FEBRUARY 2015

DAILY DIARY FEBRUARY 2015

 

Monday February 2nd

WEATHER; a bit of a grey start but soon sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Ilan, Jules, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Caroline, Ben, Isabelle, Thomas, Ayala,   with Priya and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lots of lettuce.
  2. We cleared, composted and planted a bed in the Pryog garden with a second planting of lettuce seedlings.
  3. We started to clear the sweet potato bed and found a lot of large sweet potatoes.
  4. We cleared a bed in the Souryan garden and harvested over 130Kg of pumpkin from about half a bed of plants together with a lot of sweet corn seeds.

 

Tuesday February 3rd

WEATHER; sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Ilan, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Caroline, Ben, Isabelle, another Isabelle, Zee, Ayala, Katt with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. As usual we picked lettuce and then took that with some of the pumpkins we picked yesterday to Foodlink.
  2. We finished digging up the rest of the sweet potatoes and then composted the bed and replanted it with lettuce seedlings.
  3. We planted two beds in the seed garden with cuttings from the sweet potatoes that we dug up so that they will grow over the hot season and provide cuttings for when we plant again in September.
  4. We weeded beds in the seed garden and cut the grass.
  5. We started clearing a bed in the Souryan garden.

 

Wednesday February 4th

WEATHER; sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Caroline, Ben, Isabelle, Caroline, Katt, Sita, Florian, Nastya, Patrik with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We finished clearing the bed in the Souryan garden that we started yesterday, composted it and then planted with lettuce seedlings.
  3. We finally sorted out the bassella seeds from the plants that we put out to dry about a week ago.
  4. We cut the grass in the fruit patch of Le Jardin and collected some leaves which we will use for mulching tomorrow.

 

Thursday February 5th

WEATHER; sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Eloise, Caroline, Ayala, Ben, Isabelle, Caroline, Katt, Nastya, Patrik, Thomas, Nisim with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We raked up the cut grass in the fruit patch of Le Jardin and mulched the trees with it and then we mulched all the trees with brown leaves.
  3. We then went down to the ponds and mulched and watered all the trees. We intend to do it once a week from now on. It looks like some of the trees will need more protection from goats. We have protected all the amla trees but a few of the forest trees are also suffering and need protection as well.
  4. We started weeding a basil bed in Le Jardin.

 

Friday February 6th

WEATHER; sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Caroline, Ayala, Stephen, Isabelle, Katt, Nastya, Patrik, Thomas, Nisim, Meren, Carla, Dane with Priya and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We planted maize on a bed we prepared last week in the Pryog garden.
  3. We weeded a bed in the Pryog garden that was half planted with ladies finger. We then composted the rest of the bed and planted with maize seedlings. Since we had maize seedlings left we planted them with pumpkins on two beds in the Pryog garden.
  4. We planted beans on a bed in the Souryan garden. It already had chilli plants on it which Pierre wanted to take out. I can understand as getting rid of chilli is quite difficult, but the plants were doing so well and our beans have not done so well of late. So we planted bean seedlings between the chilli and will see what happens.
  5. We did some weeding in Le Jardin.

 

Monday February 9th

WEATHER; started off a bit cloudy but then sunny with a nice breeze.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Caroline, Ayala, Stephen, Isabelle, Katt, Patrik, Nisim, Meren, with Priya and Pierre.

 

WORK COMPLETED

  1. Once again we picked large amounts of lettuce, but that will be it for a few days while we wait for more to grow.
  2. We weeded a bed in the Souryan garden which we we then composted and planted with a second planting of lettuce seedlings.
  3. We cleared a bed in Le Jardin where we had an experimental underwater irrigation pipe. Since we want to plant lettuces there I think we are going to have to take it up as it is too far under the earth to water the lettuces. We tried growing a range of vegetables and basil was the one that did best with this irrigation.

 

Tuesday February 10th

WEATHER; sunny with a nice breeze.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Thomas, Florian and three others from the New Colours project in Edeyenchavadi, Caroline, Ayala, Stephen, Isabelle, Katt, Patrik, Nisim, Meren, Yen and several others whose names I did not get with Priya and Rajan.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. With so many people we did a huge amount of weeding on three beds in the Souryan garden.
  2. We started digging up another bed of sweet potatoes in the Pryog garden. This bed was even more productive than the bed we dug up last week. We started planting lettuces on it and will finish the bed tomorrow.
  3. We started making what I call intermittent beds in the Wild Orchard. These are beds which we will use for growing lettuce and tomato in the cool season and for green manure and vegetables that do not need a lot of looking after for the rest of the year. Today we measured out and took the grass off, we will water this afternoon and then start digging and making compost on top of the bed tomorrow.

