Category: Haitian Culture/Language

Growing Gardens Instructional Guide

Project HOPE Art
Growing Gardens Instructional Guide

Why does Project HOPE Art promote gardening as an art form?
Because art should permeate everything we do to make the world a better, more creative and inspiring place to live.
Art + Science go hand in hand. We need both to live. One feeds our mind and soul. The other nourishes our bodies.

KEY GARDENING INFORMATION

What does Organic Farming mean?
Growing fruits and vegetables without artificial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. A practice of avoiding chemicals all together in order to be gentle and natural with the earth.

Why should I Repurpose and Recycle items?
To reduce waste and stop contributing to the ugly practice of discarding items carelessly when there is plenty of life left in them. The earth doesn’t need more trash floating in the ocean, in rivers, on the streets and in cities and towns all over. Find beauty in the old and see new ways to re-use your garbage.

Soil
Soil is the essence of gardening. And you must take care of your dirt the same way you tend your fruits and vegetables. Soil health translates to fruit and vegetable health. You want your soil to both drain and retain moisture. You want your soil to receive healthful components found in compost, which means encouraging worms and other helpful creatures. And adding grit or fine gravel to your soil on occasion is the key to finding balance in the composition of your soil.

If your soil is very acidic, add lime. Some vegetables like acidic soil (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans and onions).
If your soil is very alkaline, add leafmold, peatmoss and compost. (The Brassica Family: Mustards and Greens like alkaline soil).

What is Compost?
It is the practice of adding in rotting vegetable and fruit matter back into the soil to amend soil texture, re-introduce nutrients and vitamins and help soil drainage. Using wood for your compost storage bin is the most helpful material because it allows your compost to stay warm (which helps it break down) and allows it to breathe and air out.
You can compost:
-all garden waste
-shredded or chopped woody material
-tea, coffee, egg shells
-newspaper, wood ash, torn cardboard, animal/human hair and straw
-avoid weeds and cooked food

Put all your compost into your bin. Stir it once a week. When your compost has broken down from heat, moisture and time. It should begin to be sweet smelling. That is when it is time to spread it out into your garden.

Vermicomposting: You can add red earth worms into your compost to help it along with the breaking down process. Worms eat your scraps and leave behind their own waste. Worm poop is also vital to soil health.

CROPS

Moringa Trees- The Moringa tree is native to northern India, but today it is common throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Moringa trees grow easily from seeds or cuttings. They grow quickly even in poor soil and bloom 8 months after planting.

Onions – One of the most useful vegetables to have in your garden.
They prefer open, sunny spots and can be planted almost any time of year, as long as your treat their soil with compost.
They can be grown from seed or small bulbs called sets. They generally take 18-42 weeks to be harvested. Allow the leaves to fall back and flop over, then gently loosen your onion from the soil. Let them ripen in the sun on the ground for a few days.

Cabbages – A fantastic choice for pikliez, salad slaws and accompaniment for braised meats. They prefer open sites protected from wind. They do not like fresh compost, so choose a spot that was enriched with compost one or two growing seasons previous. They generally take 20-40 weeks to be harvested. Cabbages can be troublesome to grow, but if you cut them from the stem carefully you may get a second round of cabbage. Be gentle with them. Store them for weeks in cool, airy places.

Bush Beans – The most versatile bean for cooking, they include kidney, lima and snap. They love sunny, open spots and do particularly well in containers. They generally take 7-14 weeks for harvesting. To sow: make a trench about 1 ½ inches deep, 6 inches wide and as long as you have space (2 feet to 6 feet long)and plant two rows of seeds in your trench. Weed carefully. Keep watch for mice, snails and slugs. They will steal or eat your seeds and young shoots. Once mature your beans are safe. Pick your beans often, the more you pick, the more will grow. Old beans will become tough, so eat them young. You can always return old beans to the ground to grow new beans.

Bush Beans – Also known as Runner Beans, these types of beans are very easy to grow. And adore warm places. They love a sunny, open spot that has not been recently enriched with compost. They grow well in containers. No matter where you choose to grow them, make sure you have a firm stake in the ground to train your beans upwards towards the sun. They will be ready to harvest in 14-26 weeks. Pick the beans often and eat them same day or next day. This may mean you have to share your bounty with friends and family.

Lettuces – The widest range of textures, colors, flavors and appearance. Lettuces will tolerate shade but prefer open, breezy sun spots. Moisture-retentive soils are best. You can grow them almost any time of year. They will be ready to harvest in 6-15 weeks. The same plants will go on growing new heads, providing you with an economy of space.

Beets – A joy to have in the garden with it’s splashy colors. Very easy to grow, Beets love equally large containers and rich, light soils with lots of sun. Start with many seeds in the ground and thin them out as necessary to give ample space to spread out and grow. In general, you can expect to harvest in 8 weeks. Simply pull them from the ground. Younger, smaller beets are juicier and more flavorful.

