Kilimanjaro, TZ – IVM family’s garden food – 30 May 2014

The IVM family garden was one of the most challenging for the Lishe Bora Garden Shop team to build, because the family lives near the top of a steep hill with no direct road access. This means that compost, rice hulls, seedlings, and all of the other inputs and equipment had to be carried up to the garden by hand. Once they were ready to start the garden, the next challenge was building it on a steep slope. This was the team’s first time building a “terraced” garden – where each row of beds creates a terrace and a series of steps instead of a single slope.
After this challenge, the IVM family has ensured that the team’s time was well-spent. Their garden has consistently been one of the most productive in the community. The family truly enjoys spending time in their garden and learning methods to increase the benefits the garden offers. They pay a lot of attention to watering every day and apply organic fertilizer and natural pest repellant as recommended by the garden shop. They are also very quick to contact the shop if they have any problems with their garden. Proactively identifying and dealing with problems is crucial in organic gardening.

Chemicals offer an easy solution to wipe out pests and other problems, but they also deplete soil nutrition, overall garden health, and the safety of vegetables. Organic gardening uses more subtle methods of dealing with issues and these methods are most affective when applied as soon as problems are identified. The father of the IVM family has even begun making his own natural pest repellants so that he is able to deal with challenges independently.

Previously, the family was spending around 3,000 TZS (USD $1.88) on vegetables each week and now they do not spend money on vegetables. They are able to use these savings to buy more carbohydrate and protein foods for their children and to purchase basic school supplies like notebooks and pencils.