Market Gardens — Full Circle Foundation

Market Gardens.

The full Circle foundation has been working on market gardens from almost the beginning. The concept is to take a base contribution and use that to build the infrastructure for a local garden. This usually includes a perimeter wall to keep animals out, some water basins and or water delivery mechanisms inside the garden and a general plan for planting and starting the garden.

Some of the first gardens were not successful. There was a local well that was dug, and a small irrigation system put in. These things seem rather normal in a typical garden, but what didn’t work in this case because the well pump needed constant and oversight. The piping network ended up getting holes in it from animals and also took away from the social activity of hand watering which the villagers who were mostly women quite enjoyed as it was an opportunity to have good conversations and connect with each other. Because of these various factors the garden ended up going fallow.

During the most recent trip, we were able to take a look at the newest garden program that was just started this year to see how it was working and if it could be resurrected. There was some renewed support from the local chief and the momentum to do another garden was strong. A new area was designated, the walls were built and the systems were being installed. The water is from a community well and the recently added piping was laid underground to this particular area so infrastructure is sound. Cisterns are getting built so that the watering can be done by the members of the garden and plants have already been started during the rainy season which falls over a typical US summer season.

The goal is to have the local community access the garden and grow their own food, which can be used for their family needs or sold in the village. The long-term vision of the market garden is that there can be one next to every small village, which tends to be about every mile or two in this particular part of the country.