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

The infrastructure

With good underground water, fairly fertile ground ( analyses done ) and a lot of enthusiasm the journey of hobby farming has begun.   We started building a brick barn , setup the water supply, erect a game fence and prepare the ground for planting fruit trees. Doing all this in the middle of nowhere make us realize that we take the town living facilities for granted
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”  Masanobu Fukuoka , The One-Straw Revolution

The ground work

Soon we were on track cleaning up the bush for roads, water supply pipe, for 3 hectares fencing and agriculture ground inside the fence. We start small, farming can be a tough job, particularly if one has never touched a garden tool ever. We have both spent our lives in town living.