Gardening in Guinea

As I may have mentioned previously, living in a remote site in Africa can have its challenges.  Though I do have periodic progress reports to complete, I am very much on my own.  Most of us manage the independence by setting daily goals.  A goal could be as simple as learning five new words in our local language or even just doing the laundry.   Life is definitely slow here, and I am getting used to the routine and the heat.

One the first things I wanted to do in my first month was to start a garden.  (The selection of herbs anywhere in Guinea is limited, so if want herbs for cooking, you have to grow them yourself.) For the moment, that garden is around the interior perimeter of my backyard shower/latrine area.  It is a fairly decent size and I spent my first week preparing the beds with cow manure.  Since then, I have planted a variety of herbs and vegetables, as well as other vegetables in small plastic sachets/bags, for future transplantation into the church garden.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a success only journey.  The extremely low germination rates of the seeds I have sown is frustrating (but not entirely surprising… many of them are several years old.)  In addition, what had been sprouting was being quickly eaten by some insect or pest. For example, I would leave my hut and after returning, sometimes not even after an hour, a new sprout would be completely gone. At other times, a leaf would have several chunks missing from it.  After consulting with Abdoul, the PC Agroforestry program manager, I determined that the omnipresent lizards and toads that inhabited the area were responsible.  Normally, lizards and toads subsist on insects, but when times are lean (like in the height of the dry season), they often supplement their diets with young plants.  My garden was having problems because the local lizards and toads were eating my plants as fast as they were sprouting!  No bueno!!!

However, I did not come here to make the local reptile population fat and happy.  I need something to eat, so I decided to use some fishnet that I scavenged from Dubreka to cover my garden plots.   Although several lizards have gotten caught in the fishnet and have died, I have transplanted the toads to the somewhat nearby well for a life with copious amounts of water (and insects).   (The lizards are much too quick for me to catch, so I was unable to transplant them to a different part of the village.)  Once my plants have gotten a head start, I plan to remove the fishnet and allow the reptiles to eat a few leaves now and then.  And of courser, next year my garden will be well established, so I won’t have to worry about a few missing leaves.

But in the meantime, I have used up some of my valuable seeds.  If you care to send me a letter, please eat a vegetable first and include the seeds (dried of course, and preferably folded in a paper towel).  I could use some fresh stock.

Lizards and toads are not the only pests that have been giving me problems.  When I first arrived and was busy preparing my beds for planting, I was formally introduced to a desert insect that packs a punch when it stings you.  The receiving end of that sting was the end of my pinkie.  The contributor was a scorpion that was hiding in my gardening glove.   The pain was definitely much worse that a yellow jacket sting.  My counterpart was also recently stung by a scorpion and his finger was swollen for two days.  Thankfully in my case, 500 mg of ibuprofen and a 2-hour nap took care of most of the pain, but I will definitely be more careful in the future.

Lastly, I should mention that the church (school) garden is finally off the ground.  Part of my first month was helping to make the church fence livestock proof. (For example, all of the original wooden gates had fallen into disrepair and the livestock would regularly graze within the interior of the enclosure), lead the preparation of the beds, collect dried bush grass for use as mulch, sow the seeds, and now oversee the daily watering.

This garden is serving several purposes.  First, it is a place where I can multiply the quantity of seeds that I brought that have sprouted.  Come rainy season in June, I will have ample seeds to share with others.  Second, I hope to introduce my area to new vegetables that can be sold at the local market, and even more importantly, in the much richer country a stone’s throw north of me (Senegal).  Currently, the primary cash crops in the area are: rice, fonio, onions, peanuts, millet, eggplant, and corn.    Lastly, I plan to use the 10 garden beds as a teaching tool, not only for the students, but for the village elders as well.  (And I’ll probably learn a few things myself.)  Most people here are used to farming like they always have, and are hesitant to try different things to improve their harvest.  By varying the approach taken in each garden bed, I hope to give the children and village the evidence needed to make some improvements in their farming practices.  Incidentally, I plan to use this same scientific approach to spur changes in other areas of the village as well, such as in the benefits of not burning your fields, and how best to regenerate an aggressively cut forest.