Another day in Malawi

There is an article in the paper today about fertilizer subsidies not making it to the final destination.

http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2012/10/27/simama-in-fertiliser-scandal-malawi-police-impound-truck-carrying-600-bags-of-sand/

 This is a good example of some of the logistical problems of working in Malawi. Somewhere between the subsidy and the people receiving the subsidy, fertilizer bags were turned into bags of sand. 

Kusamala Institute of Agriculture and Ecology

The comercial garden is in the foreground and 
one of the many thatched buildings is in the background. 

Yesterday John and I went out to visit Kusamala Institute of Agriculture and Ecology in Lilongwe. I've mentioned Kusamala in a few of the previous blog posts. Kusamala has offered me advice on what grows well in the rainy season and I have also signed up to purchase vegetables from their farm once a week. It was great to make it out to their site after emailing back and fourth with them for the last few weeks. John was also excited to go because even though he has been farming and managing the guest house's grounds since 2006 he hasn't had much formal training and says he relies mostly on his intuition to determine which vegetables to grow. I think that observation is one of the most important aspects of managing a landscape and that he probably knows much more about the surrounding landscape and what grows well in the garden than I do with all my education and training. Still, a little education can go a long way and Kusamala helped provide examples of crop rotation, pest management strategies that don't include pesticides, livestock integration, and seed saving techniques. Kusmala is only three years old but they seem well on their way to a sustainable agricultural system!

An over ripe African cucumber

Compost Piles/Inspiration

Catherine showing off the compost tea

The nursery

Staff sleeping quarters

       

         

Malawian Landscape Architects

I have met both of the landscape architects in Malawi. They seem to have a lot of the same troubles that landscape architects have in the United States. 1. Clients don't want to pay for a landscape architect 2. Everybody thinks they are limited to gardens 3. When there are jobs for landscape architects, they are done by someone else, planners, architects, engineers, gardeners, etc. So at least we had something in common...

Apparently the previous government was more sympathetic to some of the environmental and cultural benefits that landscape architects can bring to a design, but those people are no longer in power. 

We talked briefly about how LEED is beginning to change the culture of building by encouraging group planning that involves all of the design partners at once, as opposed to a more traditional top down approach to construction. Unfortunately the USGBC has yet to make many inroads to Lilongwe. This means that there are few and carrots and seemingly fewer sticks to help encourage people to look beyond the walls of their building to see the larger impact these new constructions could have on both the community and the environment. 

For example, there are about four shopping centers in Lilongwe. There are four to five more shopping centers being built. All of these shopping centers are of the general form of parking in the center with a ring of shops around the parking. In the United States we've already had to deal with ramifications of this style of design. Individual car use is encouraged, the trees are planted in concrete boxes which are too small for the tree to grow so the pavement becomes extremely hot, the water runs off of the hot pavement when rains and brings trash and chemicals from cars directly into the river without treatment. 

The simple solution to this type of design is to allow more room for trees to grow and get large as well treat the water onsite through rain gardens and permeable pavement. The costs are not all that different from current building practices, but the location and design of these various elements need to be combined into a functioning system. So there are some costs for paying a landscape architect to create the design. Under the current system there seem to be few incentives for property developers to want to pay for cleaner water or reduced temperatures. 

We ended our meeting by agreeing to keep in touch and to think about potential projects that we could initiate to help illustrate the benefits of paying more attention to the design around the building. 

This is a big ditch which could have been made to divert water
around a construction site and into the neighboring river

The main road we travel is on is sunken

The river that runs through Lilongwe
is almost hidden at some points

The river can also be heavily occupied

#4

Arg! For a moment in time I was the #1 google hit for “Malawi Landscape Architecture”. I have now dropped to #4 because the “Malawi Institute of Landscape Architecture” has trumped me. According to the #2 hit for Malawi Landscape Architecture there are only two landscape architects in Malawi. I am meeting with one of them tomorrow.I don’t know Malawi well enough to really understand the most effective use of their resources, but I’d bet a few more landscape architects helping with the design of infrastructure would not hurt. 

Grandmas Grow Gold in Swaziland

The nytimes just published an interesting article about Grandmothers growing marijuana in Swaziland in order to support their grandchildren that have been orphaned by HIV. Apparently most of the weed goes to South Africa. The advantage to marijuana over some food crops is that baboons won't steel your weed.


“If you grow corn or cabbages, the baboons steal them,” Khathazile said.

I wonder how the impacts of HIV change based on geographic/political/social/environmental differences in countries. It seems like many of the countries affected by HIV would potentially have a similar starting point, orphaned children left with grandparents. I would assume regional differences would create unique end points for each country. Or maybe Swaziland is an outlier.

Grandmas Grow Gold in Swaziland

                                                                                                      Jonathan Torgovnik for The New York Times

I Have Arrived!

I made it to Lilongwe. and boy was it a long way. There is a lovely garden in the back yard with a great big elevated water tank to go along with it. I didn’t see a working compost bin, so maybe that’s something that can be added. I did spy some chickens though, so hopefully we can get some fresh eggs. 

According to some folks at the Kusamala  permaculture organization most everything grows well in the capital. The rainy season (which is coming up) can get a bit tricky in terms of pests and too much water for tomatoes, squash, basil, and broccoli, but just about everything else should be fine. 

I’ve got plenty of wall space so I might sacrifice some kite string in order to create some trellises for sugar snap peas and cherry tomato vines.

My vegetable seeds have arrived!

I’m bringing all sorts of vegetable seeds with me to Malawi. With a bit of luck the tomato vines will take over and produce more tomato’s than anyone knows what to do with. Why don’t invasive species work like that? 

I went a little overboard and ordered 19 different seed packs. I brought many varieties of tomato’s, peppers, peas, spinach, okra, and asparagus. I have a bit of experience of growing veggies from some time I spent working in permaculture and aquaponics in the bahamas but I’m a bit rusty. Part of the trouble is that first hand experience and observation are key to successful gardening. Observation is tough when you are only around for a single season. In any case I’ll do my best and see what grows. 

I’ve already signed up for a local veggie box from a group of permaculture people so if nothing grows there will still be fresh veggies. There are a number of permaculture groups in Malawi, some of which are close to Lilongwe. 

So far I’ve found, http://www.kusamala.org , http://wikimapia.org/12888957/Four-Seasons , http://www.neverendingfood.org , http://www.nrc.mw/consultancy.htm

It looks like we’ll be arriving towards the end of the dry season. Hopefully that means I’ll be able to get some plants started indoors before the rainy season. 

Climate/Seasons

The following chart shows the average high and low temperatures for each month of the year for Lilongwe. The temperatures are shown in Fahrenheit.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

63/79

62/80

61/80

58/79

52/78

47/75

47/74

48/77

53/82

58/86

62/85

63/81

Average rainfall (inched). The following chart shows the average rainfall in inches for each month of the year in Lilongwe. These amounts will vary according to the year and location.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
	8.70	7.70	5.90	1.90	0.40	0.10	0.10	0	0.10	0.50	3.20	8.00

Malawi's tropical climate is moderated across much of the country by altitude. There are two seasons in Malawi. The dry season last from April through November and the wet season is from December through March. Even in the wet season, the rains are usually short-lived storms typical of the tropics.

Although May to October is often described as the ideal time to travel to Malawi, the rainy season is attractive for the display of orchids on Nyika Plateau, for birdwatching and seeing lush vegetation.

http://www.gameplanafrica.com/African-Safaris/About-Malawi.html