Peter keeps his eye on his girls but is called to duty in many places to train Peace Corps volunteers in productive double-digging front-yard vegetable gardening. Here I will share part of his e-mail that came to us yesterday. "I am out to the mountains once again tomorrow for 4 days. This time tracing the impact of one PCV who has done some really great outreach with the permagardening at primary schools and with students. We did a workshop together at her school a year ago and so far the idea has spread to 4 other primary schools, the teachers and the kids…
Haiti RPCV Peter Jensen s called to duty in many places to train Peace Corps volunteers in productive double-digging front-yard vegetable gardening
Woodstove-Happily digging himself into a hole
Written by Sherrill Smith
September 25, 2009
Peter Jensen is a member of the family, so it's OK to talk about him without permission.
His two degrees are in agriculture and he first put them to work in Haiti with the Peace Corps alongside Elise, his future wife, then in West Virginia and ultimately to Malawi along with two lovely daughters. In recent years Tanzania, where Elise leads a large staff who distribute Uncle Sam's dollars to address the needs of AIDS and hunger victims.
Peter keeps his eye on his girls but is called to duty in many places to train Peace Corps volunteers in productive double-digging front-yard vegetable gardening. Here I will share part of his e-mail that came to us yesterday.
"I am out to the mountains once again tomorrow for 4 days. This time tracing the impact of one PCV who has done some really great outreach with the permagardening at primary schools and with students. We did a workshop together at her school a year ago and so far the idea has spread to 4 other primary schools, the teachers and the kids…
"I'm going to So. Africa in October. Will do a 3-day training with PCV's and their counterparts, then present and participate at a regional Peace Corps programming conference where I will facilitate a session on Family Food and Nutrition Security. I'll do another 3-day workshop with their program. I'll be gone from Oct. 15 to November 1. On the 13th of November I'll go back to the Uluguru Mountain project to help establish some conservation agriculture demo and garden plots (this is the CARE project) before ending the week with Peace Corp and trainings with the soon to arrive Education Trainees. Then I go to Senegal to present at a big Food Security Summit from Dec. 5-12."
When the family retires to a home they own in Chatham, Peter will no doubt enjoy the Cape Cod agricultural communities and markets springing up all over the place. I couldn't resist doing something to make him proud of me when they next visit.
I'm not about to re-start a significant garden. Too often I was wiped out by four-legged visitors in the dark of night, especially those who would habitually snitch the fruits of my crops on the day before they were ripe enough to harvest.
For now I am simply practicing double-digging instructions in a three by twelve plot where I first dug down a foot to turn over the topsoil without removing any of it. I can't go deeper because water rises too high in that place and so I built an enclosure with 12" boards and the above-ground soil that will go within will come from the compost pile I am now building for spring results.
Plantings can be close together because the roots will delight in negotiating a clear descent through the bottom soil. A miniscule experimental garden, but I'm almost ready for spring and a summer visit from my instructor. His African friends are having great success growing their own front yard vegetables. Think of it. Peter will bring the family all the way to Cape Cod just to be sure my gardening is being done as it should be. And I'm not even African.
If Peter approves my basic effort, I'm sure he will advise me to do the next bed with the benefit of further advice. With his expertise, I will be able to do seminars and that will make me feel my double-digging effort was well worth the hours it took to get educated.
