Time for Planting

Guy and Wilgens have been working in the garden all morning, since sun-up, hoeing and turning over the soil, preparing the garden for planting.  Yesterday Benjamin completed the new fence, this one totally goat proof having rows of picker wire woven between the "living" posts that will soon sprout leaves.  Wonel designed and built a "door" into the garden made of bamboo and picker wire.  So many of us are invested in having a garden plentiful in fruits and vegetables to feed our growing children at Kay Timoun. We are now protected from hungry goats and donkeys, the soil prepared, and we are ready to plant for summer harvest. The banana trees are determined to be a part of the harvest and had sprouted new leaves from the base plant that was left after the last goat assault.  They looked so beautiful, bright green leaves poking out of the ground!  Wow!  Soon we'll have bananas. Yesterday, however, I saw other scavengers in the garden.  They had eaten all the new banana leaves.  Roosters!  Kay Timoun banana plants were being attacked by bold roosters!  But not as bold as our kids.  Armed with stones, the kids had the roosters gone in no time!  They are great protectors of their garden.  The moringa trees, in another area close to the house where I can keep watch, have grown full with leaves, protected from goats by a woven basket type cover.  I water every day, as directed.  Benjamin will build a special fence today to protect the moringa trees from predators.  In the meantime, our chickens continue to multiply!  This morning Carole took three new eggs for my breakfast.  I held them as if they were the finest porcelain china, until I cracked them open into a bowl, and then into a pan of boiling water for the best poached eggs in Haiti!

God's blessings are all over Kay Timoun!  Mesi Bondye!  (Thank you, God!)

Moringa Trees, Living Fences, Pesty Goats, and Baby Chicks.

Some time ago I wrote about my challenges with growing moringa trees.  I had carefully planted seeds according to directions, nurtured, watered, admired and mothered seedling trees.  Then one day while on my morning "moringa check in", I saw that all the tiny leaves on the tiny trees were gone.  I was devistated!  I had already invested in a fence that would keep goats and other animals out of Kay Timoun garden.  It seems that the goats went through openings and under the fence and invaded the garden, devouring not only the moringa trees but all the banana trees, as well.  I managed to salvage three tiny seedling moringa trees with only a few leaves on each seedling.  I carefully instructed our gardner how to transplant the baby trees:  the hole must be this deep and this wide and put donkey dung in the bottom.  No short cuts were to be taken.  Cover the newly transplated baby trees with a mesh woven straw cover.  I watered often.  Today I'm thrilled that the transplants have "taken" and are thriving.  They are still small; the largest is only about 15".  I'm looking forward to large bushy trees whose leaves will make a great tasting and healthful salad.  Needless to say, as the trees grow larger, we will plant a "living fence" around them for protection from hungry goats.   Living fences amaze me. Leaves sprout out and up from cut off branches of larger trees that are "planted" in a row to form a fence.  The "tree" fence serves to shade the garden from Haiti's all day hot sun.  We are preparing for the next planting season by reinforcing our fence and extending it to completely surround the garden.  God pity the goat that tries to get through!  Our first planting will be watermelon, and lots of it!  The Kay Timoun children eat watermelon every day when it is in season, in the summer.  Homegrown and organic, it's just as sweet as can be!

I laugh at myself when I think about all the energy I spend on nurturing not only a garden, but on chickens!  We have chickens here at Kay Timoun.  We had our problems keeping young chicks, as we had problems with keeping young moringa trees.  Although we had our baby chicks and mother hen sleep in the protection of our outdoor kitchen, a wild cat managed to get into the kitchen and eat all the baby chicks.  How sad!  We lost our baby chicks to a hungry cat!  I was ready to give up on raising chicks and use the eggs, but Carole, having lived in the Haiti countryside for many years, knew just what to do.  She now gathers the mother hens together every night, along with their babies, and puts them to bed inside the house.  They are safe and sound till morning.  I'm fascinated watching how mother hen cares for her babies.  They follow her all around pecking and scratching at the ground.  As soon as there is the slightest threat, she squats on the ground and all the babies scurry to nestle under her wings.  (Reminiscent of a bible verse?)  I am so delighted whenever a new batch of chicks hatch!  Hey, look at this, baby chicks!  Seven of them!  "Don't count," warns Wozlo.  I don't understand but I suppose it's some Haitian superstition.

So, this Boca lady is having a great time here in rural Haiti, being right down in the nitty gritty of life.  The loves of my life are the twelve children that I care for.  They fill every day with joy.  I'm blessed!