Health Gardens Charles Bonaventure (Bonny) th 7 November 2018 Arusha, Tanzania Biography and Theme Introduction • Charles Bonaventure is ECHO East Africa Technical Advisor, works out of ECHO East Africa Impact Center in Arusha, Tanzania. He holds two bachelor degrees in Horticulture (Tanzania) and Rural Development (The Netherlands); and has worked with the Tanzanian government since 1986 before joining World Vision Tanzania in 2004 as Agriculture Trainer. • His presentation elaborated about kitchen or medicinal garden that can be established very quickly, and is the best and simplest technology to produce varieties of green vegetables and medicines for many people at the household level What is a health garden? Generally located near the residence, or frequently visited area Diversity of perennial, semi-perennials, annual,trees, shrubs,herbs, spices, flowers Means of producing non food items such as spices and nutritious food as well such as moringa. See perennial vegetable pdf Impacts physical, social, economic and environmental spheres of life Top 20 Leafy Vegetables for Protein Physical impact of Health Gardens Daily, direct access to a diversity of medicinal and nutritionally rich foods to food insecure; hence HEALTHY families. Social impact of health Gardens Women’s empowerment Studies show women 2x more likely to make decisions about garden products, and 2x more likely to have control over the income received from the kitchen garden(FAO). Increasing availability, accessibility, and utilization of food products (food security) Women’s empowerment….. Analyze economic impact of Health garden Economic impact of health gardens Income generating from sales of medicinal products eg; selling of moringa powder …selling of onions, etc Environmental impact of Health Gardens • Benefits of recycling water and waste nutrients, controlling shade, dust and erosion and maintaining or increasing local biodiversity Benefits of recycling water and waste nutrients, controlling shade, dust and erosion and maintaining or increasing local biodiversity ….. Use and Value Diversity Increased food security by investing in growing diversity of plants Diversity of plants-> Diversity in diet Use and Value Diversity Nutrition • Roots/Tubers-energy • Legumes- protein, fat, iron, vitamins- eg pigeon peas • Leafy greens/yellow/orange fruit-Vitamin A,E, and C eg moringa • Meat/chicken- proteins, oils, iron, zinc eg using Aloe vera vs animal diseases. Cycling of Nutrients “Closing the Loop” Produce no waste Mimicking Nature Mulch- imitation of forest floors, reduces evaporation, prevents erosion, builds soils Applicable in all situations Relies on low-cost, low-risk technology that many food insecure can enter. • Sack Garden • Double digging garden • Keyhole garden • Tyre garden • Other back yard gardens Sack garden Sack gardens designed for use in households those with insufficient land as well as those lacking labor & resources Making a Sack Garden Place a sack on the ground. Place a 4 inch diameter post in the middle of the sack. Start filling a mixture of 2/3 topsoil and 1/3 compost around the post – pack this mixture and keep filling. Add soil compost around post Make sure the soil is slightly compacted to allow the sack to stand straight up. Filling the sack Keep filling around the post, packing the mixture of topsoil and manure or compost until the sack is full. Water before removing post When the sack is full, water the sack so that the compost will not fall into the hole which is made when you pull out the post. Carefully twist and pull out the post leaving a hole in the centre of the sack. Add coarse gravel in ‘core’ When the post is removed carefully, fill in the centre hole with coarse gravel or ground rock mix. Thus there will be a column of rocks in the centre and topsoil/manure mixture all around the sides of the gravel. The sack is then watered in the centre through the rocks in the centre-the rocks will disperse the water to the sides of the sack. Punch holes for plants Punch holes around the sack using a knife or scissors, with about 4 to 6 inches between holes depending upon the type of plants you will plant. The holes must be large enough to plant seedlings. To make sure all the plants get water, check the holes. Water accordingly. Plant seeds or seedlings The holes are planted with 1 or 2 seeds or transplanted seedlings. Water and harvest vegetables! Leafy vegetables are best, and are ready within 2 months. Water the sack regularly by pouring water through the centre column of gravel. Used kitchen water is fine. Replant and add manure tea Once you have harvested, replant again, and revitalize the sack by pouring manure tea which is made from manure in a pourous sack submerged 2 weeks in a bucket of water A Double-Dug Bed The double-dug bed requires a high initial input of labor. We are creating, however, a permanently improved soil, which will be much easier to work over time, than a conventional garden bed. A bed with two feet of loose soil allows plant roots to grow evenly and provides a steady supply of nutrients to the rest of the plant. Water is able to move through the soil freely, and weeds are easy to pull out. The plant roots have so much loose soil to grow into that more plants grow in an even area; this means more food from a smaller garden. Double digging steps…. Keyhole garden Essentially the keyhole gardens consist of a ring of stones (in other countries bamboo or bricks are also used) about 2m in diameter, and about 1m high. At the centre of there is a stick, wire or bamboo structure that contains organic wastes. This is about 1.5 m high, with the soil sloping a pyramid fashion from the edge of retain wall up to the core. Fresh waste and water is poured into this core on a regular. Moisture and nutrients then seep down from this core into the surrounding soil. Access to the core is provided by a small path way, giving the plot an appearance of a keyhole when view from above. Keyhole garden …. Keyhole garden….. Keyhole garden…. Keyhole garden…. Tyre garden…. Exercise • Use the ANAMED chart and the Natural Medicine book by Dr Hans Martin and Bindanda M’Pia • Select 10 nutritional (medicinal)plants • Rank them according to their protein value • Suggest at least two types of garden you will use for each plant. ASANTE SANA!!!! .