Personal Gardens

Those of you who know me and have been to my house understand that one of my loves is gardening. Most evening during the growing season you will find me playing in the garden. For years I have used a raised bed intensive style of organic gardening. By building great soil I like to see how much food can be grown in each bed. Recently I was watching a video on permaculture gardening and the author made the statement that everything he needed to fed himself grew within 75 feet of his house. My own personal garden is always producing more than we can eat and this has started me thinking. How can we promote intensive gardening in Guatemala that would turn their need for food into the same abundance I experience.

Illa--Seeds are precious, Here Pedro carefully hand a few to a friend to plant

So this year we are ramping up a small gardening program. Our vision is to see an abundance of good nutrition food on the table. This is not style of program that says here let me show you how it is done but one of sharing garden experiences, new ideas, seeds and tools. What hindrances do I find to good gardening in Chajul? 1.) Basic supplies- lack of seeds, the ability to water regularly, 2.)some basic understanding of spacing and soil compaction  3.) how to "grow" the soil through composting and green manures. 

Some of the following photos are of gardeners we have been working with, others of new families that are receiving wire for a 11 meter x 11 meter spot. We have provided wire for 50 gardens and have a goal for 50 more. The third group that we are helping only are receiving seeds and a little instruction. I feel like Johnny apple seed as I have traveled through different villages sharing seeds and gardening ideas. It is not a bad job at all.  Most of our work for 2013 will take place along a circular path that stretches from Chel to Caba ( the farthest village ) and back. In all there are 8 villages and the level of aid will very but we will be helping in them all. 

This is Maria Lopez who is head of a small group of women gardeners in Chel. She is holding a baby chaya plant and beside her are canastas or baskets which she has planted vegetable starts in. Behind her and growing overhead is a wisquill plant and to the front right are pole beans. This group of women are a joy to be with and doing excellent work.

Maria doesn't have much space and her health is not real strong but she loves to care for her plants. Here are some pea starts and chives.

Here is Juana Ijom who is one of the women in her group. Maria has done an excellent job in selecting and organizing this women. Juana has collards, onions anise and carrots growing in front of her home.

Juana Lopez Mendoza another of Maria's group has hung plastic flags in her spot to discourage birds from stealing seeds.

                                Tok va va chicon  I am planting beans

Here we are planting a new strain of bush bean. With three of our garden groups we planted some specialty seed donated from Territorial Seed Company in Oregon. The women are excited to save and share seeds from these new plants.

Magdalena Maton has a good crop of peas and carrots and her baskets are seeded with tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, Swiss chard and other goodies. Buy seeding in baskets and small beds we can restock he garden beds with three or four week old plants after a harvest. There will also be starts to share with neighbors or seed the field with plants which are in excess of the space available by the house. One of our goals is teaching successive plantings for a contiguous harvest.  

This is Francisco the alcade/leader of Xesalli. He is entering the garden program this year and receiving enough wire to fence an 11 meter by 11 meter square. Each participant also receives more than enough seed to fill there plot. Notice his fencing. Pole fencing only last a year so by providing wire we are putting the gardens in a perminate  position of village life. These sites are also referred to as almasicos or nurseries. By caring for starts close to the house they can then carry the young plants into the hills to seed their fields.

This lean-to is at his fields in the mountains. It provides a place to get in out of the rain or cook a lunch  or even spend the night if they need to.  Many fields are far enough away from their homes that they will not be cared for a intensively as we would in a vegetable garden but they can be very productive.

I appoligise for the poor quality of the photo. My lens is dirty and I am shooting into the sun but I want you to see the potential of this project. Last year we gave Francisco some seed. He transplanted a few culish, a type of cabbage/collard plant in this rocky wet draw and let it go to seed. Now he has fifty plants that provide a free lunch or he can pick and take home for dinner.

Above the culish here are four tomato trees. They grow to 15 feet tall and produce a type of tomato for up to 12 years. Each bush bears between 50 to 200 fruits! TRE has a nursery growing 200 of these bushes for us as well as over 500 fruit trees that we will distribute this year. Also in this wild unkempt field are squashes and a pepper plant that grow to five feet tall.

