Within a couple of days, Babucar had planted the fruit cage with seedbeds of tomatoes, carrots, two types of lettuce, onions and cucumber .. with great hopes of the large fortune he was definitely going to make by selling both the Cassava and the vegetables at the local markets. Following local advice, the carrots were planted next to the onions. The smell of carrots discourages onion flies and that of onions similarly discourage carrot flies, evidently a proven method of overcoming this local problem.
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Remarkably, after only 3 days, the first of the carrot seedlings were showing and plans were in place for planting a succession of fast growing crops, which should be possible within the rainy season.
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OK, I call it a fruit cage, because in the UK we do not need to grow vegetables in such a way and they are usually used for growing soft fruits. But after further experimentation and the gaining of more knowledge on the other pests who will still be doing their best to share our bounty .. attempting to grow some succulent strawberries and raspberries etc. will no doubt be too difficult to resist !

The first seedbeds ... footprints .. considered unimportant .. are all part of the African scenery!

The fence posts on the forest boundary were looking a bit sparse as the new grass erupted into life .. so we purchased 50 Casuarina trees at a local nursery for the grand price of 40 pence each and interspersed them between the posts. The picture above shows the leaves and fruit of the Casuarina Tree which was originally native to Australia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
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A hardwood evergreen tree of the ironwood family and commonly known as 'she-oak' or 'Australian pine', Casuarinas are now widely used for major reforestation programmes and as efficient windbreaks in many countries of the world. Famous for their sand-binding properties and ability to tolerate driving sand and tough conditions that would kill many other species.
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Very hardy trees, they have a myriad of practical uses .. and if left to themselves, will grow up to 114 feet tall. Evidently they can withstand a Tsunami wave better than coconut and a forest of Casuarina can provide a lot of protection. If you are caught in a Tsunami and cannot escape any other way, climbing a Casuarina is a recommended option. The wood is also used in construction and is a good source of fuel as it burns to a fine white ash whilst producing a great deal of heat. However, with little chance of suffering from any Tsunamis, mine will be kept trimmed to provide a protective screen of green amongst the fence posts, merging into a boundary barrier of trees.

The garden hut .. or rather Babucar's 2nd home .. was looking quite resplendent in its green and mustard livery. The yellow is perhaps a little brighter than first envisaged, but it had thankfully toned down to closely match the colour of the earth left over from digging the well. OK for now.
Equipped with a bed and comfortable sponge mattress, radio, charcoal brazier cooking facilities and more garden tools than most of the village put together .. I think I may be spoiling him !

One small problem had occurred with the well .. namely an infestation of tiny ants that were using some of the step-holes cut into the side walls to establish new colonies. A constant cloud of sand particles were falling into the water, so Abli Zimba was summoned and cheerily descended into the depths to remove the ants and coat the affected area with a protective layer of cement.

Construction finished and with the Cassava growing strongly, it was time to generally tidy up and cut plant stakes from fallen branches to support the line of Guava trees marking the inside edge of the path. On the opposite side of the path, we are leaving a 5 metre strip of wild grasses and forest undergrowth to grow into a natural barrier along the right hand boundary. Ants were again an unexpected problem when I decided to trim back some of the branches that were growing from an inherited and established orange tree into the tree above it. Avoiding the vicious thorns on both trees, Babucar and I were merrily trimming back the offending limbs when we were suddenly covered in a shower of golden coloured ants, about 10 mm long with very strong jaws !!
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I quickly learnt that whilst there are many different local varieties of ants, their bites also differ. These little 'devils' were extremely aggressive and were vigorously defending their territory ..
not only did their bites hurt like hell, but they hung on until forcibly removed. Their only saving grace was that they were just biting, not injecting any lasting pain-giving secretions .. and once removed, thankfully the pain disappeared. Many other African ant bites can ache for hours.
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Looking around on the ground to try to find their nest was futile .. they all seemed to be climbing back into the tree.  However, on looking up at what we had assumed to be bunches of leaves at the top of the tree .. we found their nests. Ten or more oval shaped bundles of bound together leaves, chock-a-block full with thousands of ants .. most of whom were rushing out to stand equidistantly along the branches or literally piling on top of each other at the cut ends, pincers ready to fight off the invaders. Needless to say we finished the remainder of the pruning quickly.