JUNE 2015

By Daily Diary

Monday June 1st

WEATHER; hot and humid and overcast.

VOLUNTEERS; Mahendran, Spiros, Elumalai, Rishi, Dorito, Edward and five others with Priya and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We did a lot of picking; double the usual amount of basil, bassella spinach, beans, maize and pumpkins.
  2. We cleared, composted, mulched and then planted a bed in the Pryog garden with the last of the bassella spinach seedlings.

 

Tuesday June 2nd

WEATHER; sunny and hot

VOLUNTEERS; Mahendran, Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda with Priya and Pierre

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We cleared and weeded a bean bed in the Souryan garden.
  2. We transplanted roccolla seedlings in the nursery
  3. We took leaves off glyricidea which had been cut yesterday.

Wednesday June 3rd

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Tim, Ki, Mohan with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. On the bed that we cleared yesterday we composted, mulched and planted with maize seedlings.
  2. We picked bassella and amaranth spinach, ladies finger (a few because with the heat the plants have all got a virus), snake gourd, roccolla and papaya.
  3. We picked cashews, at 11kg that is the most we have ever picked. It feels like the trees have finally started to properly produce.

 

Thursday June 4th

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Tim, Ki, Mohan, Sivarama with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We spent the whole morning mulching fruit trees in the VaiyuBhoomi area. This involved; cutting the grass with the grass cutter, cutting and taking the leaves off glyricidea and putting around the trees and then putting brown leaves on top of the glyricidea so each trees has its own compost heap around it. Everyone worked really hard and I was very pleased that we managed to finish the whole job.
  2. We planted more pineapples as Pierre needs them for his fruit drying.

 

Friday June 5th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Ki, Mohan, Sivarama with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil, bassella spinach, beans (probably the last of the present crop), snake gourd and papaya.
  2. We started clearing a bed in Le Jardin which had some very overgrown ladies finger plants in it.
  3. We spent a lot of time cleaning the water filter. This consists of several hundred plastic rings that have to be scrubbed to get off the dirt. It needed all of us to work together to get it done in time for breakfast. The filter gets very clogged up this time of year when, because there is less rain, the water in the well goes down and there is a lot more dirt in the water to be filtered out.

 

Monday June 8th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Sivarama, Tim, Abilasha, Elumalai, Jaykumar with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil, maize, papaya and bassella spinach.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin and in the seed garden.
  3. We are having the dormitory and what will be the new office re-thatched. We took the old keet that had been taken down and started to spread it around in the Jalabhoomi area.

 

Tuesday June 9th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Sivarama, David with Priya, Rajan and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla and pumpkin.
  2. We weeded two roccolla beds and transplanted the few roccolla plants that had survived in Le Jardin onto these beds. Because of the heat we have started planting in the afternoons as having a cooler night before a hot day seems to help them survive better.
  3. We strung up the beans that we planted on Friday in the Souryan garden.
  4. Two volunteers did a magnificent job in cleaning up the kitchen which is soon to be our office. We were able to have breakfast there this morning.

 

Wednesday June 9th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Sivarama, David, Elumalaiwith Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We cleared up a lot of material that had been left by the keet workers and from clearing out undergrowth around the building. We took it all down to Jayabhoomi to use as mulch around trees and to cover bare land.
  2. We made some nursery mixture with a mixture of soil and compost and coconut fibre.
  3. We cleared a bed in Le Jardin of some ladies finger which were badly infected with virus so we will have to burn them. We then composted and mulched the bed ready for planting this afternoon.

 

Thursday June 10th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Sivarama, David, Elumalaiwith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We finished weeding a bed in Le Jardin which was started last night. We then weeded another bed growing bassella spinach.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin. The whole Le Jardin area now looks very good.
  3. We finished doing a variety of jobs; rolling up string, processing bean and ladies finger seeds.
  4. All this went on against a back ground of land encroachment at the far end of the Buddha Garden land.  The next door owner and a group of his people were cutting down trees.  Police were called and confiscated the chain saw followed by various other Auroville people.  A very busy morning.

 

Friday June 11th

 

WEATHER; sunny, hot and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Dorito, Edward, Melinda, Sivarama, David, Elumalai, Lalithawith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked the last of the beans and bassella spinach. We also picked what may be the last of the cashews although I think there may be a few more to come.
  2. We cleared a bed in the Souryan garden and then took some of the soil off the top of the bed as it was piling up too much above the bricks. We use the soil as part of the nursery mixture for growing seedlings.
  3. We planted some of Pierre’s special roccolla seedlings in the Pryog garden.
  4. Today is the start of our moving weekend when I move to the old office, my room becomes the new kitchen and the old kitchen becomes the new office.

