Gardening and the dry season

Nigeria is located within the tropical region - the region between the tropic of Capricorn and the tropic of Cancer North and South of the equator respectively. One of the implications is that we usually experience distinct dry and wet seasons. On average, the dry season lasts between 3 to 4 months while the rainy season fills up the remaining months of the year. There are microvariations with some places within the country experiencing shorter dry seasons (coastal areas) while some experience longer dry seasons (extreme North).

Luckily for me, I stay in a region that seems to be in between the two extremes. In the Southwestern part of Nigeria, the dry season usually starts towards the end of November and ends somewhere around March. Thus, we are currently in the middle of the dry season which is usually characterized by minimal farming activities, except for those that opt to cultivate swamplands. During rainy seasons, swamplands are usually flooded and unideal for farming as the soils are poorly aerated.

During the dry season, however, swamplands become vital for the cultivation of some essential farm produce such as leafy vegetables. These farm products need to be available year-round to continuously nourish the population and keep food inflation in check. First, the swamps are cleared and drained by digging drainages across the land. Crops such as maize, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, and other crops with short life cycles are usually planted. This is to ensure that harvesting is done before the rainy season resumes and the entire farmland becomes flooded.

^{Plantain plants during the ongoing dry season.}

For those of us that are garden enthusiasts, we have no option but to patiently wait for the rainy season to resume our gardening activities. Since I planted some crops that need more than a single rainy season in order to fruit, I fear some of them may not make it through to the next rainy season. Worse still, some of the plantain plants in my garden decided to flower when the rainy season was already packing its bags. The implication is that there will not be enough water for the fruits to properly form and develop.

Apart from the fact that it is already looking like the fruits of some of the plantains will not form properly, a few individual plants that are already fruiting have seen their stems collapse. This is largely due to inadequate water. When the cytoplasm of plant cells does not have enough water, the cell wall shrinks and this is exactly what led to the collapse of the stems of those individual plants. I envisage that more might still collapse before the rainy season starts around March.

^{One of the poorly fruiting plantains}

The cassava stems I planted have lost some leaves due to water shortage. It is a coping mechanism to reduce the rate at which water is lost from the parent plant by the process of evapotranspiration. Also, the little resources that the plant is able to make in this period will be rationed accordingly. On the bright side, it looks like they will make it through to the rainy season they are an underground storage plant.

^{Some of the cassava plants gradually losing leaves to conserve limited resources that are characteristics of the dry season.}

I harvested the potato plants just before the dry season kicked in and it was a bountiful one. Interestingly, I started noticing offshoots of potato leaves at different points across the garden a few weeks after harvesting. There is only one possible answer, some tubers are still left underground. I must have missed them while harvesting due to inexperience. I decided to dig up some and the result was amazing. I now have another potato bounty that could last us a couple of weeks.

^{Residual potato harvest.}

In addition to gardening, I also have a plan of going to animal rearing in the nearest future, largely inspired by the new environment we found ourselves in. Luckily for me, I was offered a couple of local hens by families and friends. The hens are up to five in number and are of different maturity - one cock and four chickens.

^{The local hen. My newly found hobby.}

Even though they are local hens that will eat virtually anything that is given to them, I have been feeding them with grower feeds purchased from a retail outlet. The plan is to construct a proper chicken pen to house them in the nearest future. For now, I am making do with a locally crafted pen made using palm fronds.

^{The locally crafted, palm-frond-made chicken coop.}

Why am I rearing local hens over hybrids?

• Local hens are stronger. They hardly fall sick and have a high survival rate.
• They do not need any special feed. In actual fact, they do just fine scavenging from soils and the environment in general. In other words, they have low maintenance.
• Even though they do not produce as much meat as hybrids, their meats are usually more palatable.
• Their eggs are also more palatable than eggs of hybrid hens. They also do not need special feeds in order to start laying eggs.

The long-term plan is to rear both local and hybrid hens, as well as other animals such as goats and sheep. For now, I am still trying to get acclimatized to our new environment.

What do you think?