Welcome to my garden, October 2010

I figure I’d better show you some pictures of my garden. It’s just a matter of time before the goats get it. My thorn fence needs to be three times as high and three times as thick to be effective, and I think I’ve built all the thorn fence I want to build this season.

That’s me, of course, sitting on my porch in my new Tilley hat. Aren’t I still smokin’ hot in that hat?? (Okay, okay, I know, enough with the smokin hot in the hat!)

It’s still a tossup between dusk and dawn for my favorite time of day, but I have to tell you, I sure look forward to 4:00pm. The workday is done, my garden needs some watering, and Mother Africa brings in her dramatic, late afternoon skyscapes. I thought I’d miss my IMAX windows (from when I was living in the girls’ dormitory—the hostile hostel), but sitting directly underneath it all is much more entertaining! I just sit in the splendor of it until night falls. It’s a great, regular, evening show, and I just love it!

In the photo below you’ll see a free-standing, pavilion type structure. This building is a former college project (they used to have a construction/masonry program at the college) and is usually not used. There has been, however, one campus party and well, it made me pretty grumpy to have a large party so near my home. It doesn’t happen often though, thank goodness. In this photo, you can also see a large water tank in the background: this is the same water tank that leaks and is the cause of my wetland-habitat. This photo also shows how lovely and dramatic African sky.

In the photo where you my thorn fence, a table with a pink dish (my bird-feeding station), you can also see the leaky water tower, but at the top left of the photo, you can see the tall reeds that grow as a result of the leakage. These reeds can grow up to twenty feet high and the birds love them! (I’m actually standing inside my thorn fence, inside my garden area to take this shot.)

Another shot is of my garden in full view. The greens in the background are of my trenched bed: the project I undertook during the nation’s strike. If the greens look a bit hodge-podge, it’s because I plant, seedlings emerge, goats eat them, and I replant. I also planted in rows, before our permagarden training and I learned to use a “tripod” planting style. The muddy round spots in the foreground are where you can see my baby okra emerging and my baby tomatoes (hopefully) are emerging.

Then, lastly, are some shots of individual plants: Swiss chard, dill, zinnia, and African spinach (amaranth).

So this is my garden, early in the season, 2010. Oh wait, I hear some muching... MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH...  Blasted goats!

Soon,
Karen