Letter to friends in Permaculture

Dear Patrick and all those permaculture people I've bumped into over the past few years.

 I'd like to update you on my recent and present forays in the world of permaculture design and gardening. Patrick, I was overjoyed to discover your blog the other day- it's like a tether on a vast ocean of the exciting and unknown!

I also recall (or is it wishful thinking?)that you spent some time in East Africa and, although there are many differences I'm sure, I would be interested and grateful for any comments you (and anyone else) might have on my situation here in Ngonini, Hhohho (not joking !), Swaziland.

I grew up near here, in the Highveld of Swaziland, in the late 70s and early 80s. Where I am now differs, in that, being on the edge of the lowveld, we have a tropical climate. That means short, dry winters, long, wet and stormy summers, 2 growing seasons (although a lot of veg you can grow all year round) and flattish land. We are situated near a small river from which we get half of our water supply (the rest being harvested by guttering and water harvesting tanks).

 Food crops that like living here and produce well include avocado, paw paw, pineapple, banana, citrus, mango, groundnut, sweet potato, sugar cane.  If it makes you feel any better, I spent an hour in the garden this morning at 8a.m., laying out a herb bed. By the end of it I had to down a litre of fluids, change my clothes and have a lie down. 30 degrees, 90% humidity and the pressure feels like a storm!

I work for Vusumnotfo (Grow the Economy) a grassroots non-profit, brought into being by a group of chiefs from the Hhohho districts. They wanted to develop awareness of food security issues among their people and to train people in methods to grow and store healthy, nutritious food and to improve their community environment for better yields, less degradation of soils through e.g. erosion and improved quality of life due to e.g. planting of trees to create shade around homesteads.

My work is twofold really. On one hand, I facilitate the smooth running of workshops logistically speaking (in permaculture gardening and early childhood development).

My main role is in design and gardening: Our aim is to re-design the entire site to create a working model of landscaping, water harnessing and short and long term soil improvements as well as a certain amount of food production. We also have a training nursery and garden and a larger nursery where we propagate hardy, ground cover, live fence and flowering shrubs for use in pre-school yards. Teachers come for workshops and take cuttings for their schools where some are also growing vegetables to supplement their meals.

My design situation is interesting on several levels: Firstly there are several, highly involved and very invested stakeholders and a lot of other less powerful stakeholders. I have had trouble simply observing this month because ideas are pouring out of people all around me. I'm listening with one ear as I try to stand back and work on my basemaps and questionnaires, but the basemap has already changed in dozens of ways in the minds of people here. Excited to be moving ahead, to have the funding to improve and expand and get this place looking nice and producing, it's very difficult to rein in the urge to make rash decisions.

Within this large remit are hundreds of little designs such as 3 for herb gardens in the 3 zone 1 areas, a shower area for volunteers, a wild life and pond area with possibly a swale, keyhole beds, irrigation systems, use of green manure and cropping. My knowledge is so little but skills in observing are coming in useful and thankfully I have some awareness of what to look out for!!

My director Kathy has a background in agriculture and bee-keeping and the three guys I work with in the garden have vast experience of gardening and these conditions and are very keen to experiment alongside me to try out different design solutions for our problems of water, lack of organic matter in the soil, livestock management, access to a variety of seeds and useful and attractive plants.

At the moment we are working on the kitchen garden where we hope in the long run to model a variety of different herb and vegetable beds using solutions like the drip bottles we have buried in the bed. They slowly drip water in a metre wide radius through holes at the bottom and work very well. We water a maximum of 3 times a week here using these bottles. 10 small chilli seedlings we planted in full sun 2 very hot weeks ago are thriving.

While the design process is ongoing and to give me the headspace to conduct the necessary procedures like base-mapping, overlays, questionnaires and research and because it's good practice, we have decided to concentrate our efforts for the next few months on improving soil quality in the majority of the garden. Growing green manure, using a chicken tractor and adding compost and manure are planned so far. I'm also interested in the idea of planting leguminous trees for mid-term use and swales and irrigation channels for manipulating available water more efficiently.

If anyone has any comments on any of this or the following list or anything else related, please share. It will be gratefully received. And if there's anyone out there also working in tropical/sub-tropical conditions, it would be great to share ideas and experiences.

Raised beds in the tropics- does the soil get too dry?

Green manures suitable to these conditions

Leguminous trees for a small food forest (sorry Patrick- but definitely no Medlar!)

Good gray water system plants

Anything on ants, pests

Happy designing and gardening!