GAIA Talks

How soon can malnutrition be history in this country?

Yep, our Pigeon peas planted 5 months ago start growing and producing already! And If you see a worm, that s 100% indication it's an organic crop (and worms have to eat something too, right?)

Now, why is this Pigeon pea amazing in our forest garden?

* it is edible, nutritious and easy to grow

* it is perennial - plant one time, harvest for about 5 years from one little shrub

* it fixes nitrogen and this is vital for all the plants around that we ll have in our designed eco-system.

* it helps to improve the soil for other crops.
It can be planted in mixed plots or around plots with plants that need nutrients that Pigeon pea helps to fix.

Why don't we see it everywhere?

Edible landscaping in Zambia.

P. S. Mirabelle's Forest Garden started to shape up in the last rainy season 40 km from Chongwe, 80 km from Lusaka, Zambia. This little and brave fairy tale character waits for green hearted friends.

And yes, her question is:

Just how many more plants can everyone easily know and grow so malnutrition becomes history soon?

The aftermath of the holidays looks like a war declaration for the environment. Who else cares? Zambia too has all the privilege of development and availability of goods, with none of the options of garbage management and minimum recycling developed elsewhere.

Recycling can be a small step but in terms of awareness it is a huge one. Cause we start paying attention to what we use, how wasteful we are, how spoiled by money and careless about the bigger picture. We only have one planet,garbage stays here.

There is no garbage bin that is innocent. They all go to landfills just behind privileged neighbourhoods -where they are not "seen" but by the poorest people who scout through them for anything useful.

Just like the gold we could scout in our own awareness when we start caring a lit bit more than about the small "me" and what "i" care to consume and dump without a second thought.