 

Wednesday February 11th

WEATHER; sunny with a nice breeze.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Ayala, Stephen, Isabelle, Katt, Patrik, Nisim, Meren, Yen, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano with Priya and Rajan.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We finished off digging up the sweet potatoes in the Pryog garden, composted the bed and then planted it with lettuces.
  2. We finished clearing a bed in Le Jardin and dug up the very expensive underground watering tube that wasn’t working as well as we hoped. We then composted and replanted with lettuce seedlings and Rajan will put in the mini sprinkler irrigation this afternoon.
  3. We weeded a maize bed in Le Jardin.
  4. We continued making the intermittent beds in the wild orchard and got about half of one completed.
  5. We started to repaint the signs on the road showing how to get to Buddha Garden.

 

Thursday February 12th

WEATHER; sunny with breeze – very pleasant.

Volunteers; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Ayala, Stephen, Isabelle, Katt, Patrik, Nisim, Martina, Daniela, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Meren, Sophie, Elumalai, Nidhin with Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a small amount of basil.
  2. We made nursery mixture so that we can plant yet more lettuce seedlings in the nursery.
  3. We finished digging up all the sweet potatoes on the ends of some beds in the Pryog garden.  it was clear that the plants had really improved the soil which we just levelled off and mulched with leaves.
  4. We weeded two beds in the Pryog garden.
  5. We watered all the tree seedlings around the ponds in Jalabhoomi.
  6. We continued with painting the road signs.  It takes some time because the paint takes a long time to dry.  Signs painted white today cannot have the lettering done until tomorrow.

 

Friday February 13th

WEATHER; sunny but more cloud than usual.

VOLUNTEERS;  Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Isabelle, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniela, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Marren, Alev, Sophie, Elumalai, Adi, Max, Gowri, Mira, Thomas, Danielle   with Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We dug up a bed of sweet potatoes in Le Jardin.   There were not so many as in the bed in the Pryog garden but I think that one was exceptional.   There were so many people that not only did we dig up the bed and clean and compost it, we also managed to get some lettuce seedlings planted as well.
  2. In the Wild Orchard another bed has been marked out and covered with glyricidea and brown leaves.

We painted the first roadside sign and it looks beautiful.

 

later on.  Feels like the hotter weather is starting.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Jurriaan, Ilan, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Marren, Alev, Sophie, Elumalai,  Gowri, Megan, David, Octavio, Mesa  with Priya and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We are back to picking lettuce and also basil for the pesto.
  2. We finished planting lettuces on the bed in Le Jardin that we started on Friday.
  3. We cleared two sections of beds in the lettuce lab and replanted with a second crop of lettuce.
  4. We painted both sides of the road side signs so anyone coming from any direction on the road will know where we are.  Now we have just the two signs on the path up to the gate to complete.
  5. We sieved soil and compost to make nursery mixture.
  6. We had two loads of leaves delivered so we can start making compost very soon.  Which is just as well as we have finished all the available compost.
  7. We continued making the intermittent beds in the wild orchard, putting glyricidea leaves on top of the earth and planting the first bed with beans so they bring nitrogen to the soil.

 

Tuesday February 17th

WEATHER; sunny and hot later on.  Feels like the hotter weather is starting.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Marren, Alev, Sophie, Elumalai,  Megan, David, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Chess  with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a lot of lettuce, most of it from the lettuce lab.
  2. We weeded and then planted all the areas in the lettuce lab on the beds from which the harvested lettuce had been taken.
  3. We continued painting the road signs.  Despite being hot later it is cool and wet with dew first thing in the morning so the areas to be painted have to be dried with a cloth.
  4. We did a lot of work in the nursery planting quite a lot of seeds – beans, ladies finger, snake gourd, lukki – which are hot weather vegetables.

Wednesday February 18th

WEATHER; once again sunny and hot later on.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Marren, Alev, Sophie, Elumalai,  Megan, David, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, and several others  with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked huge amounts of lettuce and roccolla together with a little basil.
  2. We made nursery mixture for the nursery as we still have a lot of lettuce seedlings to transplant.
  3. We weeded a lettuce bed in Le Jardin that was getting so choked up with weeds it was hard to see the lettuce.
  4. We continued making beds in the wild orchard and have now completed three and half of them so will hopefully finish the fourth one tomorrow.  We started making holes and putting drippers into the irrigation pipes.
  5. We started weeding a bed in the lettuce lab that we will plant with its second lot of lettuce seedlings tomorrow.

 

Thursday February 19th

WEATHER; once again sunny and hot later on.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Marren, Alev, Sophie, Elumalai,  Megan, David, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Savyon with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. Once again we picked lettuce.
  2. We watered the trees in Jalabhoomi.  Some of them look like sticks because all their leaves have fallen off, this being the time of year when it happens for some trees.
  3. We weeded two beds in the lettuce lab that we then planted with more lettuce seedlings.
  4. We made more nursery mixture and planted a lot of lettuce seedlings in the nursery.

