Let me start by saying that neither of us had gardened before. We both had parents who dabbled and my biology background gave me the confidence to give it a go. On the plane ride to Botswana I had smuggled through customs a ‘Gardening for Dummies’ starter kit. That’s all I needed right.
So with the reading I had been doing and my new found confidence and of course my Gardening for Dummies booklet, we decided to give it a shot right when we got to site. First order was to clear our yard of weed and get our plots in order. Winter time was on so we planted our seedlings inside the back window so the late night frost didn’t zap them. We set to work making several nice size beds as well as a compost pile. Katie decided she wanted to know more about composting and I’m glad she took it on. I took a wheel borrow over to a ladies goat pen and traded some vegetables for some manure. She got the better end of the deal but I liked practicing my Setswana.
The beds were enriched and our seedlings were showing promise. We lost a few sprouts in our transplanting but we managed to put a nice garden together. It’s fairly difficult to grow good plants in sand. We kept them watered 2 times a day and in a month or two we had some vegetables. We planted; zucchini, egg plant, beets, carrots, watermelon, sweet melon, radish, green beans, tomato, Swiss chard, lettuce and some mustard spinach. The local plants grew the best and some, like the mustard spinach, we didn’t like and ended up just giving them away. (recall Sunday Blog) We were proud of our little garden. It was like raising a pet. When we would return from a long weekend, we went strait so see how our garden was doing. We worried about it being alone with out our tender loving care. The biggest threat was goats. We only had problems if we didn’t shut the gate all the way or if they snuck in behind some kids that were always coming over to see the white people. They would ruin a garden in an afternoon no problem. So I devised to thwart them by building box cages out of chicken mesh that we could set over some of our plants. This worked great. Our only encounter was when we returned one Sunday night from the weekend and saw that kids had been by and not closed the gate. I also saw small hoof prints leading into our yard. It looked like we were eating goat that night. In the back yard there were 3 or 4 goats doing their best to undo all of our hard work. One was standing on my flattened chicken mesh cage wondering why he couldn’t bite the lettuce. We herded them out and locked the gate. We had heavy hearts but knew that goats were a possibility and we had already accepted it if it ever happened.
The little goat incident came at the exact time that our house ran out of water, the roof started leaking a little extra and the light in the kitchen went out. Not long after the visit from our school head we were asked to move. It was sad to leave the garden but also a good chance to make right the mistakes we had already made.
With our infinite wisdom on composting and gardening we decided to give a presentation to our peers at the next Peace Corps Meeting. We did a fun power point and I gave out some extra seeds I had to get the volunteers interested. It went well and many said they would give gardening a shot, and they have.
Upon returning, we moved into a new house (meant for the school head but was given to us_see The Scharmers Have Moved blog). It’s a great place and has a nice backyard suitable for a garden. We had to start over but aimed to do it better. For P50 (about $7) we hired a neighbor to collect a donkey cart full of goat manure and enriched sediment soil from the village. We cleared the yard and worked the soil, adding the goat manure and sediment soil. 5 big beds were made; this time we planted seeds right into the ground. I am most excited to eat the sweet corn that’s currently 3 feet tall!. Yum. We stopped the goats with a lock on our gate and the addition of a garden hose made watering a snap. Over Christmas and New Years we asked a girl from the village to water our garden in exchange for seeds and some gardening help. Just like leaving a pet behind, we wondered if the garden was getting watered; if it was being cared for. We returned to a happy, healthy garden that was doing well. As of now we have hot peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, and soon to come, corn,. The ultimate goal of our garden is to have a complete meal from our labors. Soon.
So with the reading I had been doing and my new found confidence and of course my Gardening for Dummies booklet, we decided to give it a shot right when we got to site. First order was to clear our yard of weed and get our plots in order. Winter time was on so we planted our seedlings inside the back window so the late night frost didn’t zap them. We set to work making several nice size beds as well as a compost pile. Katie decided she wanted to know more about composting and I’m glad she took it on. I took a wheel borrow over to a ladies goat pen and traded some vegetables for some manure. She got the better end of the deal but I liked practicing my Setswana.
The beds were enriched and our seedlings were showing promise. We lost a few sprouts in our transplanting but we managed to put a nice garden together. It’s fairly difficult to grow good plants in sand. We kept them watered 2 times a day and in a month or two we had some vegetables. We planted; zucchini, egg plant, beets, carrots, watermelon, sweet melon, radish, green beans, tomato, Swiss chard, lettuce and some mustard spinach. The local plants grew the best and some, like the mustard spinach, we didn’t like and ended up just giving them away. (recall Sunday Blog) We were proud of our little garden. It was like raising a pet. When we would return from a long weekend, we went strait so see how our garden was doing. We worried about it being alone with out our tender loving care. The biggest threat was goats. We only had problems if we didn’t shut the gate all the way or if they snuck in behind some kids that were always coming over to see the white people. They would ruin a garden in an afternoon no problem. So I devised to thwart them by building box cages out of chicken mesh that we could set over some of our plants. This worked great. Our only encounter was when we returned one Sunday night from the weekend and saw that kids had been by and not closed the gate. I also saw small hoof prints leading into our yard. It looked like we were eating goat that night. In the back yard there were 3 or 4 goats doing their best to undo all of our hard work. One was standing on my flattened chicken mesh cage wondering why he couldn’t bite the lettuce. We herded them out and locked the gate. We had heavy hearts but knew that goats were a possibility and we had already accepted it if it ever happened.The little goat incident came at the exact time that our house ran out of water, the roof started leaking a little extra and the light in the kitchen went out. Not long after the visit from our school head we were asked to move. It was sad to leave the garden but also a good chance to make right the mistakes we had already made.
With our infinite wisdom on composting and gardening we decided to give a presentation to our peers at the next Peace Corps Meeting. We did a fun power point and I gave out some extra seeds I had to get the volunteers interested. It went well and many said they would give gardening a shot, and they have.
Upon returning, we moved into a new house (meant for the school head but was given to us_see The Scharmers Have Moved blog). It’s a great place and has a nice backyard suitable for a garden. We had to start over but aimed to do it better. For P50 (about $7) we hired a neighbor to collect a donkey cart full of goat manure and enriched sediment soil from the village. We cleared the yard and worked the soil, adding the goat manure and sediment soil. 5 big beds were made; this time we planted seeds right into the ground. I am most excited to eat the sweet corn that’s currently 3 feet tall!. Yum. We stopped the goats with a lock on our gate and the addition of a garden hose made watering a snap. Over Christmas and New Years we asked a girl from the village to water our garden in exchange for seeds and some gardening help. Just like leaving a pet behind, we wondered if the garden was getting watered; if it was being cared for. We returned to a happy, healthy garden that was doing well. As of now we have hot peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, and soon to come, corn,. The ultimate goal of our garden is to have a complete meal from our labors. Soon.
I love the gardening stories. I didn't realize you had given a presentation to PCVs. Are there not a lot of PCVs that garden? I know it has to be difficult with the dry terrain but that's all I would think about when I got there. We planted our seedlings inside last weekend: jap peppers, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, and three different herbs. What is the green mesh you put over your new garden? How often should you water the seedlings inside? We don't have a goat problem but I imagine we will have some varmints trying to get our vegies. What is the easiest vegies to grow in Botswana?
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