 

Monday June 15th

 

WEATHER; bright, cloudy and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Melina, David, Mahendran, Lalithawith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil, bassella, beans and pumpkin.
  2. We cleared two beds in the Souryan garden and then composted and mulched one of them ready for planting.

 

Tuesday June 16th

 

Weather; bright, sunny and hot.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Melina, David, Mahendran, Lalitha, Miridal, Adithiyawith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla.
  2. We planted roccolla in shady places which are the only places it will grow in this hot weather.
  3. We composted and mulched a bed in the Souryan garden which we cleared yesterday.
  4. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Pryog garden.
  5. This afternoon we are going to do some planting as I think it is still too hot to plant in the mornings although Pierre thought it would be OK for the roccolla planted in shady places this morning.

 

Wednesday June 17th

 

WEATHER; overcast and very still with a few (a very few!) drops of rain.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Ki, Melina, David, Pradyumnawith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We planted the rest of the roccolla seedlings in the shady beds.
  2. As it was overcast we thought it would be OK to plant bean seedlings which we did in the Souryan garden.
  3. We labelled all the pumpkin beds that we planted yesterday afternoon.

 

Thursday June 18th

 

WEATHER; overcast again.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Ki, David, Pradyumna, Siddharthwith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We mulched the fruit trees in Le Jardin which involved cutting and stripping leaves off glyricidea, putting these around the trees and then topping with brown leaves. This made a lot of sticks to take down to the Jalabhoomi area to use as mulch on the eroded soil there.
  2. We planted the last of the bassella spinach seedlings on a partly planted bed in Le Jardin.
  3. We did some weeding in what used to be known as the lettuce lab but which is now growing pumpkins.

 

Friday June 19th

 

WEATHER; overcast but much brighter.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Spiros, Rishi, Ki, David, Pradyumna, Siddharth, Melina, Elumalaiwith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked bassella spinach and the last of the beans on one bed.
  2. We mulched yet more fruit trees, this time in the wild orchard.
  3. Today we are moving into the new office, which used to be the kitchen at the entrance to Buddha Garden.

 

Monday June 22nd

 

WEATHERMonday; bright, sunny and hot after a shower yesterday.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Meeli, Mahendran with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked bassella and basil and a few beans and snake gourd for the kitchen.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin which will be ready for planting tomorrow.

 

Tuesday June 23rd

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Melina, Rishi, Bidi with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. Most of us spent all morning working in Jalabhoomi. We used the old keet thatch for mulching around the trees and spent some time – yet again – protecting the amla trees. The goats had got in and torn holes in the mosquito net we had put around them. So we put keet around them instead so the goats won’t be able to see them. We also mended several places in the fence where someone had made a hole so the goats could get through.
  2. We dug holes to plant Pitanga trees although we are running out of places to put them.

 

Wednesday June 24th

 

WEATHER; sunny with a breeze.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Camillo, Rishi, Bidi with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We finished planting all the trees started yesterday.
  2. We weeded two beds in the Pryog garden and two in Le Jardin.
  3. We cleared up the pumpkin beds in the cashew orchard. We composted and mulched two of them and will hopefully finish the rest tomorrow. We will then water for one day and plant with sun hemp as a green manure.

 

Thursday June 25th

 

WEATHER; sunny with a breeze.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Daniel, Rishi, Bidi with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We spent most of the time finishing off the beds in the cashew orchard that we started clearing yesterday. We composted and mulched the remaining beds and then planted two of them with ladies finger seedlings. We have a bad case of virus at the moment (it’s the time of year) but are hoping that planting some way away from the main garden will keep it at bay for longer. On the remaining three beds we planted sun hemp seeds as a green manure. On two beds we just threw the seeds on the bed and watered, on the remaining one we carefully put the seeds into the soil. We are going to see what comes up the best.
  2. We finally finished planting the fruit trees near the back orchard that we started on Tuesday.

 

 

Friday June 26th

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot but more cloudy than usual.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Bidi with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked bassella spinach.
  2. We planted maize seedlings on a bed in the Souryan garden.
  3. As we had extra maize seedlings we planted them on beds in Le Jardin where pumpkin had already been planted.

 

Monday June 29th

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot.

 

VOLUNTEERS; David, Siddharth, Elumalai, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Bala, Siva with Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil and bassella.
  2. We planted bassella spinach seedlings and a few maize on the end of a bed in Le Jardin.
  3. We strung up the beans in the Souryan garden.

 

Tuesday June 30th

 

WEATHER; sunny and hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Siddharth, Milind, Spiros, Ki, Bala, Camilo, Bindiwith Priya and Pierre

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked 3kg of basil which took a long time.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the seed garden which we then planted with the rest of the roccolla.
  3. We weeded a bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. We started cutting glyricidea to put in the compost heap that we will hopefully start tomorrow.