JANUARY 2015

JANUARY 2015

Monday January 2nd

WEATHER; after an early morning shower bright and sunny but wet underfoot.

VOLUNTEERS; Nastya, Nitish, Azza, Arun, Roni, Claudia, Artur, Milish, Himani, Gabriel, Michito, Sammy with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla.
  2. We cleared and composted a bed in the Souryan garden on which we left a few maize plants that are continuing to grow maize for seed. We then replanted with basil on about two thirds of the bed and will replant the rest of it with lettuce on Monday.
  3. Pierre is taking over some land from Herbert on which he will grow more lettuce. Today a group started making a rough fence with palmyra leaf stalks. They have continued to work after breakfast and now have quite a lot of panels. Someone is coming in to cut trees for fence poles.

 

Tuesday January 5th

WEATHER; sunny and cool.

VOLUNTEERS; Nitish, Azza, Arun, Roni, Artur, Milish, Himani, Gabriel, Mitchi, Wik, Richita with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked roccolla and basil.
  2. We planted lettuce on the back of a bed in the Souryan garden that we planted with basil on Friday.
  3. We weeded a maize bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. We started clearing three backs of beds in the Pryog garden that we are going to compost and plant with lettuce as we have quite a few seedlings in the nursery ready to plant.

 

Tuesday January 6th

WEATHER; misty at first but then sunny.

VOLUNTEERS; Nitish, Azza, Arun, Roni, Artur, Milish, Himani, Gabriel, Mitchi, Wik, Richita, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked roccolla and basil.
  2. We continued to make the fence for the lettuce land and it is looking very good.
  3. We did a lot of work in the Pryog garden, clearing some ends of beds, replanting a lettuce bed that had rather a lot of gaps as well as weeding.
  4. We planted one bed in the Pryog garden with brinjal and tomato seedlings.
  5. We replanted tomato seedlings in the Vaiyu Bhoomi orchard.

 

Wednesday January 7th

WEATHER; misty at first but then sunny.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Roni, Artur, Milish, Gabriel, Elena, Mitchi, Wik, Richita, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot and partner with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We finished off the weeding in the Pryog garden.
  2. We did a lot of work in the seed garden, weeding all the beds, weeding the pineapple bed and path as well as cutting the grass.
  3. We carried on doing the fence for the lettuce land and this is now nearly complete. Hopefully the ploughing will be done either today or tomorrow so that we can start making the beds.

 

Thursday January 8th

WEATHER; misty at first and then brightness but not much sun.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Artur, Gabriel, Mitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot and partner, Nidhil, Sunder with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked roccolla.
  2. We worked in the nursery transplanting lettuce seedlings.
  3. We worked in Jalabhoomi, near the ponds, looking after the amla trees. This involved collecting leaves and mulching them and then making various sorts of fences around them to keep off the goats that managed to get through the fence.
  4. We carried on making the fence for lettuce land and have almost finished.

 

Friday January 9th

WEATHER; sun and cloud.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Artur, Gabriel, Mitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot and partner, Nidhil, Sammy, Milish, Elumalai, Jessie with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce.
  2. We continued clearing up in Le Jardin by weeding and mulching a basil bed, weeding another basil bed and started weeding a bed of brinjal.
  3. We finished off making coverings for the amla trees in the Jalabhoomi area.
  4. We cleared up around the path that goes from the inner part of Buddha Garden into the cashew orchard. That was the first part of working on the path to make sure it doesn’t get muddy when it rains.

 

Monday January 12th

WEATHER; cool start and then rather grey and breezy although still quite bright.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot, Ursula, Elumalai, Jessie, Katikai with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We cleared around bananas in the Pryog garden taking out all the suckers. We then replanted the suckers around one of the bathrooms where they can use the water coming from the shower.
  3. We did a lot of work on the lettuce land, finishing off the fence, completing another bed and then planting a lot of lettuce seedlings. All the watering here is going to have to be done by hand.
  4. We picked a lot of ripe bassella seeds and but them out to dry.

