock. The seeds can be crushed to produce an oil finer than virgin olive oil that doesn't turn rancid. Then the parts left after making the oil can be used to clarify water. Virtually every part of the moringa tree has one or more a practical uses.
We began in the backyard where she's planted this kitchen garden. 
It's made by piling dirt, mixed with fertilizer(manure or composted material), into a mound. You'll notice a small brick pathway between bamboo poles where one can walk up to put compost in the hole at the top (see picture on right) or to water the plants with grey water from the house. Debby encourages people to place one of these near their kitchen door for convenient access to popular cooking vegetables and herbs. There is enough room on the mound to plant 20-25 cabbages which is a staple food here.
Also in the back yard are some examples of sack gardens made of fifty pound sugar/burlap bags filled with half fertilizer and half dirt. In the middle is a column of rocks that allows water to reach all parts of soil in the sack. Small holes are made in the sacks to plant the seeds. These gardens are about 10 months old so much of the crop has already been harvested from them leaving large holes in the sides. A sack garden will grow about 10 cabbages, 10-12 green pepper plants, or about 25 onions. These are a very inexpensive type of garden. If you had to buy everything (sack, fertilizer, seeds) it would cost less than $5. The sack itself is only 20 cents.
The next stop was the garage where Debby had several rocket stoves. These stoves are designed to use a minimum amount of fuel while producing a maximum amount of heat. The body of the stove is made of clay. The small golden platinum plate in the bottom section allows for better air flow. Debby has trained around three hundred people in the making of these stoves. Recently they were tested by a representative from the UN milenium project. They were tested along with other models of stoves presently used in Rwanda and were found to be the most effecient of them all. To the right is a basket with a sawdust or cotton stuffed bag that can be used in conjunction with the stove to increase fuel efficiency. Rice or other food can be brought to a boil then placed in this basket for an hour or two to finish cooking. The basket is also an ideal place for making yogurt or for keeping food hot.
Next we moved to the larger field below the house. A newer experiment for Debby is rainwater harvesting. When it rains the water naturally flows down the road and into the cement ditch at the head of the garden. From there it flows into a 5ft. deep by 10ft. square pit. This water can then be used to water crops if there are a couple of dry weeks during the rainy season. Having this water can make the difference between bringing a crop to harvest or losing the whole thing. Unfortunately it is expensive to build, so Debby is looking into other methods for helping farmers when expected rain doesn't come.
The latest farming method that Debby is working with comes from Zaire and is called farming God's Way. This method was pioneered by a former tobaco grower who became a Christian and felt that he should plant food crops instead of tobaco. However, his food crops weren't profitable. As he prayed about what to do, God helped him make connections between things he already knew about farming in order to come up with a much more effective way to grow food in Africa. This is a non-tilling, mulch based farming method. It starts with laying down a good mulch using the organic material left over from previous crops. This mulch protects the soil from being compacted or washed away by the rain. You can see that old corn stalks are used on this part of the field. Using a hoe planting stations are dug at specific intervals. After the first rain seeds are planted in these planting stations with a small amount of fertilizer.
The next part of the garden uses a double digging method for growing vegetables. In this method the top layer is moved so that the subsoil can be broken up. Then the topsoil is moved back and mixed with fertilizer. By breaking up the subsoil, roots grow straight down instead of spreading out. This means that they can be planted closer together, yielding a larger crop in the same amount of space. This is a very labor intensive method of farming. In the next growing season Debby has plans to possibly combine this method with the Farming God's Way method. By adding mulch the field, the soil should compact more slowly increasing the number of years between the double digging process. (Right now she's been double digging it every year.) Here are some green peppers and egg plant that were growing in this part of the garden.
The second half of the field contained about 200 moringa trees. (Debby's nurseries have produced 3,500 since she started the project a year and a half ago.) The leaves are very nutritious. They can be eaten fresh, but many people prefer the dried powder form. The stems and branches that are left over can be fed to livestock. Animals that eat moringa tend to gain a third more weight than other livestock. The seeds can be crushed to produce an oil finer than virgin olive oil that doesn't turn rancid. Then the parts left after making the oil can be used to clarify water. Virtually every part of the moringa tree has one or more a practical uses.
posted by Chrissy at 7:27 AM
2 Comments:
Okay, so the rocket stoves really have a tin plate in them not a gold platinum one. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.
Huh. And I just thought it looked awkward and skipped over that line.:) Do they really call them rocket stoves? Hmmmmmmmmm. . .it's a NASA conspiracy!
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