MARCH 2015

By Daily Diary

DAILY DIARY MARCH 2015

 

Monday March 2nd

WEATHER; the cool season has definitely finished after a hot weekend and a morning that was hot and humid.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katie, Chris, Misam, Sammy, Otavio, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Vera, Rafaela, Athithan with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce and basil.
  2. We cleared and composted a bed in Le Jardin that we then planted with basil seedlings.
  3. We picked glyricidea leaves that we used to carry on making the compost that we started on Friday. We still have a little bit to do before we finish.
  4. We planted lettuce seedlings

Tuesday March 3rd

 

WEATHER; not quite as hot as yesterday in the beginning but a hot day after the sun came up.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katie, Chris, Misam, Sammy, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Vera, Rafaela, Athithan, Cody, Elumalai with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce, tomatoes, brinjal and roccolla.
  2. We weeded a lettuce bed in the Souryan garden.
  3. We cleared a lettuce bed in the Souryan garden which had just been harvested, composted and mulched it and then planted with snake gourd, lukki and bean seedlings.
  4. We cleared another bed in the Souryan garden that had very old basil on it and replanted with lettuce seedlings.

 

Wednesday March 4th

 

WEATHER; hot and humid.

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Katie, Chris, Misam, Sammy, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Vera, Rafaela, Athithan, Elumalai, Mahendran, Jonathan, Sophie with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked a lot of lettuce.
  2. We planted lettuce seedlings on a bed in the lettuce lab where the harvesting had been done.
  3. We dug up a lot of sweet potato plants which were in a lettuce bed and on the paths near where the sweet potatoes used to grow. We then replanted them on one of the intermittent beds in the wild orchard. They will not grow sweet potatoes as it is too hot, but they will provide cuttings for when we want to plant sweet potatoes again in September.
  4. We weeded a basil bed in the Priyog garden which we then mulched.
  5. We cleared half a bed and the ends of some beds in the Pryog garden that we then planted with lettuce seedlings. We have a nursery full of lettuce seedlings that we have to plant out in the next week or so and at this point I am not quite sure that we have enough space.

 

 

Thursday March 5th

 

WEATHER; hot and very humid

 

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Sammy, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian,  Rafaela, Athithan, Elumalai, Jonathan, Sophie, Rita with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce and basil.  The lettuce is growing very quickly and some of it is on the point of bolting so needs to be sold quickly.
  2. We spent the first 45 minutes watering all the trees in Jalabhoomi.  Quite a lot of them are coming into leaf again.
  3. We planted lettuce on all the ends of the beds in the Pryog garden.
  4. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Pryog garden ready to plant with basil seedlings.
  5. We made a lot of nursery mixture.

Friday March 6th

 

WEATHER; hot and very humid

 

VOLUNTEERS; Arul, Sammy, Thibeaud, Manon, Casey, Isabelle, Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie  with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked large amounts of lettuce, some roccolla, tomatoes, brinjal and chilli.
  2. We planted the rest of the basil seedlings on a bed in the Pryog garden and when the basil seedlings ran out planted the rest of the bed with lettuces.
  3. We weeded a bed in the Lettuce lab which we then planted with more lettuce seedlings. This did not make much of a dent in the number of seedlings in the nursery. Fortunately Pierre has found other farmers who will take some of the seedlings.
  4. We harvested amla from the tree in front of the kitchen. We got about 15kg which is very good.

 

Monday March 9th

 

WEATHER; hot and very humid

 

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Sybil,  Casey,  Patrik, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie   with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked a huge amount of lettuce plus basil, maize and brinjal.

 

  1. We cleared a bed that had been harvested for lettuce and replanted with more lettuce seedlings.

 

  1. We started making a new compost pile.

 

  1. We planted lettuce seedlings in the nursery.

 

Tuesday March 10th

 

WEATHER; after a cooler night than usual it was quite damp this morning but soon got hotter as the sun came up.

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Sybil, Casey, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie, Caroline, Alena with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce, brinjal, chilli and maize.
  2. We cleaned and then planted a bed in the Souryan garden with lettuce seedlings.
  3. We did the same on another half bed in Le Jardin that had been harvested this morning.
  4. We cleared a maize bed in the Souryan garden and planted about half of it with lettuce seedlings. We are trying hard to get the rest of the lettuce seedlings planted by the end of this week. They will not survive the heat otherwise.

