JULY 2015

By Daily Diary

Wednesday July 1st

WEATHER; sunny and hot

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Siddharth, Bidi, Rishi, Milind, Bala with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Souryan garden.
  2. We started maTeeng a new compost heap, something we have not done for a while.
  3. We did some clearing up on a new plot of land next to Buddha Garden for the Land Board. This will help the encroachment problems that we have along the bottom boundary.

Thursday July 2nd

WEATHER; sunny and hot

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Milind, Bala, Kunal with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. Yet again we had no water last night as someone left a valve open and the tank emptied. This meant we couldn’t start doing the compost maTeeng which requires that we water it as we make it. We spent a long time cutting glyricidea and taTeeng off the leaves ready for maTeeng compost – hopefully tomorrow.
  2. We mulched some trees in the area just beyond the wild orchard.
  3. We prepared seeds that have been drying for a long time.
  4. We sieved soil and made nursery mixture.

Friday July 3rd

WEATHER; started overcast but now hot and sunny.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Milind, Bala, Luz, Albert, Sumeet, Mahendran with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a surprising amount of bassella spinach and maize.
  2. We began the morning by worTeeng on the compost heap that we started yesterday. We had a large pile of glyricidea leaves from our work yesterday and there was water in the tank this morning. With the sky being overcast it was not too hot so this was a good job to do. We finished about a quarter of the heap.
  3. We cleared two beds and weeded another one in the Pryog garden.

Monday July 6th

WEATHER; sunny and hot.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Luz, Albert, Sumeet, Mahendran, Dillon, Tara, Clara, Rhan with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked basil.
  2. We cut glyricidea and stripped the leaves ready to make compost.
  3. We continued maTeeng the compost heap that we started on Friday.

Tuesday July 7th

WEATHER; sunny and hot.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Luz, Sumeet, Rhan with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked basil.
  2. We weeded two beds and cleared a bed in the Souryan garden.
  3. We carried on maTeeng compost, using the weeds and the bean plants from the cleared bed, and now are almost half way there.

Wednesday July 8th

WEATHER; another very hot day.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Luz, Albert, Tara, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked basil, bassella spinach and roccolla.
  2. We did a bit more of the compost heap using the bean plants from the bed we cleared yesterday.
  3. We cleared, composted and mulched two beds in the Pryog garden that we will plant at an extra session this afternoon. It is too hot to plant anything in the mornings as they will be fried up by the end of the day.

Thursday July 9th

WEATHER; hot but with more of a breeze so quite pleasant to work in.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Luz, Jayakumar, Tara, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked glyricidea leaves from the Teetchen garden and along the back of the Souryan garden.
  2. We weeded a bed in Le Jardin.
  3. We watered the seedlings that we planted last night and it looks pretty good. Lets hope they get through this hot day OK.
  4. Pierre made some charcoal on the new piece of land that we are looTeeng after that is next to Buddha Garden.

Friday July 10th

WEATHER; still hot but overcast today.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Carla, Tara, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We spent almost all the work time finishing off making the compost. We used the green leaves we collected yesterday and managed to dismantle a huge pile of leaves. I’m very pleased we have managed to finish this compost heap within a week because it means it will now compost down much more evenly.
  2. We took some of the reeds down to Jalabhoomi to use as mulch on the more eroded soil.

 

Monday July 13th

WEATHER; beautiful rain last night so nice and damp this morning although turning very hot and humid.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Peter, Gabrielle, Mahendran, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked some basil.
  2. As the soil was so damp we were able to plant this morning, something we haven’t been able to do during this hot weather. We finished planting a bed with beans in the Souryan garden and planted the remaining bean seedlings on a bed in Le Jardin.

Tuesday July 14th

WEATHER; more rain last night so the soil was beautifully wet but still not enough to put water in the ponds.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Mahendran, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We planted maize in the gaps of a pumpkin bed in the Souryan garden.
  2. We cleared composted and mulched another bed in the Souryan garden ready to plant snake gourd.
  3. We weeded a very weed infested bean bed in the Souryan garden. With the soft soil we could have done with doing a bit more weeding but didn’t have enough people power to do any more than we did.

Wednesday July 15th

WEATHER; rather overcast but still hot and brighter later.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Zoe, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We planted the bed we prepared yesterday in the Souryan garden with snake gourd seedlings. The soil was still fairly damp although it hadn’t rained last night.
  2. We filled in the gaps of a maize bed we had planted in the Souryan garden, filling in the gaps by planting more maize seedlings. We also planted some snake gourd seedlings in the middle of the bed.
  3. We picked bassella spinach and a little basil.

Thursday July 16th

WEATHER; hot and sunny with a breeze. Very pleasant.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Zoe, Tye with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked some basil.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Souryan garden.
  3. We wound up a huge amount of string that Rajan bought in the last day or two as we are going to need it for tying up all the beans and snake gourd we have recently planted.

 

Friday July 17th

WEATHER; overcast but bright after some rain last night.

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Zoe, Tye, Riddha, Mahendran with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We started by weeding a very infested bed in Le Jardin that was growing pumpkins and maize. It looked much better after we finished.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Pryog garden in readiness for planting basil seedlings that are growing in the nursery.
  3. We planted out the last of the snake gourd in the middle of a bed in the Souryan garden; now we have to find something to plant on the bed with them.

