Planting Lavender

The long awaited moment of planting lavender arrived. With temperatures between 13C in the morning and rising fast to 39C, working against the clock to give the plants more chance to survive the transplant it was one tough job.
The first day we lost a field worker, luckily not a good one (the photographer). Got him a water/power management job and replaced him with much better Moses (no, he didn’t part our water).
During the three days, what it took us to have the job done, we used over 100.000 liters of water for irrigation and this couldn’t have been possible without the new, strong borehole. The first few weeks are critical for the plants to survive so in summer time we'll use 20.000 liters water per day.
Thank you team! Thelma,Tate Penda, Meme Penda, Willbard, Andreas and Moses (no, he didn’t make water from a rock in the desert).
Once the plants were in the ground we applied organic fertilizers through the drip irrigation system.
 Rain will be a great assistance so let’s hope we’ll have a good rainy season.

3000 seedlings in a box:

The hole makers:

Seedling:

Ready for planting

With the new borehole and a 4200 L/h submersible pump dropped in our water problem is ended.
The iron barn is finished as well. Now we are ready!
The seedlings are expected tomorrow, 11 November and the next day we should start planting.

Our new barn:

New borehole

We are now behind the schedule for planting but this was actually a good thing, it gave us time to test the irrigation system in daily working conditions and pick up the snags.
So we had to install a bigger pressure pump, then more solar panels - thank you Lucia.
The biggest concern was the water supply as the old borehole was not performing well. We decided to give it a cleaning up and see what happens. Unfortunately it was so messed up that not much we could do for it. We knew we are in deep sh…trouble.
The rig was at Kranzberg Lavender Fields anyway so a quick decision was made, drill a new bore hole.
But how to find the right spot? Easy! With professional advise from my geologist friend of Transylvanian origin, Andreas, Daniel’s experience, the mountains and rocks around telling us their story and a lot of optimism we start drilling. Only 30m! If there is no sign of water we give up.
At 50 m I start worrying. Call a neighbor, hey Dirk, how deep did you find water? 63 m. Ok, we are only at 53 now.
Let's put another rod, wow we strike the water!  What an emotional experience. We have about 5000L/h already, let’s put another rod and finish. ... But what if ...?  Another rod followed and then another one and …..wow, strike again.
Now we should really stop. But... what if...? Hey, stop it, this is not a gamble... Or is it?
8700L/h at 81m depth it’s a very good water hole considering we are in the desert and the water spotting expertise we had. Farming made easy. Some say I’m lucky.  I feel I’m a very happy lucky guy.

 

Ground samples of each 6m of drilling:

Almost there

Automatic irrigation system done !!! Six stations, pressure pump, 4000 m drip lines. The new barn is almost finished as well. All we need now is to get the lavender seedlings. The delivery delay might be a good thing as we still have to test the irrigation system in daily running conditions.

Soil amending

Two weeks to go until the lavender seedlings arrive. We are still busy amending the soil with manure and lime but the progress is impressive. Tate Penda you are my hero! Such commitment and devotion, hard to find, it's like living the African dream.

Lavender Planter

This is our "new" lavender planter

Preparing the ground for planting lavender

After de-bushing we found out that the ground is too rocky for planting , huge boulders under the surface. We had to get a bulldozer to do the earth work needed, rip the ground , remove the rocks and level out.

And this is how the field looks now. We still have to manually remove some rocks and improve the ground before the irrigation will be set up but for now it looks good to me.

Lavender field project

All the lavender varieties are doing well so we have decided to go for the field. We've de-bushed about a hectare inside the fence and we are currently preparing half hectare for the lavender field on the hill facing North. We've ordered 12.500 Abrialis variety seedlings from South Africa and due for delivery in mid-October when the winter is long gone. Kranzberg will be the first lavender field in Namibia.

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This time of the year the weather is great during the day but very cold during the night, sometimes below zero. We have to cover the fruit trees against the frost.

Some progress

Barn finished, 40 fruit trees orchard with drip irrigation setup , fence erected, solar power system up and running. We also planted three different varieties of lavender for trial. I would love to establish a lavender field , probably the only one in Namibia.

An aerial picture