Eco Youths Network Uganda

A garden without water can't have this wonderful look. Do you agree? Please share your thoughts and knowledge with us.

What knowledge can you share with farmers who want to start growing vegetables but do not have a water source?

Note: All these photos were taken at the farm we visited.

#FoodSecurity #SmallScaleFarming #FarmLife #Agriculture #LearningByDoing #GrowYourOwnFood #mastodonfarmers #nlfarmers

Jun 7 at 11:25amWeb
Show threadshonin6d ago
@econetwork Non-porous grow bags can conserve water. Beds with a polyethylene sheeting foundation (with the sides of the sheeting raised) can conserve water. Chop-and-drop vegetative mulch can conserve water. If there is a bathtub handy it can be used as a bed. Providing partial shade, especially during heat waves as shown here, can help. Small shades placed on/against the sunward sides of root collars of fruit trees/moringa, etc. can help. Just need to cool that 30 cm. square at the base of the tree. In low spots, dig out a tank and line it with polyethylene. Provide shade over the tank to reduce evaporation. Build keyhole beds and include food-bearing shrubs or tall plants to shade heat-sensitive vegetables. Use contour ditching on hillsides to trap rainwater runoff. Use rolling barrels with drawbars to transport carry-water (https://rollingwaterfoundation.org/). Place barrels where water runs off buildings. 🙇‍♀️
Show threadEco Youths Network Uganda6d ago

@shonin Thank you, that is great advice. However, since our land is away from the house, there is no way for us to collect water from roofs.

We also tried digging contour trenches a few weeks ago, but maybe because of our soil type, they completely dried up after a few days.

Mulching could work, and we have seen some benefits from it. The challenge is that ants attack the mulch, cut it, and also damage our crops.

We still need more sustainable ways. If you have more ideas, please stay with us. We will be happy to learn from you.

Show threadshonin6d ago
@econetwork The trenches are for a way to keep water from running away right after a storm. The rest of the time they will be dry. If the mulch is fresh the ants will recognize it as nutritious. Perhaps composting it for a year first will make it less attractive to them. Are you able to keep trees alive? If you have rows of trees alternating with rows of crops or beds, the trees will shade the ground around the crops part of the day, reducing evaporation and UV stress. Looks something like this:
Show threadshonin6d ago

@econetwork In such an arrangement, rows are oriented north-south so that morning and afternoon shade give evaporative relief to the vegetables, while overhead sun gives them the hours of sunlight that they need.

If you are having a water emergency and must use every liter available, I would go with grow bags under a shade structure, if enough materials for a sturdy structure can be found. Here is a One Acre Fund nursery in Kenya, for example. https://oneacrefund.org/

Show threadshonin6d ago

@econetwork Bags of the kind sold (where I am) for the purpose must be watered frequently; it's because they are made of permeable material to let the roots breathe. But I have seen some success gardening in buckets, trash bags and even 2-liter bottles. A hole at the bottom may be necessary to prevent rot, but it can be small to slow down water loss.

I have plants in planters hanging from hooks, with grow bags placed on the ground beneath them, to catch the water that escapes from the hanging plants.

Show threadshonin6d ago
@econetwork Then there is the "moist bed garden": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_SPLmBQXg
How to make a moist bed garden - Farm Kenya

YouTube
Show threadshonin5d ago

@econetwork How far are you from water source? Well, spring, creek, river, pond, Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga? Is there a church roof or school roof to fill water barrels? Is there someone with a truck? I had a friend who lived in Kenya and his village was getting through the dry season with a truck. It was costly, and I bet it is worse now. They took to building in-ground poly ponds which they filled from poly tarps in rainy season. It helped.

Sadly, we often attempt to farm more ground than we can water. US large scale farms are drying up the ground water to irrigate, and they will have trouble -- even more so as "AI" data centers grab the water ahead of them.

I myself tried to water 1,000 square meters of garden and orchard with a well that produced only 19 liters a minute. That was okay for two decades but then about 2015 it was no longer enough. There came to be too much sun and wind for that, even though I was using shade. I carried water from the duck baths to the fruit trees. I was a mile from the river and had no strength to collect river water to bring in the truck. I am 77 years old now and it shows! 😩

Show threadJürgen6d ago
@shonin @econetwork hmm - actually I allow trees back in my garden at the moment but I try to achieve this with artificial hedges made from woven dry wood - and it works (at least at my location here in the middle of Europe) - I built them one meter high and the soil north of them is still wet when everywhere around it is long dried up. Currently I try this with berries needing sun to ripen - this way only the base of the plant is shaded....
Show threadshonin6d ago
@elbosso @econetwork Yes -- in silviculture we called this "shade blocking." If we put even a small stone or stick on the southwest (in southern hemisphere, would have been northwest) side of each planted seedling, close to the stem -- it raised their chances of survival.