Tomatoes – Prepare to be amazed with the incredible flavor of a homegrown tomato. They need sunshine and ample space to stretch out. You will undoubtedly need to provide stakes or a support system to hold the arms of the tomato plant aloft and keep tomoatoes from unnecessarily rotting on the ground. Establish a watering routine to avoid the fruit from splitting or bursting. They generally take 8 weeks to be ready for harvest.

washing clothes

Haiti faces key challenges in the water supply and sanitation sector:

* Haiti’s coverage levels in urban and rural areas are the lowest in the hemisphere for both water supply and sanitation. Sewer systems and wastewater treatment are nonexistent.

* In rural areas those without access to an improved water source got their water primarily from unprotected wells (5%), unprotected springs (37%) and rivers (8%). In urban areas those without access to an improved source got their water from “bottled water” (20%), from carts with drums (4%) and unprotected wells (3%).

* According to the Demographic and Health Survey 2006, 10% of those living in urban areas and 50% of those living in rural areas defecated in the open.

* In almost all urban areas water supply is intermittent.

* In January 2010 parts of Haiti including the capital were hit by a massive earthquake. More than 1.5 million people were displaced and had to live in refugee camps without piped water supply or sanitation, where most of them still live.

* The main public institution in the Haitian water sector is the National Directorate for Water Supply and Sanitation in the Ministry of Public Works, called DINEPA after its French acronym (Direction Nationale d’Eau Potable et d’Assainissement).

* Some of the NGOs active in drinking water supply in Haiti are:
Action Contre la Faim (French),
the Association haïtienne pour la maîtrise des eaux et des sols (ASSODLO) (Haitian).
CARE (US),
the Comité Protos Haïti (Haitian),
le Groupe de recherche et d’échanges technologiques (GRET) (French),[10]
Helvetas(Swiss),
Inter Aide (French),
International Action (US),
Oxfam (UK and Canada),
the Pan American Development Foundation (linked to the Organisation of American States)
World Vision (US).

beans, beans the magical fruit

On this next trip to Haiti we have been busy working on health-based art projects. Composting, Waste Management, Sanitation and Cleanliness, Water Harvesting … just a few topics we would like to tackle.
One project that we’ve taken on in recent weeks deals with malnutrition. Artists Jenni Ward and Kathy Barbro are putting together an art project lesson plan, based on Jack and The Magic Beanstalk. Once we walk all the kids through the story of magic beans, we hope to give them each a few bean seedlings to take home and plant.
We have quite a few obstacles to overcome, namely safe, nutrient rich soils, thrivability in the intense tropical heat and knowledge to grow, harvest and collect bean seeds to make the art project sustainable once we are home in California.

It will be much easier to focus on acquiring vegetable-based proteins for children, pregnant women and the elderly than sourcing animal-based proteins. About 61 percent of the population of Haiti is classified as undernourished by the World Bank. Beans are relatively easy to grow and are easy to transport in seed form. One of our partners, Medishare is currently working on a protein rich project involving beans in the Thomonde community of Haiti’s Central Plateau, 41 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince.


Mineral deficiency can be reduced through bio-fortified staple foods like beans.

Malnutrition is a worry for young children, pregnant and lactating women, and older people. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, which has resulted in pervasive malnutrition. Even prior to the earthquake in January 2010, one in three Haitian children under the age of five suffered from malnutrition. Today, thousands more are at risk of malnutrition as a result of the devastation from the earthquake. Malnourished children are five-to-eight times more likely to die from diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and measles than are well-nourished children.

There is much to learn about Haitian Food Customs as far as introducing more protein dense vegetables and fruits. Because Beans have 8-10 grams of protein per serving they are a great crop to introduce to gardens small and large. We are on the hunt to collect more and more information about specific bean varieties that will thrive in the humid, wet Haitian climate.

Download: Vegetable Protein Information

-melissa schilling

Flying Hands Mural: Art is the Universal Language

FlyingHandsMural

HappyHandsMural-25

When you work with kids, to give them a voice in an environment that is particularly harsh, crushing and potentially foreshadowing of hardship to come. It is important, in my opinion, to foster flying when possible. To rise above the hurdles and let them not hinder dreams and goals.

HappyHandsMural-20

Our resident art teacher, Jenni Ward, brought down a large oiled drop cloth and paints. Teachers and Students alike decorated it with hand prints. Then the HOPE Art team doodled all kinds of things onto the mural, to inspire flying.

Our HOPE Art team doodled all kinds of things onto the mural, to inspire flying.

HappyHandsMural-12

Wings
Pegasus
Birds
Angels
Flying pigs
Dragons
you name it, we doodled it.

HappyHandsMural-24

We'll be hosting an art show this Summer to show off our mural. The finished product is beautiful, but the process to achieve it is even more so.

Mimi