Plant-a-Garden

A few weeks following the garden building project - we returned to help teach how to plant the gardens ... and saw a few of the key-hole gardens that the women had built around the village!

Following these two weeks, the soil should be nice and moist as the women watered it during the interim.  At least one garden succeeded ... for the soil was so moist and cool that frogs had burrowed into the soil to live!!  I think we counted 8 frogs in total hopped out as we started to dig around!

The first lesson was how to dig two layers of troughs in the circle of the garden.

Then we moved on to the varying depths at which each type of seed needed to be planted.

And watering the newly planted seeds:

Then finally - the squash.  On the road to the village, we passed by a squash patch.  It is nowhere near any homes.  We wonder who planted it or if the seeds blew in from somewhere.  It is truly growing on its own in the harsh environment ... and spreading wildly over the terrain!

  

Given that squash is a vine based vegetable growth, it would quickly overtake the key-hole garden.  So, it is planted to the side so that there is room for it to grow.  The vines can be directed away from the garden and to spread across the desert floor.

First - a wide hole is dug and then sand, ashes, and manure is mixed into the hole with water.

Then, five seeds are planted in this hole!

Each family grouping of huts which came to this training received seed packets for their key-hole gardens.

Sadly, as an update - the lizards ate the seedlings as they sprouted - all that was left was the okra and eggplant. 

Even the garden that we planted in the city suffered the same loss.  All that grew in this garden were the sunflowers and eggplants.  I did so enjoy eating eggplants from the garden all summer though!

The trees that we planted the previous year - lost to lizards.  And now the garden??  I had sought to improve the diet diversity of the women; but in the end, improved the diet diversity of the lizards!!

Another lady planted her garden a month later - and she used her old and torn mosquito net to protect the garden .... it did much better as the lizards could not reach the vegetables.

But, I don't really want to promote the use of mosquito nets as garden protection ... as malaria is a greater problem than nutrition.  (This is not to say that nutrition isn't a problem .... it is essential, especially child survival and maternal health - both statistics in this realm putting Niger in the bottom statistics of the world, it is just that malaria is the number one killer in Niger, and therefore I feel higher on the scale of importance!)

An agricultural worker from Burkina Faso, who visited this village, said of this problem: "Look - you are truly in the desert!!  As soon as anything green grows, the lizards will descend to it at for they have finally found food!"  It seems sometimes that development takes a step forward and a few steps back!  

Or - as I learned a new term last year: "The garden project was pre-successful!"  For I will strive to get the better of the lizards!  The last agriculture conference I attended in the Fall put me in contact with a worker from a bio-pesticide company from Burkina.  We discussed my lizard problem and he theorized that perhaps the sprays they use to combat millet worms could also impede the lizards from eating our gardens.

It is worth a try ... so Megan and I will build a garden in the village home and start a trial of the two sprays that we can make - all with common kitchen and household ingredients.  We are eager to try and combat and find a solution to our "lizard problem"!!