New Well Watered Gardens Around Harare

14 January 2011

The Well Watered Garden in early stages at Northside Community Church in Harare

Seven known new sites have established Well Watered Gardens in and around Harare since the beginning of this agricultural season.

This is in addition to four existing ones that the Foundations for Farming team was aware of in the city, said William Tom.

The new sites are at Celebration Church (Westgate), Solution Centre (a business in Highlands), The Base Church (Highlands office), Gateway High School (Emerald Hill), St John’s College (Borrowdale), Northside Community Church (Borrowdale), a private home in Highlands and Faithwear (a retail business with a factory in Ruwa).

”We are excited by the emergence of the new sites! The Foundations for Farming team is keen to encourage their growth and has been monitoring them monthly and giving them whatever assistance they need,” Tom said.

While the establishment of the sites has been an exciting development, the new Well Watered Gardens have had their fair share of problems.

”Weeding has tended to be a problem. This is because traditionally people neglect it as the crop grows, thinking it was important only in the very early stages. This is a mistake,” Tom said.

Another observation he made was that in some instances the nitrogen top dressing was not applied on time. Some of the maize had started turning yellow due to nitrogen deficiency as a result.

”Despite these problems, most of the sites aren’t discouraged and we’ve done our best to remedy the different situations. As Foundations for Farming we think they’ve made a great start and we will do our best to continue to support them and provide training on implementation management,” said Tom.