 

Tuesday January 13th

WEATHER; cool start, quite damp followed by sun.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot, Ursula, Elumalai, Jessie, Katikai, Nuria, David, Vincento with Priya and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked roccolla.
  2. We weeded a basil bed in the Souryan garden and then mulched it with leaves from the forest.
  3. We started weeding a chilli bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. We did a lot of work in lettuce land, moving compost, making another bed and planting out more lettuce seedlings.

 

Wednesday January 14th

WEATHER; cool and misty start with sun coming through to a warm day.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot, Ursula, Jessie, Katikai, Nuria, David, Vincento, Patrik with Priya and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We worked in lettuce land, making a new bed and planting more lettuce seedlings.
  2. We worked in the nursery planting out lettuce seedlings.
  3. We finished weeding the chilli bed that we started weeding yesterday in the Souryan garden and found that the end of the bed had been planted with brinjal.
  4. We worked in the wild orchard, cutting down very large glyricidea bushes to take off the leaves, taking up some of the leaves to mulch the bed in the Souryan garden that we finished weeding and cutting the grass. The glyricidea leaves and the grass will be used to make a compost heap tomorrow because we had some brown leaves brought in yesterday.

 

Thursday January 15th

WEATHER; cool and misty start with sun coming through to a warm day.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot, Ursula, Jessie, Katikai, Nuria, David, Vincento, Patrik with Priya and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We continued to work in the wild orchard, cutting down the glyricidea, taking the wood to the wood pile by the fire place next to the stones and finishing cutting the grass. We still have a bit more to finish on Monday but already it looks a lot better with a lot more light coming onto the orchard plants.
  2. We started making a compost pile which is very much needed as we already using our last compost. We did about half of it and will hopefully finish tomorrow depending on how many volunteers turn up. As it is the Pongal holiday this may not be very many as I expect quite a few of them would like to have a lie in.
  3. We picked roccolla and continued work in the lettuce land, making a new bed and planting more lettuce seedlings.

 

Monday January 19th

WEATHER; cool and breezy with some cloud.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Scot, Ursula, Jessie, Nuria, David, Patrik Minori, Wik, Christine, Neja, Petr with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuces and roccolla.
  2. We weeded a bed in the Souryan garden and planted half of the bed with lettuce seedlings.
  3. We planted more lettuce seedlings in the lettuce land.
  4. We weeded another bed in the Souryan garden.
  5. We started clearing a brinjal bed in Le Jardin.
  6. We cut all the grass in the Pryog garden.

 

Tuesday January 20th

WEATHER; cool and breezy with some cloud.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Meitchi, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Jessie, Nuria, David, Patrik, Minori, Wik, Maggie, Katikai, with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a huge amount of lettuce; Pierre has found lots of different people who want the large amounts coming out of the garden at the moment.
  2. We cleared the bed in Le Jardin that we started clearing yesterday, composted it and planted with lettuce seedlings.
  3. We planted more lettuce seedlings in lettuce land on another bed that they finished this morning.
  4. We moved wood from the wild orchard that we cleared up on Friday to the wood pile.
  5. We cut grass in the Souryan garden.

 

Wednesday January 21st

WEATHER; cool and breezy with some cloud.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Dagmar, Ilan, Atmani, Jules, Nuria, David, Patrik, Minori, Wik, Kylie,   with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked more lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We cleared a lettuce bed in Le Jardin.
  3. We cleared a very old bassella bed which had been left there for the seed. We pulled up the plants (and the weeds!) and put them on a piece of plastic in the sun. The seeds will dry and drop off onto the plastic saving us the job of having to pick them off.
  4. We collected leaves from the forest area and used them to mulch a basil bed in the Souryan garden that we weeded during the last few days.
  5. We continued working in lettuce land, making another bed and planting some beans.

