THE V.I. PRESS ROOM
The Press Room
POST MARIA VICTORY GARDEN
By: Staff Writer
After the passing of Hurricanes Irma and Maria affected the lives of millions of residents throughout the Caribbean, resourceful people have taken on new habits and believe in new possibilities. In the US Virgin Islands, farmers and naturalists have awakened to the subtle changes in population dynamics of plants, insects, and microorganisms in all the ecosystems. Some fruit trees are coming back healthier than they have been in years having been stripped of their parasites that happily blew away. Industrious young men are selling pint sized pots of passion fruit plants in shopping center parking lots and people everywhere are carefully preserving scraps of valuable wood like lignum vitae and mahogany.
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We visited with a resident in Frederiksted who is reaping what she sowed three months before the double thrashings from Irma and Maria. The resident had been to Denmark just a few months before the storm and learned about permaculture on the Island of Samsø, known as the energy island. Perma-gardening is a plan for the home gardener to mimic the natural forest by placing combinations of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in favorable symbiotic relationships with trees and common weeds to imitate the dynamics of the natural forest. Tree guilds are the goal of the resident and she was off to a good start with indigenous wild weeds accompanying vegetables and herbs by the middle of July. One tomato was placed next to castor bean (Ricinus communis), a common weed throughout undeveloped land. Another was placed with mother-in-law tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata), a third grew next to nightshade (Solanum americanus). There were seven experimental setups with tomatoes. Cucumbers and green peppers were similarly treated using patches of tarragon basil and all of the above. Several other foodstuffs rounded out the 100 square meter patch carved out of the wild bush, part of an underutilized backyard.
However many surprises were lurking under the windblown weeds in the days following Maria and some tender loving care is bearing fruit now. Eggplant lined themselves up in an arc with optimal spacing and were bursting out with purple flowers. Where these seeds came from will remain a mystery. A small spring of spinach had completely filled out a square meter patch next to a sprawling patch of sweet potato. The green peppers had disappeared with the lettuce, but spindly cucumber seedling had gained several meters with succulent leaves and healthy budding green protrusions amidst sprays of yellow blossoms.Â
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Only two sets of tomato pairs survived with their natural companions; mother-in-law tomatoes had about 20 green tomatoes on one plant with very little worm damage but on the other, 10 tomatoes had been ravaged by pearly-eyed thrashers (Margarops fuscatus). The second tomato set survived inside tomato baskets and were surrounded by sweet potato greenery. There were 22 good sized tomatoes with moderate bird damage and signs of worms moving in. This has created new daily chores like worm hunting and the resident searches daily for the curled up leaves and removes the offending competitor by hand preserving them in alcohol representing all the stages of development.
Bananas and papaya planted around a 1 meter deep pit where compost is disposed. Spinach, eggplant and lemongrass grow between the trees making a basic guild.