Monday July 18th

WEATHER; bright and sunny

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Thor, Maia, Bala, Camilio, Mahendran with Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked basil and bassella spinach.
  2. We cleared a bed in Le Jardin that took a long time as we hadn’t been able to weed it very much so the grass took a long time to dig out.

 

Tuesday July 21st

 

WEATHER; bright, sunny and breezy.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, Zoe, Mahendran with Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We finished composting and mulching the bed we started clearing yesterday in Le Jardin.
  2. We cleared, composted a mulched a bed in the Pryog garden.  This job is so much easier when we have had the chance to weed the bed while vegetables are growing there.
  3. We all worked very hard to clean the water filter on the tank.  It wasn’t so long ago that we cleaned it but it looked like frogs had got inside, goodness knows how, and left a lot mucous stuff inside.  We are wondering if it would be quicker to try cleaning the rings with lemon juice as apparently conventional farmers use an acid to do the cleaning.  Would lemon juice be strong enough

Wednesday July 22nd

 

WEATHER; after a good rain last night it was sunny and hot but with damp soil this morning.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, Zoe, Ribha, Saiyawith Priya and Rajan

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. After the rain last night we spent a lot of time weeding and generally clearing up in the Pryog garden.
  2. We strung up the beans and snake gourd growing in the Souryan garden.

 

Thursday July 23rd

 

WEATHER; more rain last night so damp and humid this morning. Perfect planting weather.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, Zoe with Priya and Rajan

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We planted bean seedlings on a bed we had prepared in the last few days in the Pryog garden.
  2. We planted maize seedlings on a similar bed in the Pryog garden.
  3. We cleared, composted and mulched two beds in the seed garden that we planted with beans.
  4. Rajan with the help of one volunteer walked all around the perimeter of Buddha Garden and mended several holes in the fence.

 

Friday July 24th

 

WEATHER; more rain last night so damp sunny and hot this morning.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, with Priya and Rajan

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked nearly 3kg of bassella spinach and six huge pineapples.
  2. We planted a bed in Le Jardin with brinjal.
  3. We weeded a very weed infested basil bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. We finished the morning by winding up string ready to string up beans when they have grown enough.

 

Monday July 27th

 

WEATHER; a very fierce thunder storm last night that broke our electricity system. It rained so hard I could not see across Buddha Garden! Lovely and sunny this morning so very pleasant.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, Titian with Priya, Pierre and Rajan

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil, bassella spinach and a few beans.
  2. We planted a bed of basil seedlings in the Pryog garden.
  3. After all the rain we needed to get on with the weeding and weeded a maize bed in the Pryog garden.
  4. We went to the bottom land that has recently been fenced and picked up a very large quantity of plastic left by people who were using the place for drinking parties. With the new fence this will now cease and we can get on with planting trees and making the place more beautiful.

 

Tuesday July 28th

 

WEATHER; rain again last night so bright and damp this morning.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tee, Spiros, Julie, Maia, Bala, Titian, Nidhinwith Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

We spent the whole time preparing a long part time bed in the wild orchard which we then planted with all the pineapple plants that we have gathered since we started harvesting pineapples a month or two ago. The wild orchard is perfect for pineapples as there is irrigation there – they need some water – and they don’t need a lot of looking after.

 

Wednesday July 29th

 

WEATHER; rain last night but not heavy. After a damp and misty start the sun has come out.

 

VOLUNTEERS;Spiros, Julie, Maia, Titian, Nidhinwith Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked bassella spinach from a bed in the Pryog garden.
  2. After picking the spinach we cleared, composted and mulched the bed and then planted it with most of the rest of the basil plants.

 

Thursday July 30th

 

WEATHER; hot sun and rather humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS;Spiros, Julie, Maia, Titian, Nidhin, Margo, Lionel with Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We weeded a bed in the Souryan garden on which we had planted snake gourd along the middle. We planted some maize in the large spaces beside the snake gourd.
  2. We weeded another maize/pumpkin bed in the Souryan garden and mulched it. We took out several pumpkin plants that were badly infected with the mosaic virus, although other similar plants seem to be resisting it.
  3. We spent the last twenty minutes clearing up rubbish around the little temple near the gate of Siddhartha farm. They had a festival there on Tuesday and a large amount of rubbish was left lying around making the area look dreadful. The place now looks transformed

 

Friday July 31st

 

WEATHER; sunny and warm.

 

VOLUNTEERS;Spiros, Julie, Maia, Titian, Nidhin, Susheela, Ribhawith Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We spent all morning working on the part time beds amongst the cashew trees. We began by weeding the beds on which we had planted sun hemp which got annihilated by cows.
  2. We planted one bed with the rest of the beans which will be used for nitrogen fixing rather than beans because we don’t have any climbing frames here.
  3. We planted beans and brinjal on another bed.
  4. We finished planting the brinjal amongst the ladies finger that had not been attacked by mosaic virus or cows. We won’t have time to do any more on these beds, apart from daily watering, for a month or so.