Perma-Garden Awesomeness!

I had been waiting to attend the Perma-Garden training since I arrived in Namibia, and directly following our return to Namibia from Malawi, we went to Otjiwarango to spend a week being taught Perma-Gardening with Peter.

Not only was this an awesome training to attend, but it had been a bit since our whole group was together, and nothing makes a group 38 reunion more awesome than free food and hot showers on top of a great workshop! Perma-Gardeing is a concept being taught all over Africa. The idea is to build permanent gardens in areas that are low income and have some unique weather challenges. For example, parts of Namibia receive little to no rain, while other places in Namibia, like the Kavango Region receives a few months of sporadic, heavy rain. Other issues in Namibia are high unemployment, food insecurity, malnourishment, and limited access to resources. A perma-garden combats these issues by teaching a technique that gives high vegetable and fruit production, in a small area so that you are able to have a high producing backyard garden. From this small garden you can sell some of your produce and provide healthy food for your family. Perma-gardening also teaches you how to amend your soil with free materials that you can find in your community, and the gardens are built to minimize the impact of heavy rains so that your garden is not damaged.

During our 3 day training we built a garden at a school in Otjiwarango, hands on is the best approach to teaching... I was joined by my colleague Muronga who is working with the garden group here at the youth center.

Muronga and I at the Perma-Garden workshop. We are colleagues in Rundu.

 

The end of day one... turning terrible soil into a beautiful garden.



Peter teaching us how to double dig

 

Learning how to make charcoal

 

Making compost

 

 

The final day just before we planted.

Then Derek and I did some modeling in trees... it's very Namibian to take pictures of yourself modeling in a tree and then print it out and hang it in your office.... we don't get it either...

 

Derek is a much better moder than I am (also, we say moder cause Namibian's have a hard time hitting that L)

Duck face moder!

Me and Ris!

Who needs a shovel when you have a hoe!

 After the perma-garden training, Muronga and I went back to Rundu and taught Perma-Gardening to the garden group at the center. The training went really well, but now the difficulty is getting the group members to see the value of double digging and planting in triangles. The idea is to maximize production in a small area with limited resources. So we divided the garden into 5x5 meter plots, and hopefully they try it out and see the value of perma-gardening. Behavior change is always the hardest part of teaching something new.

The garden group in the training plot for their perma-garden workshop.

Making compost!

Teaching each other how to compost

The end of day one

The group!

Double digging like pros!

That's my office building in the background... fyi.

The group came together every morning for 1 week.

Muronga showing them how to measure the beds with a handy dandy homemade measuring stick

Our littlest gardener... this kid is adorable!

I don't always wear skirts when I am playing I the dirt...

Teaching seed planting the perma-garden way

Our garden at the end of the week, not to shabby

 As I said, each person has been given a 5x5 meter space along with everything they need, including seeds to plant their gardens. Once they are growing produce I hope to teach some classes about clean eating (Namibians love oil and salt) as well as business trainings to teach them how to cost and price their produce. I want to open  "Fruits and Veggies Stand" in front of the center where they can go sell the extra veggies that they don't want to eat! We will see how it goes!

Finally, my own personal project at home is to turn the empty lot next to my house that is usually home to thick bush and a collection of broken beer bottles into a community garden. While I was working on day a woman passing by my house stopped and asked me if she could help, of course I said yes! With her, a few other community members and the security guards at my house, I think I will have a great garden by the end of the year!

Before, 23/5/2014
 

 xoxo

With love, from Namibia