Gardening in Burundi, Africa

For the residents of Burundi, gardening is a necessity.  When we arrived at Mweya after a furlough we moved into our brand new house to start a second term.  That meant digging a new garden.  We have two seasons in Burundi--the rainy season and the dry season.  During the dry season we had gardens in the valley where there is water; but, the difficulty came up on the hill because it was a barren, dry, rocky hill with no water in the dry season.

The first year, we just dug and fertilized a small plot.  On a certain day, after the word went out, here came a trail of people approaching with baskets on their heads.  They were bringing cow manure to exchange for salt instead of money.  That was the fertilizer.  We liberally spread the manure and planted seeds.

That was the temporary way to get a garden going but since we had to eat in wet and dry season, I needed to find a long term solution.  This is what I did.  First, African  workmen used picks and hoes to dig out the huge rocks.  Then they went down the hillside and dug up clumps of grass with what dirt would cling to the roots. They brought loads of  those clumps and placed them on top of the "hoed" ground with the roots and soil facing up.  The grass rotted, the dirt filtered down through it, and by the next wet season we had a nice plot of soft soil.  Every year this process was repeated.  One by one the five Little boys arrived and little by little the garden size grew--right along with the family.  After a few years, I had a thriving family and a wonderful garden spot.  GL