GARDENS REVISITED

I have just returned from six weeks in Guatemala and what a fantastic trip it was. As I start to go through photos and project reports I realize I just don't have enough time to share all the intense experiences that come on these visits. We are working at such a rapid pace that by the time I would get halfway through my blog reports it would be time to head back again. I am going to have to simplify the reporting so that I can share some of the amazing progress that is being made. Although these reports will be simpler and a little "raw" I hope the depth of what is taking place comes through. I am amazed at the changes I see. I started this work with the vision to "Change the World". A grand and lofty thought that did not really seem possible. Now I have become a believer. Yes it is possible to change this small part of the world and to a much greater extent than I ever dreamed. 

During my first week in Chajul I took a walk to visit our different villages and projects to get a feel how things were going. This is some of the progress I saw in our garden project.

 

Here is a photo of Francisco the village leader of Xesalli's garden in late November. It has a lattice work of wisquil growing above Francisco and the plant with the arrow shaped leaves is Malaga, a starchy root crop. (Wisquil is a vine that produces a large avocado shape fruit with the texture and taste similar to eggplant. It is highly productive and a great annual plant.)Both of these crops can be grow outside of a fenced garden site.

Wow! Look at the difference! This photo was taken in March just three and half months latter. He has opened the site up to receive better sunlight and has seven different vegetables growing. Fransico and 23 other families in Xesalli are now in what we call the Phase II. Phase I is the distribution of seeds and a little bit of instructions. For Phase II we select those who have done a good job in the first phase and give them enough wire for an eleven meter by eleven meter garden spot. By the time  I left Xesalli to return to the states Francisco and 23 other families had finished fencing their new garden sites with the wire we have provided. I can hardly wait to see them again in November.

When I entered the village of Nueve Puntos this was my first sight and I thought wow what have we done. Every home has a large garden site. These fenced sites were started in December 2012 but we have been providing seeds here for two years.

Pedro's bush beans are feeding both his family and his soil through their nitrogen fixing abilities

Here Mat is picking some greens for our lunch. Every meal I ate in this village had a healthy amount of fresh vegetables. They are so happy and proud to share a meal with what they call the vegetables of Pa Mik    

( Senor Michael)

 

We ate swiss chard, turnips, sweet peas, onions, kohlrabi, broccoli and summer squash.

Meals that once were just beans and tortillas now had more flavor and twice the volume. They are full of nutrients. I was so excited to see this progress. We are just getting started but what a good foundation.

 Word of this program's successful beginning has traveled fast. Here is Ann from a different village, she is excited to get started on her garden. She is a single mother that I have noticed is well respected when she speaks in different village meetings.

 She is not afraid of work. Here she is carrying a small log to use as a border for one of her garden beds. We are teaching the value of raised bed gardening because it protects the soil from compaction, allows us to dig and place all the available topsoil where the plants are growing, and plant the maximum number of plants in a given space.

 Her oldest son Pedro lays another border with rocks.

 While another sibling brings in a load of topsoil.

Seeds, amaze me. They are so small but have the power to produce so much. Each of the packets beside Pedro hold a new variety of heirloom seeds. Many gardeners have adopted my method of planting  small seeds by pushing seeds out of a spoon with a stick. This method allows us to place each seed in it's designated spot. Even though I might have over one hundred pounds of seeds with me when we distribute seeds if we drop a few on the ground they are always picked up and saved. This high value that the villagers and I share for seeds is something I do not want to loose.

We are instructing each gardener to have one area for a nursery. This bed will start around 100 plants which can be transplanted in three weeks. They can then replant the nursery to start another cycle. This will give us continual harvest throughout the year. This bed  holds 10 new varieties of seeds from Territorial Seed Company in Oregon.

Here I am giving an gardening class in Las Flores. I a sharing the special characteristics of a new variety of seed and offering to buy back seed from healthy robust plants in the fall. The villagers  understand the value of and how to  save seed as they have been passing down seeds for many generations.

TRE is also teaching how to organize a garden site, the value of  composting, mulching, having a nursery in the garden and much more. It is really exciting to me when a good idea is presented to hear the discussion that follows in Ixil. It gets louder and faster as each person shares their opinion. 

  How can a spoonful of seed produce so much joy? I really love being a part of this work. What could be better than loving and helping people in need?

We have printed what type of seed and basic planting instructions on return address labels and then stuck them on resealable bags. This is a big improvement and time saver compared to our original method of hand written notes and seeds wrapped in newspapers.

Passing threw the line of seeds this man picks up a packet of each variety and a roll of string to tie up poles for pole beans and peas.

A hat full of seed represents a lot of food.

 Well there is no end to the photos or stories but this blog is getting a little long so let's make a quick pass through some garden and visit some friends. Here is Kat a widow in Caba. This is what she did with our first phase of seed giving.  Not a bad return for the investment of $5 worth of seeds.When I left in April you could not see the back fence the peas were so high.

 Andres in Nueve Puntos. He had some great looking kohlrabi ready to harvest yet did not what is was or how to eat it. Now he love kohlrabi and has two different varieties. We also provided rainbird sprinklers for this village. When I ask how they liked them they said they didn't know how to work them and ask f I would show them how. I thought this was strange because I felt surely everyone understands how to use a sprinkler. We then hooked one of the sprinklers up and I told everyone to stand back as we were going to turn it on. Well they didn't. It was hilarious watching them laugh as click,click,click the sprinkler advanced and then sprayed their neighbor. It was even funnier to watch the shock on their faces when it just keep coming and then sprayed them. By the second round everyone had caught on and ran back but not far enough so a second spraying finished our bath and lesson. Now they know how to use a rainbird sprinkler!

Maria Lopez and some of her gardeners in Chel using baskets for seed beds.

This garden is full and ready to be expanded.

Antonio with his first phase garden.

 These three photos are of Pa Lu and his wife's garden in Xeq'ano. Xeq'ano is a new mountain community carved in the midst of the forest.

 Here are sweet Oregon sugar snap peas. He grew them all so he could save seed for next year.

Look closely for the people in the bottom of the photo and you can begin to sense the size and wildness of his garden. This is what he did with that first phase of seeds.

 This young mother is one of our new gardeners in our third and newest group in Chel. She had two plots ready for seed.

 Here she has made a fence out of rocks to try an protect a few plants.

This is her home and two other gardeners in this group. When I see such a strong desire to have a garden and so much need I am grateful that we are able to help. Through your support we provided wire and seed for this group of 10 women. This brought our total number of gardens to 98. 

 98 gardens, 98 partners,98 friends and we are only just getting started. I can't express how happy I feel. How hopeful I am. A vision has been seeded and we get to watch it grow. Please join us in this venture. We are planing a four year program to establish good garden practices and build up the basic tools and infrastructural to make this a success. 1000 fruit trees and bushes are coming by this fall and we already have a waiting list of people wanting to garden. Just under $50 allows us to fence a site and provide them with seeds. This is the most expensive part of the program but puts the garden in a central and permanent position in their lives. Only time will tell how great of a gift one garden can be.