It begins with the matter that it is, it becomes recognizable as an observation, it takes form as a suggestion, then sparks with an idea, sprouts with taken interest, and grows with the motivation to back it up. Thus started my first project that I will take on with the community. I noticed some people like to plant flower gardens but why not vegetable gardens as well. Sure they are harder but the benefits are so much higher because you can feed your family with the fruits of your labor and enjoy a more nutritious and varied diet.
So I bounced ideas around many different people and formed a vision a family garden project. Obstacles, of course, are plentiful. A) It doesn’t rain from November through July here-plants need water. B) This is the tropics, there are a lot of things that want to eat what we don’t want them to. C) Chemical pesticides and fertilizers are expensive and bad for the environment and people. D) Chickens, cows, pigs, horses, and whatever other random animals people have are all free range- they go where they want and eat what they please. F) Materials are expensive and people don’t have too much extra spending money-seeds, fencing. D) Many more smaller problems and others that I haven’t yet come across.
So here’s what we are going to do: For the people that have access to extra water that can be spent on gardens, they will make home gardens and start little compost piles to use as fertilizer. Hopefully we will be able to build little fences from wood or wire for everyone so the animals won’t eat the crops. For those people who don’t have extra water, we have obtained 3 plots of land that farmers have donated for the season where we will start community gardens. These plots are irrigated to take care of the water problem and we are going to start large compost heaps from plant material, animal poop, ash, and wood shavings to fertilize the plants. We are still deciding if we want it to be one big community garden or if its better to divide up the land so each participant has their individual plot. A community garden is good for building team work and letting people to help each other out more but individual plots help to avoid the inevitable problems that arise when some people are working more than others but everyone wants an equal share of the produce. As for seeds, we have obtained donations from a couple of sources and plan to start the seedling nursery soon so we can transplant the plants by January.
We had our first meeting in early November and 25 people showed up, which is a good number to work with. We discussed ideas and problems we may encounter and reiterated the fact that I am here to help teach and organize projects, not to hand out free materials. Our group is a mix of men and women with more men than women because growing food is generally considered a male occupation. However, I originally wanted this to be more of a women’s project and I can already see the frustrations of those who are interested in participating but feel uncomfortable working with so many men. Of the three plots, we are going to try and make one specifically available for the women to work on together to help work this out.
Our second meeting showed only 8 men and 1 woman. A significant decrease and unfortunate discouragement. As expected, some people I believe lost interest in the project for various work or money related reasons but others had excuses and other engagements that kept them from attending. The meeting was kind of short notice so I hope that these excuses will not be a recurring theme. Our next meeting is this Friday and we need to start getting to work so I am crossing my fingers that people are going to come.