It's crazy that we passed our two month mark on the 27th of October. At times, I feel like we just got here, yet other times I feel as though I have been here for much, much longer. I'm amazed at how far each of us have come in terms of communicating with others, working independently on our projects, killing spiders, and dealing with seemingly constant requests for money, food, or other assistance from strangers on the street. I have already done things I had never imagined myself doing: learning how to milk a goat, figuring out a loan repayment plan for a basket-maker who owes over $700, giving people medicine, etc. I'm interested to see what the next 10 months have in store.
The last time I posted, we had gone to the beach and had collected rocks to repair the gardens at Lèkol Jezi-Mari in Fon Ibo. I would like to continue our garden story. The original gardens had been put up by a former Quest volunteer around 5 years ago, and beans, spinach and other various vegetables had been planted in them. Since then, the plants have not been well taken care of and the cement brick and rock walls had started to collapse. Because the gardens could be used to grow some food that students can eat for lunch as well as act as a wonderful learning and teaching tool, Sr. Pat and Beth really wanted them to be repaired. This task was given to the 5th grade. One of the first steps that we took in this process was to attend a local conference about several methods to improve soil quality. I spent two days at the conference, and on the second day, we were able to have the 5th grade teacher and two students come so they could bring the information back to the school and the rest of their class.
The main topics of the conference were how to prepare a compost pile that will produce good and healthy compost that can be added to soil, how to make compost using worms, and an agricultural method known as double digging. I will go into a little detail about each of these, but (hopefully) not enough to put you all to sleep!
Much of Haiti's soil has been depleted. At the end of the conference, we were able to listen to a professor from the University of Florida, (who happened to be in the area), give a lecture. He was trying to continue research he had been doing in Florida about improving soil conditions in Haiti. He said that Haiti has lost 90% of the soil it had before it was colonized. This loss has been due to the nature of the crops that were grown, (coffee, tobacco, etc.), during colonization, the intense deforestation that has left less than 3% of the land forested, and severe erosion that is augmented by the mountainous terrain.
While many farmers do not do anything to replace nutrients back into the soil, some make and add compost. At this conference, we learned about why compost was important for reintroducing microorganisms back into the soil, and the different components you need to make good compost - earth, green and dry material and water. We also discussed using urine as well as manure and the potential benefits and health risks of using these materials. We were able to see the process of making a compost pile that could be reproduced almost anywhere. The professor also talked a little bit about how one of the main nutrients that is missing in the soil is carbon. He looked at ways to replenish the carbon supply in the soil, specifically using bio-char and charcoal. He talked about a method that was used before the country was colonized when natives were making large mounds of earth and adding charcoal to the mounds. He has replicated this technique in Florida and within 6 weeks, the soil was black and rich in carbon. He is trying to see what will happen if they do this in Haiti.
Double digging is a method used by some farmers to help aerate the earth and to help it maintain moisture. It is apparently very good for the soil and if this process is used, you can go several years without having to repeat the process or re-till the earth. Double digging includes removing a small trench of earth, setting aside the top soil, filling the hole about 3/4 of the way with the dirt you just removed and then taking the top soil from the next trench and filling in the first trench the rest of the way. These two steps are repeated for as much as you need dug. You can add compost to the soil to enrich it even more and once you are finished, you can use rice husks, wood chips and straw/corn stalks to cover it to help retain even more moisture.
We also learned a little bit about how you can use worms to make compost. The correct term for this is vermicompost. Although Haiti has its own species of worms, a certain species of African worms as well as one from California are much better for this process–although they are not readily available in Haiti. The way vermicompost works is that you have a bunch of worms in either a wooden or plastic bin. You feed them nutrient-rich food scraps (mostly fruits and vegetables). The worms digest the scraps and essentially poop out nutrient-rich compost that can be added to the soil. This technique is not widely used in Haiti, but some agriculturalists are hoping to introduce it in some areas.
I went to the conference to learn more about the Haitian environment and agricultural techniques but we wanted a teacher and the students to go to see if any of the information could be brought back to the class and used in the gardens. Fortunately, we were able to do just that.
A few days ago, after all the mud from the several days of rain had finally dried a little bit, we were able to fix the garden walls with the rocks Beth, the 5th graders and I had collected a few weeks ago. Beth, Claude, (the school's all around awesome handyman), another of the school's workers and I spent a few hours ripping out all the old plants, removing the leaf detritus and turning the soil. Last Saturday, Beth and I went to the school to help the 5th grade put in their compost pile–exactly how we had seen at the conference. It was clear that they had talked about compost in class because they knew the all the steps that went into constructing a pile, what kind of leaves were best, how big everything needed to be, etc. The kids did 95% of the work and were merely guided by their teacher and Claude. It was so cool to see all the kids working together and having fun while they were doing the work and actually using the information from the conference. I can't wait to continue watching the kids build their gardens and I hope that we will be able to start planting in them soonish.
A double digging demonstration at the conference.
Building the compost pile during the conference.
An example of a box for worm compost.
All the participants of the conference.
Learning about adding charcoal to your soil.
The 5th grade!
Our gardens are called "keyhole" gardens because of their shape. This kind of garden does well in areas that are hot and dry because they retain more moisture and nutrients because there is what is called an "active" compost pile in the middle of each garden. There are many ways to make a keyhole garden, including layering different materials within the garden. For example, one website I looked at recommended layering wood, cardboard, compost, newspaper, manure, worms, ash, straw and then topsoil to really increase soil health.
(http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.html)
A man cutting some branches off the trees to increase the amount of sunlight that reaches the gardens.
Preparing the pile.
Chopping up the stalks from palm leaves to add to the pile.
Our growing pile.
The final product!!
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