Greetings from Namibia in South West Africa

[omaruru]

I live in the small town of Omaruru in central namibia, I have been actively trying to grow heirloom varieties of vegetables, squash, beans, corn and chilis have been successful so far, peas not so much spuds were a push. I was just turned onto the German Fork Pumpkin/Old timey cornfield. I would really like to source some seeds. They would be sent to my US address. I look forward to following this group. 

[heavyhitterokra]

Omaruru, welcome to the group. You'll find a lot of really nice people here. We'll enjoy hearing about your gardening experiences in the Nambia region.

[macmex]

Omar messaged me. I responded and am waiting his reply.
Yes, Omar, welcome!

[chrysanthemum]

Greetings, Omaruru. It’s good to have you join us. I spent some time looking at weather and climate data from your location as it’s so unfamiliar to me. It looks like you’re just beginning your cool season there at about 21 degrees south latitude, but your cool temperatures still look to be pretty good crowing conditions. I wonder if that is actually the case. It looks very dry, however, almost all year round. I’m sure we would all be interested to hear about your gardens and your crops.

[macmex]

We have seed in the mail, so Omaruru can plant it in Namibia. He sent me some photos from his garden, which were beautiful. Here's one of himself, some of his corn and some squash he's grown.

[chrysanthemum]

Wow. That’s quite some squash and quite some corn. Thanks for that picture.

I was just reading about the origins of certain fruits and vegetables with my younger kids today as part of their science, and the book mentioned that the original watermelon hails from the area in Africa that is now Namibia and Botswana. It made me think of this thread.

[heavyhitterokra]

Beautiful garden Omaruru!  Thanks for sharing that.

Back in the early 1980s a man from Bixby, Oklahoma grew the World's record watermelon. I remember him saying that the drought that year made it very easy to regulate the water, so the watermelon wouldn't burst open.  I think it ended up being something like 255 pounds.  I remember thinking how ironic it was that the world's biggest watermelon was grown in a drought year.  At the time, I was not aware that watermelons had originated from Africa and they actually like a desert climate.

[woodeye]

Mar 28, 2022 18:13:15 GMT -6 heavyhitterokra said:

Beautiful garden Omaruru!  Thanks for sharing that.

Back in the early 1980s a man from Bixby, Oklahoma grew the World's record watermelon. I remember him saying that the drought that year made it very easy to regulate the water, so the watermelon wouldn't burst open.  I think it ended up being something like 255 pounds.  I remember thinking how ironic it was that the world's biggest watermelon was grown in a drought year.  At the time, I was not aware that watermelons had originated from Africa and they actually like a desert climate.

Years ago I was complaining to one of my cousins about the fact that I had a terrible time growing watermelons that amounted to anything. He gazed out at my watermelons and told me that the most important thing that I needed to do to fix the problem was to "Stop watering them so much!"

He didn't tell me that watermelons originated in Africa though, I was not aware of that either...