 

Friday February 20th

WEATHER; sunny and warm.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Gabriel, Katt, Patrik, Martina, Daniella, Arnold, Yadav, Urial, Emiliano, Alev, Elumalai,  Megan, David, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Savyon, Thomas, Danielle, Elise with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a lot of lettuce.
  2. We composted and planted half a bed in the Souryan garden from which the lettuce had been harvested and planted a second lot of lettuce seedlings.
  3. We dug up most of the last bed of sweet potato in Le Jardin.
  4. We completely cleared a bed in Le Jardin which we will plant with something that is not lettuce next week.
  5. We continued making a compost heap that we started making some weeks ago, but then had to stop because we did not have any leaves.  In the last few days we had two deliveries of leaves that we need to make into compost as soon as possible because we ran out of compost a week or two ago.
  6. We finished off the intermittent beds in the Wild Orchard.  All that now needs doing is the irrigation system.

Monday February 23rd

WEATHER; sunny and warm.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katt, Patrik, Daniella, Yadav,  Alev, Elumalai,  Megan, Peter, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Savyon, Katie, Chris, Danielle, Anita, Thibeaud, Manon  with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

  1. We picked lettuce and basil.
  2. We finished planting lettuce seedlings  on half a bed in the Souryan garden.
  3. We finished digging up the sweet potatoes on a bed in Le Jardin.  We then composted it with goat dung and replanted with lettuce seedlings.
  4. We cleared half a bed in Le Jardin and weeded the rest of the lettuces that were on it.
  5. We composted another bed in Le Jardin with goat dung and will hopefully plant ladies finger on it tomorrow.
  6. We started weeding a basil bed in Le Jardin.  With all this work on the beds and the grass having been cut over the weekend the whole of Le Jardin looks very good.
  7. We put the irrigation pipes on two of the intermittent beds in the wild orchard.  About half of one bed has been planted with beans and we can plant something else on the rest of the irrigated bed and a half.

Tuesday February 24th

WEATHER; sunny and warm and getting hotter.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katt, Patrik, Daniella, Yadav,  Alev, Elumalai,  Megan, Peter, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Savyon, Katie, Chris, Danielle, Thomas, Thibeaud, Manon, Jan, Bosun  with Priya and Pierre

  1. We picked a LOT of lettuce.
  2. We mulched the bed in Le Jardin that we composted yesterday and then planted with ladies finger.
  3. We planted a second crop of lettuce on one of the beds in Le Jardin.
  4. We finished weeding the basil bed in Le Jardin that we started yesterday and also weeded a bed on which there were a mixture of pumpkin and maize plants.
  5. Yesterday the builders came and took away the wood that was still usable that was left over from building the new roof for Pierre.  We cleared up everything that was left over, taking the termite damaged wood to the fire place to be used in the next bonfire.
  6. We did a bit of work in the lettuce lab which was mainly weeding.
  7. We finished planting all the beans on the intermittent beds in the Wild Orchard.

Wednesday February 25th

WEATHER; sunny and warm.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katt, Patrik, Daniella, Yadav,  Alev, Elumalai,  Megan, Peter, Octavio, Mesa, Thai, Valentina, Savyon, Katie, Chris, Danielle, Thomas, Thibeaud, Manon, Anita, Sammy  with Priya and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked huge amounts of lettuce again together with some roccolla.
  2. We spent a lot of time weeding the beds that had been harvested and planting lettuce

seedlings in the lettuce lab

  1. Two loads of leaves were delivered so we spent the last half hour making compost.  We now have enough leaves to finish off the compost bin, hopefully by the end of the week.
  2. We also spent time doing work for the nursery – sieving soil and compost to make nursery mixture as well as planting out seedlings – lettuces of course!

 

 

Thursday February 26th

WEATHER; warm and sunny

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katt, Yadav, Louis, Patricia, Katie, Chris, Misam, Alev, Savyon, Sammy, Megan, Peter, Otavio, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Rodriga, Isabelle, Patrik, Anita, Gabriella with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. Once again we picked a lot of lettuce and sent some of the sweet  potatoes to Foodlink which is the Auroville farms distribution centre.
  2. We cleared, composted and planted four beds in the seed garden, two with basil and two with lettuce.
  3. We weeded a bed in the Pryog garden so we had some weeds to make compost.
  4. With two more loads of leaves delivered we were able to go on making compost.

 

Friday FEbruary 27th

WEATHER; the first hot night so it looks as if the cool season has finished.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katt, Yadav,  Katie, Chris, Misam, Savyon, Sammy, Otavio, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Anita, Gabriella, Lucas, Leonard, alex with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

  1. We picked a very large amount of lettuce.
  2. We weeded and then planted a section of a bed in the lettuce lab with lettuce seedlings. Since the plants are drying out a lot because of the hotter weather we put a thin layer of mulch on the last two beds we have planted.
  3. We weeded a lettuce bed in the Souryan garden because we needed the weeds for the compost.
  4. We had delivery of two more loads of leaves yesterday so we continued making the compost that we started earlier in the week and have almost finished.  We had to cut some glyricidea leaves to get some more green material.