Living green – growing vegetables in the tropics
Cultivating a vegetable garden on a tropical island can be a challenging experience. However, when you hit the right note the harvest is plentiful. The Virgin Islands, lying 18 degrees north of the equator, is considered to be in the humid tropic zone, where rainfall hardly ever exceeds 1150 mm annually. It may be higher in the hills and lower in the valleys.
However, we do experience two pronounced wet seasons in May and November. In the tropics, vegetables can be grown year round, although lack of water during the dry season poses its own set of difficulties; and excessive rainfall during the rainy season is also challenging. Growing conditions on our islands are harsh, with little rainfall and an arid environment, with little topsoil. However, our farmers continue to plough on.
Vegetable Growing in the Caribbean
Your garden may be located wherever you can find some space to grow vegetables and herbs. Consider that in a few short steps, and a little attention, the container garden on your patio or that patch in the back yard can provide fresh vegetables for your dinner table.
Growing vegetables and herbs in the Caribbean can be done by rotating crops during the year, based on whether you are planting in the dry season or the wet season. It can be done. Chef Hemant Dadlani, Executive Chef of Rosewood Little Dix Bay, is determined to source the freshest ingredients he can get. He has encouraged some employees at the resort to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, including spinach, peppers, tomatoes, fresh herbs to be used in the restaurants at Little Dix Bay.
The vegetable garden may be a backyard garden or a commercial venture. The backyard garden usually seeks to utilize the land surrounding a residence to produce a range of crops mainly for use by the owner. On the other hand, the commercial cultivation produces crops for primarily for sale. The two types are quite different. The backyard garden has a wide variety of different crops planted, often interspersed with fruit trees and shade trees, whereas the commercial garden usually is more orderly in appearance.
Planning the backyard garden
When establishing a backyard garden, decide the crops to be planted. Be sure to include as many food types as possible – vegetables (legumes, leafy vegetables, root crops, fruity vegetables like tomatoes and peppers) and fruit trees. Be sure to include some drought tolerant crops. This would be helpful, especially in the dry season. Plan to utilize household resources for the garden, for example wastewater for irrigation, or household waste to augment the compost.
Plant your crops carefully, leaving sufficient spacing between the plants to allow good access for caring and maintenance of the crops. Special consideration should be given to deciding where trees are to be planted. Trees should not be planted too close to buildings, or too close to each other. Plan to store wastewater from the house for use in irrigation of the crops. This can be easily achieved by having a grey water cistern. Plan to irrigate your crops by using a drip irrigation system, as this utilizes less water.
Decide on a location for a compost pile. This is the area for collecting fallen leaves, collected weeds, and degradable household trash. As this material decomposes, it can be added to the soil as plant nutrition. The shortterm crops should be rotated around the yard. This will arrest the build-up of diseases that would occur if the same crop is planted in the same spot every time. Crop rotation should also include a legume, such as pigeon pea, which adds nitrogen to the soil.
Adequate arrangements must also be made to ensure good production. In the wet season, the crop should be planted on ridges or mounds to minimize flooding. In the dry season the crops should be planted either on the flat or in small depressions. This would collect any precipitation that occurs and make the water available to the plants. The drip irrigation schedule would have to be amended to provide the additional water required.
A mulch is also important. The mulch may be black plastic, fallen leaves, or any other material that covers the soil. In the dry season the mulch reduces the loss of water from the soil as water vapour, by reducing the evaporation of water. In the wet season, the mulch helps to control weeds.
In this article we considered the environment of the garden. Our next article will provide information on what crops can be grown and how to take care of them, so that you can enjoy them at your dinner table. Let us reduce our dependence on imported fruits and vegetables by growing our own.
Esther Georges is the Deputy Director of the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands
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