 

Thursday January 22nd

WEATHER; sun with a cool breeze; very pleasant.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Dagmar, Ilan, Jules, Nuria, David, Patrik, Minori, Wik, Kylie, Nastya, Elumalai with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a lot of lettuce – again.
  2. We planted beans on one of the side beds in lettuce land as well as another bed of lettuce. We continue to make beds and will do some more planting tomorrow.
  3. We finished clearing the bassella bed in Le Jardin that we started yesterday and then composted it and planted it with lettuce.
  4. Rajan planted a bed in Le Jardin with spinach seeds – something we rarely do as usually they don’t grow that well in our clay soil.

 

Friday January 23rd

WEATHER; rather grey with a shower of rain just as work ended, so no watering needed. Then came the sun and a very pleasant day.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arun, Gabriel, Dagmar, Ilan, Jules, Nuria, David, Patrik, Minori, Wik, Nastya, Elumalai with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked vast amounts of lettuce and some roccolla.
  2. We planted lettuces in another bed in lettuce land.
  3. We cleared a bed in the Souryan garden on which we had planted beans that just refused to grow. So we put on a bit of compost and planted lettuces instead.
  4. We started weeding a basil bed in Le Jardin.
  5. We worked in the nursery sieving soil and planting out seedlings.

 

Tuesday January 27th

WEATHER; sunny with a cool wind.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Ilan, Jules, Eloise, Dan, Patrik, Wik, Sundar, Elumalai, Mahendran, Ellie, Ellen, Miguel, Ben, Isabelle. Kyle with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked huge amounts of lettuce and roccolla this morning and will do the same again tomorrow.
  2. We made another bed in what I called ‘Lettuce Land’ but which Pierre calls ‘Pierre’s Lab’. We then planted it with lettuce seedlings. We have to have a plan for the watering otherwise there is not enough time to do it at the right time which is in the morning.
  3. We finished weeding the basil bed that we started on Friday.
  4. We cleared a lettuce bed in Le Jardin that Pierre had cut over the weekend and composted and mulched it ready to be planted tomorrow. After two harvests of lettuce we plan to plant maize.
  5. We tied tomatoes to sticks and then went to cut more sticks from silver work trees that grow down by the ponds.
  6. We finished sorting out the last of the cashews.

 

Wednesday January 28th

WEATHER; sunny with a cool wind.

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Ilan, Jules, Eloise, Dan, Patrik, Elumalai, Caroline, Ben, Isabelle, Kyle with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We planted the bed we prepared yesterday in Le Jardin with maize seedlings.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched another bed in Le Jardin and will plant it tomorrow.
  3. We continued work in Pierre’s Lab which included all the watering, that is done by hand, and making the last of the beds. Work also continues replanting lettuce seedlings in the nursery.
  4. We harvested huge amounts of lettuce.

 

Thursday January 29th

WEATHER; very grey start but later the sun came through and it was a very nice day

VOLUNTEERS; Azza, Arul, Gabriel, Ilan, Jules, Jurriaan, Eloise, Daniel, Patrik, Elumalai, Caroline, Ben, Isabelle, Kyle, Mahendran with Priya, Rajan and Pierre.

WORK COMPLETED

  1. Large amounts of lettuce and roccolla were picked.
  2. We planted the bed in Le Jardin that we prepared yesterday with pumpkin and the rest of the maize seedlings.
  3. We cleared and composted a bed in the Souryan garden that we planted with lettuces.
  4. We weeded half a bed of brinjal in the Souryan garden.
  5. We transplanted lettuce seedlings in the nursery, made more nursery mixture and made the last two beds in Pierre’s Lettuce Lab.

 

Friday January 30th

WEATHER; very grey start and although it got brighter still no sun

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

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We planted pumpkin on the bed in the Pryog garden that we prepared yesterday.
  3. We cleared a bed in the Pryog garden where the basil hadn’t grown very well and planted lettuces instead.
  4. We mulched two beds in the Lettuce Lab and planted with lettuce seedlings. Normally we don’t mulch lettuce in the ordinary beds because it tends to hold the water too well and the small seedlings are prone to damp off and die in these cool dewy mornings. In the Lettuce Lab where the soil is much more clay and dries out quickly the mulch is needed.
  5. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the seed garden and planted with pumpkins and capsicum plants.