For the past couple of months I have mainly been taking a break from the construction to start applying what I have learnt to the land. It's been really exciting to see everything take shape.
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| The bricks are all finished, the last ones, curved for the corners... |
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| ...with bottles inside |
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| ...found objects that will make great coat hooks! |
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| My neighbour kindly gave me heirloom seeds for groundnuts. I decided to plant them in a small field, along with some cowpeas , sunflowers, various melons, pumpkins, gourds(help with ground cover) and some rosela. Intercropped with Moringa and sebania trees. These trees along with the groundnuts and cowpeas fix nitrogen into the soil. |
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| I took part in an oyster mushroom growing workshop in Bulawayo, and grew some at home, very exciting to see them grow. |
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| Making a simple solar drier to drier for mushrooms, fruit etc |
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| The stem wall has been coming up and I will start working on the building again now. |
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| We dug a swale on contour, this catches rainwater and keeps it on the land rather than running off and then planted the seeds below. |
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| making seed balls with clay and a variety of seeds to throw onto the land. |
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| shelling groundnuts |
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| Both sides of the field are covered with mulch, this keeps the moisture in the ground, this side is leaves... |
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| ...and this side straw |
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| Planting fruit trees where grey water will be running out of the shower. To protect from grazing animals Yabani made fences from branches as is traditionally done here. |
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burying an unglazed clay pot for dry times, the water seeps out slowly.
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| a wine bottle filled with water and buried seeps water out slowly and directly to the roots. |
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| Flame lillies are out everywhere |
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| making a pit bed, kitchen scraps are put in a hole in the centre to become compost that directly feeds the banana and pawpaw trees planted around it. |
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| Our first tank for rainwater collection |
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| Moringa trees planted amongst the groundnuts |
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| It's very satisfying to watch everything grow, there will be challenges ahead though, in the next month or so is when the elephants will start entering the fields. For now I will get back to building, I need to finish the stem wall, make a termite barrier and then start laying bricks. |