Mat o' Nueve Puntos Let's go to Nueve Puntos

Let's keep moving. Here we are loading wire to head into Nueve Puntos. Seeds are inexpensive but our wire represents a investment of  $75 dollars per family. This year we will serve around 60 families.

On this four day trip to four villages we keep getting started late. The first three days we arrived to our destinations well after dark.

Dinner by candle light is always a special occasion isn't it.

Our seed factory

The next morning we divided seeds for all the families in the village. Two weeks earlier we had passed threw and seeded basket for transplants. Now every family would receive enough seed for four months.

Each type of seed is measured by the spoon full and wrapped in a piece of newspaper.

A label stating what type of seed it is is hand written and placed in the packet. This system has worked for us in the past but now that we are distributing over 10 types of seeds to over 200 families we are going to update with the computer. We will print labels on return address stickers with the plant type and spacing needs all written in Ixil.

We want to be generous with peas and beans seeds because they are such good soil builders. Each family received a cup of Chinese pea seeds. Peas are new to many locations and last week I received an excited phone call from Xesalli telling me they were growing good and please bring more seeds.

Here is Pa Lu. I believe he is 78 years young and can still work up a storm. He has his packets of seeds to plant his plot. A garden site in Ixil is called a Pe

Pe pa Lu cuni otzotz  Lu's garden site below his house

Here is his plot beside his house. It is a little rocky but has great sun. Take note of the rock with the poles leaned up against it

Qu phil qu u txava  Turning the soil

With a little community help we will get it ready for planting in no time. The community chose to do this for the two most elderly families.

Ava mal tze

They call this sembrando postes or planting fence post. You just keep pounding them into the ground.

Nim Seban Giant rock

With a half of an hour of pushing we had one less rock in the garden.

Unrolling the fencing. We are using barb wire to strengthen the chick wire between post. This is a good protection from pigs pushing against the wire.We are also encouraging the practice of planting a type of bush that will grow into a new fence post so in the future they will have live fence post that will not rot.

We are asking that each plot has a space dedicated for a nursery and another for compost. By bring leaves and organic matter from the woods and layering it with soil and if available manure we can build good soil. This pile is built on a bed of logs and the holes Andres is making act as chimneys and help speed the decomposition through better air circulation. We also are teaching how to make and use manure teas. 

And this is why we are doing it. Here is lunch. In the bowl are wisquil leaves and under the cloth wrap are tortillas. I get many special meal of thanks on my trips as they give me their best so I know I eat better then their family but I always lose weight. The first thing I do when I leave Chajul is eat, eat eat. Not because I don't like their food but because there is not enough.  If we can build good fertile soil, teach proper spacing and care of plants, establish seed banks this table will be full of good food every day.

Time to move to another village.

Ava illa Planting seed

Diego Maton in the village of Xezaj. Xezaj is a new village with only five families living there.There is no water here and they are just starting out clearing land and building their homes.

Diego and Francisco inside their home with their family

And off to another.

80 families in Caba and Alguna Caba received seeds and blankets. We will start a water project in these two village this March

These blankets were donated by Miracles In Action which is also helping fund part of the garden program. We will watch the work of these gardeners and then select a core group to train and use to teach others. When our fruit trees are ready we will pass threw these villages and give each family two trees.

And off to one last village.

Xecon O' there are 15 families here. The women asked me if they could have the empty cans which I was saving for our seed bank in Chel. When I looked around their homes and saw how valuable they would be we decided to split the treasure and I took half to Chel and left half with them. This is another village that we are studying how to provide drinking water to.

In February I will be going back. We will bring more seeds, share gardening experiences and start on water projects for 100 of these families. They have lived for years on the edge but hope is growing. It takes work but they are not afraid of that. Let's give them the seeds and tools for a better tomorrow. Some tools we will bring are small shovels, rain-bird sprinkler heads, watering cans and more wire. This trip we distributed over 115 pounds of seeds. The majority of that was Chinese pea and bean seeds. At least ten varieties were new to the Chajul region. We hope to bring at least 400 pounds on our next trip. We have order over 700 fruit trees and will plant 150 chaya plants. What amazes me about this is how great of an potential there is. When I plant one tomatoe or bean seed I harvest so much more. What will come in the years ahead as we help seed these lands? Please consider joining us in this work. 

Matin Adios