GARDENING BRIGADE
JANUARY 2001

Our programme was organised with the help the FNH (Fundación de la Naturalez y el Hombre). Pamela Morgan (an Australian permaculturalist who is currently living in Havana) and Maria Eugenia Urbina (a Canadian on a student placement with the FNH)

The Botanical Gardens

On our second day in Havana we went to the Botanical Gardens to work under the direction of Carlos who runs the Edible Fruit Tree Project. 16 hectares of the Botanical Gardens grow a wide range of fruit trees from all over the world – 125 different species. Carlos is investigating which are suitable for general introduction to Cuba. Our task in the morning was to pot up seedlings which then went into the project's tree nursery. We planted up macadamia, passion fruit, anti-desma, guava acida, guanabana and tagetes. (Tagetes is used to deter pests). Young fruit trees are sold to the general public very cheaply and Carlos aims to expand the tree nursery to hold 8,000 plants. (This part of the Botanic Gardens is not usually open to the public)
After a delicious lunch at the organic, vegetarian restaurant "El Bambu" we had a stroll around the fruit project. Lots of opportunities to pick (and eat!) fruit and nuts. Carlos tends to leave his prunings on the ground under the trees to act as a mulch.
We returned later in our stay for more work at the Botanical Gardens – filling black plastic bags ready for planting. This time we were invited to eat lunch in the workers' canteen. A great experience – and John paid for us all with a one dollar bill! This was followed by a guided tour of the Botanical Gardens.
Carlos is very proud of the tools he has received from COSG – long handled loppers, secateurs, pruning saws and knives. We noticed an interesting use of an old plastic bottle – it was cut longways to make an improvised scoop for lifting soil. Not as effective as a metal tool but shows the continuing ingenuity of Cuban gardeners!

A day with Vilda and Pepe

The Community Food Preservation Project (Proyecto Comunitario: Conservación de Alimentos) run by Vilda Figueroa and Jose "Pepe" Lama continues to thrive and was a great inspiration to the whole group. Through their work over the last five years they are now in contact with over 20,000 people a year but through their TV and radio programmes they probably reach 1.5 million. They have also produced five books (one of these has been published in English with the help of COSG) The main thrust of their project is to teach simple food preservation methods, encourage families to grow their own food and to improve nutritional habits. Vilda explained that Cubans did not like brown rice or unrefined sugar.
The project headquarters have many examples of conserved food: dried banana, carrot, yucca, sweet potato etc, also sun-dried herbs (for condiments and medicines), foods preserved in vinegar, preservation through sterilisation (eg tomato sauces), fruits (eg papaya) preserved in syrup and citrus juice preserved by the process of pasteurisation.
Vilda and Pepe have continued to develop the demonstration garden in the nearby nursery school. It is bursting with a huge range of edible and medicinal plants 120 different plants are growing there. They dry about 255 kg of fresh materials each year in nine trays which fit onto special rack in the gardens. Members of the local community are encouraged to bring in their kitchen waste for composting and also to take medicinal plants that they may need.
Vilda and Pepe are continually trying to find new plants that might be useful for Cuban families to use in their diet. One recent innovation is the planting up of the street verges with vegetables and fruit trees.

Urban Farm at Alamar

Vilda and Pepe took us to an urban farm in the eastern suburbs of Havana. This well organized four-acre farm is run by a cooperative of twelve members (five women). They also have twelve additional workers (including four women). The whole area was really productive with a wide range of vegetables, fruit, herbs, flowers and ornamental plants. They also keep rabbits, hens and ducks. We saw some excellent examples of vermiculture and compost making. They practise crop rotation and companion planting and are virtually self sufficient – no external inputs are used. They also have some areas covered in black netting to provide shading.
Although they pay taxes the cooperative is able to keep their profits made from sales directly to the public. We saw steady stream of local people come to the farm shop to buy produce.
We were given a truly delicious lunch at this farm – the dollars we paid were obviously a welcome addition to the income of the farm.

Fundación de la Naturaleza y el Hombre

We had a fascinating morning visit to the headquarters of the FNH. This is an NGO that works to improve the environment through a wide range of activities – cultural, scientific and artistic. They sponsor historical and geographical research both nationally and internationally. We learned about an exciting canoe trip through waterways of Central America that took place in 1992 to coincide (and challenge!) the celebrations marking the anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas. Our host, Angel Grana Gonzalez, had been one of the participants of this venture.
The FNH currently supports a range of projects supporting small scale agriculture throughout the city of Havana.
When the group left to visit the Maqueta (a scale model of Havana) Clare and Tamsin volunteered to stay behind to work on the small garden behind the FNH headquarters. (This is the garden started by the Gardening Brigade in January 2000.)

Justo's Patio Project in Cerro

This is a small back yard shared by a group of families. Apart from being filled to overflowing with plants it is also used for drying washing, and socialising. Justo Torres has been running the Community Patios Project for three years. The project shows people with no land of any sort how they can still provide some of their own family's food. It involves local doctors, schools and elderly people and has links with the Ministry of Health, hospitals and universities. Cerro is one of the poorest areas in Havana. The main problems for the 23,000 inhabitants are poor housing, some recent evidence of alcoholism and drug use and very few open green spaces.

