Up until recently, our demonstration plots have been limited to three 6m by 6m demonstration / training gardens, which we call, “Well-Watered Gardens” (see Isaiah 58). These gardens have served to showcase the great results that can be achieved with Farming God’s way, as well as to provide an outdoor training classroom for learners to complete the practical part of the Farming God’s Way training course.

Well, I’ve had it in my mind for a while now that a field-scale showcase would be a great way to introduce Farming God’s Way to the communities we work in (photo journal). In October last year, I asked the chief for some demonstration land. He’s given us a beautiful piece of land next to a river and near a large rock outcropping the locals call “Itshehlophe,” which means, “White Rocks.” The land was virgin grassland, ideal for establishing a field. The soil is a sandy loam, easy to work, and tests very well for nitrogen, phosphorus and postassium, with a ph of 6.5 – which means we don’t have to amend any acidity with lime or woodash. There were few rocks to remove, and only 3 scrub trees to cut down. What a blessing!!

The challenge, however, was that we only received the field in October, and planting time here is in November. What were we going to do about the grass? Ever removed sod?

First, we laid out the field. It is 50 metres square, with permanent pegs at each corner and at every 11 rows. 66 rows total, 22 rows in each section, 2 permanent pegs on either side of each section. The reason for 3 sections is that we plant a rotation crop on a third of the field (in this case speckled beans), and move the crop to a different section each year. One of the fundamentals of Farming God’s Way is crop rotations!

Now, if we’d received the land earlier, we would have smother-mulched the grass for 2 months. This is what it sounds like:  laying down a very thick layer of mulch on top of the live grass, depriving it of light and eventually killing it. Our only other two options for planting this year were spraying with Roundup, or planting into the sod and hoeing the grass out as best we could early in the growing season. I was determined not to do anything to the field the community members couldn’t do. Roundup is expensive, and there is no way the locals can afford it. So, we decided to plant into sod and deal with the grass as best we could.

We cleared the trees, cut the grass as short as possible, and then started digging planting stations. We use a measuring rope 50m long, with markers every 60 cm. Once a row has been dug, we move the rope down the field 75cm and dig the next row. And so on. For 66 rows. Farming by hand is a lot of work!

We started planting on the 11^th of November. Not too hard to remember (get it?). Once the planting was done (and sometimes while we were planting), it rained. And rained. And rained. November was a very, very wet month. Our germination rates were great, but that grass grew – FAST.
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We have been dealing with it as best we can, but we have often remarked how easy next year will be compared to this year. We’re getting a helping hand from the maize now. It’s canopy is closed, depriving the grass of much of the light it needs. The growth of the grass is much slower, allowing us (hopefully) to catch up. But there has been a casualty. We didn’t get enough of the grass cut out of the sugar bean section in time; that section of the field is a write-off, I’m afraid. Next week we’ll cut the grass and bean plants as low to the ground as possible, and then smother-mulch in preparation for next year.

Nevertheless, I’m very happy with the progress we’ve made on the field. While Seed of Hope Community Development isn’t technically in the business of growing food, this field-scale implementation is providing a number of benefits:

1. It really is showcasing Farming God’s Way to the community. This particular community is new ground for us, and we’ve already had a number of visitors to the field, introducing themselves to us and asking questions. The main outcome of this field is to generate interest so that, next training season (August / September), we’ll have many eager to learn.
2. This field has been a brilliant training ground for the two guys I’m training to become FGW trainers. While all of the principles practiced on a Well-Watered Garden are transferable to a field, trainers really ought to have experience in laying out a large field and implementing on a larger scale. I’ve learned much myself, like how many truckloads of manure it takes to fertilize 3700 planting stations, and how long it takes to topdress a field. And how I never want to plant into sod again!
3. There is a young single mother (I’ll call her Sindisiwe) who has had, in general, a horrific life. When both her parents died while she was young, Sindisiwe went to live with her gogo (grandmother). Gogo died while Sindi was still a child, and then Sindi had no family at all. Years were spent on the streets, and Sindi has been raped numerous times. Against all odds, Sindi completed grade 12, and has come to know Jesus as her lord and savior. She attends our church, and I felt I should give her the opportunity to be a farmer for a season and reap the harvest for herself. She happily accepted, and has worked every bit as hard and long as any of us. We are praying that the harvest results in a good income, which will provide options for Sindi in terms of living arrangements, education (she’d like to learn fashion design) and raising her boy (she has a 5 year old son). In the back of my mind, I’m wondering if she might become one of the Farming God’s Way training team, at least part-time. It would be amazing to have a female coach who could testify that this can be done by anyone.

We believe that the timing of this field is significant in the life of the community. We hope it will be a beginning for the transformation of thinking around agriculture and food security.

DW