Pictures

These first set of pictures are of my demonstration plot. I have planted black oats, which is a grass that gives great coverage and when dead creates a thick mulch, lupino which is a legume that adds nitrogen to the soil, and nabo forrajero, which is a long and thick rooted plant related to the radish. It helps break up the hardpan and bring nutrients up from deep in the earth. Notice my plot compared to my neighbors, he planted lupino but used no type of cover crop as well so he has plenty of weeds growing along with it.







This is my neighbors garden. She is amazing. When we first met he garden was in shambles, nothing growing but weeds, but she had interest in a lot of the things I had to say. Basically, I acted as a catalyst, or a seed crystal, and she took over the rest. It all started with me advising her to use a green manure in her garden to enrich the soil and produce edible beans and forrage for the pigs. She planted them and then she just took over. She came back with more questions on how to plant certain things and was completely open to new ideas, like companion planting. In the pictures you will see a nice mixture of cabbage, peppers, green manures, onions and herbs used in conjunction to help each other grow stronger and protect each other from pests. After that she kept planting more green manures and tried new combinations of companion planting. She is one of my favorite people in my community, not only because she is next door and like a mother to me, but because she is a perfect example of what happens when people are willing to experiment and try new things. She had no idea what a compost pile was, but she made one anyways to see what will happen. I can´t say that everyone I have worked with is as amazing as my neighbor, but that is pretty hard to top. I am incredibly lucky to have someone like this in my community. Whenever other neighbors come over and see her garden they always compliment her, she blushes but I can see she is extremely proud and that means the world to me. Living in poverty, in a tiny community, these people have very little and their work almost always goes unseen but people see what my neighbor does. Also, she now advises others on how she has been successful, she is like a PC volunteer but better because she already has the respect of her community and she speaks the language a lot better than I. She is a true success, and the greatest part about it is that it was always in her from the start...and I think I helped her to see that.

Finally, two nice shots from my garden. Mine is nothing compared to ña Maria, my neighbor´s, but it gives me what I need!.