The main aims of the project are:

• to provide fresh vegetables and herbs
• to give access to more green spaces
• to improve the environment
• to improve social relationships

• bringing in new topsoil from a local green area by wheelbarrow
• mixing soil with compost from the composting area
• emptying old soil from containers and refilling
• filling and stacking tyres for cassava plant
• enlarging a small raised bed using roofing tiles at the edges and filling with topsoil

School Garden at La Timba

Having heard and read so much about "the Challenge" of the first Gardening Brigade, I was really looking forward to seeing how things had developed in the last twelve months. Oh dear! We found the garden to be very neglected and had obviously had little work done on it in recent months. A large amount of biomass was being burnt when we arrived, there was a lot of litter and rubbish lying everywhere, the compost pit was filled with rubbish and there was little actually growing in the raised beds.
However the group set to work enthusiastically. The compost pit was cleared out and restarted, rubbish removed, raised beds weeded and planted up with lettuces and pak choi, fruit tree seedlings planted etc. It certainly all looked better when we left than when we arrived!
This reinforces the idea that community gardens like this can only succeed if the people at grass roots level have an understanding and interest in the project. The young man whose job it was to look after the garden was also employed as a general school caretaker. He obviously had no expertise (or interest) in the garden – so the neglect was not really his fault. However Pamela arranged for him to join some permaculture workshops – which will hopefully inspire him!

Fernandini's Garden

Fernandini's garden is tucked away off the Avenida de Mexico and not far from the Brachia de Habana. He is famous not only for his finca which he has developed using permaculture techniques but also as one of the original revolutionary army of Fidel and Che.
The garden is a rambling plot with many challenges including poor soil and a hilly terrain. He enthuses about his work and is keen to show us the huge range of fruit and vegetables he grows - banana, mango, avocado, yucca, malanga, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, maize, beans etc. He grows pumpkins along a fence and lettuce in a polystyrene tray floating on water. (He says this is a technique used in India). He also has fish, terrapins and turtles in his ponds.
Half of our group stayed to work with Fernandini – removing old fencing, weeding, etc. Tom and Clare, who worked hard to remove the old metal fence, had their work made more difficult by not having the right tools – perhaps we should take out some bolt cutters with the next brigade!

Gelo's garden
(real name: Huerto de Permacultura "San Isidro Labrador")

Gelo's garden is still very much in the early stages of development. A group is working together on the plans to create a community garden that will eventually include fruit, vegetables, medicinal herbs, a covered classroom area, beehives, chicken pen, composting and vermiculture areas.
On his patio (some thirty foot above the garden) Gelo keeps a pig, guinea pigs and hens.
The garden is in a poor part of Old Havana, with high crumbling walls on three sides. The task of our group was to give the garden a "jump start". We removed old shrubs and trees, cleared an area ready for making a herb bed, sorted out the pile of compost, started a second compost heap, removed rubble and litter.
It was hard work – the sun was very strong – but by the end of the day the group felt they had achieved a fair amount. Gelo certainly seemed delighted by what we had done.

Miguel and Ana's Farm

Pamela took us to visit this farm on our way back from a visit to beach to the east of Havana. The group was so charmed by the farm that we asked if we could go again to work there. It is a private farm covering eleven hectares, totally organic in their approach and using a range of biological controls. They are virtually self-sustaining and get good results for the size of the finca. As well as a wide range of fruit and vegetables they have fish, bees, cows, pigs, chickens. Miguel is particularly proud of the size of some of his vegetables. He always interplants – usually three crops together and sometimes uses bio-dynamic techniques (i.e. he plants by the phases of the moon.) He keeps written records of almost everything he grows and is currently doing a course on sustainable agriculture.
We worked in a vegetable field, clearing weeds and preparing soil for new crops.

Pastures & Forages Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones de Pastos y Forrajes)

I have to admit that some of the group thought that this visit might prove to be a bit on the dull side. Nothing could have been further from the truth. We were shown around by the Deputy Director Fernando Funes and his enthusiasm was infectious. The whole visit was punctuated with exclamations of "Well, that's amazing" and "Wow, I didn't know that."
Every province in Cuba has a number of research institutes (run by the Ministry of Agriculture) which investigates aspects of agricultural practice. They are currently concentrating on sustainable solutions. At Pastures and Forages they are currently working on the following:

• Composting and vermiculture
• Processing of medicinal plants in a small laboratory. We saw alfalfa powder being produced and packaged ready for sale.
• Production of bio-fertilisers, pest controls and soil inoculants. Dr Mirtha Lopez showed us "Bio-riz", a commercial product that they have developed as a soil inoculant for soya production. She claimed soya bean production was much increased with its use.
• Dr Marta Monzote explained their experiments with integrated crop/livestock production systems. These were being done on a series of one-hectare plots which we visited. Careful records have been kept showing milk production, crop production, human and animal labour required, fuel expenses etc. Soil fertility is maintained by compost, green manures and mulch.

We were particularly taken with Juan Jose Suarez whose experimental hectare has four goats rather than cattle. He clearly loved his goats (and vice versa!) and stressed the need for good food, hygiene, access to water and interaction with humans. He said these factors led to a high milk yield. The only inputs introduced are molasses and mineral salts. The goats are kept in pens and the remainder of the land is used for growing forage. Juan said that in the last three years his goats had been without any illnesses and very few parasites – they certainly looked very healthy!
At the end of our visit Fernando said that he would like to have more links with the UK, possibly some visits to the UK could be organised for training opportunities for the Institute staff.

And what else did we do?

As well as the gardening and study visits that we made we also went to the beach and visited Old Havana (for listening and dancing to live music). At the weekend we all went to Soroa, a small village to the west of Havana set in beautiful countryside. Some of the group decided to stay there overnight and on the Sunday our bus set out for Vinales with just three of the group on it. They made the journey into a party by picking up Cuban hitchhikers all along the route! So although we worked hard at times our stay was also fun!

But my most enduring memory is the enthusiasm and sincerity of so many of the people that we met. They are achieving some amazing results in very difficult circumstances. An inspiring and humbling experience.

Wynne Kelly
March 2001