 

Wednesday March 11th

 

WEATHER; hot and humid but we are getting more used to it

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Tapan, Casey, Gabriel, Lucas, Leonard, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie, Pavitra, Alena with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce and maize.
  2. We finished planting the bed in the Souryan garden that we started planting yesterday.
  3. We cleared and composted a bit more of the bed in Le Jardin where Pierre had harvested lettuces and then planted more lettuce seedlings.
  4. We replanted another bed in Le Jardin which had been planted with lettuces, many of which did not survive.   So we replanted lettuce seedlings in the gaps and also checked the drippers on the bed. Pierre thought that part of the reason that so many of the seedlings died was that many of the drippers were not working properly.
  5. The last of the lettuce seedlings are getting replanted in the nursery.

 

 

Thursday March 12th

 

WEATHER; hot and humid

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Tapan, Casey, Gabriel, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie, Pavitra, Alena with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce, tomatoes, brinjal and maize.
  2. We planted a bed of lettuce in the Pryog garden, half a bed of lettuce in Le Jardin and a bed in the seed garden.
  3. We watered all the lettuce seedlings that we have planted out in the last week. With increasing heat we find the plants need a water boost just after they have been planted.
  4. We weeded and mulched a basil bed in the seed garden together with half a basil bed in Le Jardin. The increasing heat means that mulch is much more important now to protect the soil from the sun.

 

Friday March 13th

 

WEATHER; hot and sweaty

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Tapan, Casey, Gabriel, Brian, Rafaela, Athithan, Matteo, Ina, Jonathan, Sophie, Pavitra, Alena, Lucas, Leonard with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce, maize, our first lemons and a few brinjal.
  2. We continued making compost and have now completed about a third of it.
  3. We watered all the trees in Jalabhoomi and Kireet came to tell me that he is going to come on Monday to make a new spillway for the back pond.
  4. We finished weeding and mulching the basil bed in Le Jardin that we started yesterday.
  5. We gave all the lettuce seedlings in we have planted in the last week an extra watering.

 

Monday March 16th

 

WEATHER; hot

VOLUNTEERS; Sammy, Tapan, Casey, Gabriel, Brian, Rafaela, Matteo, Ina, Pavitra, Alena, Yumi, Devaki, Spiros with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce and brinjal.
  2. We are getting to the end of planting lettuces and today we planted a lot on a bed in the Souryan garden where a lot of the ones that we had planted previously had died.
  3. We also inter-planted on a similar bed in the Pryog garden.
  4. Work started on our ponds this morning with one pond being dug out and a spill way made and with two ponds having quite a lot of silt dug out.
  5. We also had an encroachment problem when a nearby land owner came onto Buddha Garden land to cut down a tree and carry off the wood. This took up a lot of time and energy and can only be resolved by the Auroville group responsible for land.

 

Tuesday March 17th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Casey, Gabriel, Brian, Rafaela, Pavitra, Alena, Devaki, Spiros with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. First time for months that we didn’t pick any lettuces, but we did pick papaya.
  2. We planted the last of the lettuce, some filling in a bed in the Pryog garden and some in the seed garden.
  3. We weeded a lettuce bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. We cleared a maize bed in the Souryan garden.
  5. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Pryog garden that we planted with pumpkins.
  6. Pierre sprayed some water on the cashew flowers to see if it helps them produce more cashews as he has been told that it will.

 

Wednesday March 18th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Gabriel, Brian, Rafaela, Pavitra, Alena, Devaki, with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked lettuce and roccolla.
  2. We finished clearing the maize bed in the Souryan garden that we started yesterday . Then we composted and mulched it and planted with beans. It seemed to take a long time.
  3. We started tying up the snake gourd and lukki plants.

 

Thursday March 19th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Gabriel, Rafaela, Pavitra, Alena, Divaki, Parthiban, Rahul, Minori with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked lettuce, brinjal and chilli.
  2. We composted and mulched the last intermittent bed in the Wild Orchard and then planted with pumpkins.
  3. We weeded a heavily infested lettuce bed in Le Jardin.
  4. We weeded, composted and mulched a bed in the Souryan garden.

 

Friday March 20th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Gabriel, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Parthiban, Theresa with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We planted the bed in the Souryan garden that we prepared yesterday with beans and our first hot season plant – bassella spinach.
  2. We finished tying up the snake gourd, lukki and bean plants that we started a few days ago.
  3. We spent a lot of time making compost, cutting the tops off a bed of sweet potato cuttings to use as green material. Unfortunately a bit of the wall fell down on the compost bin where we were working so maybe this is another compost heap that can only be half has high as normal.

 

Monday March 23rd

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Parthiban, Morgane, Fanny, Cindy, Mathew, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Spiros, Rodriguo, Diego, Sven with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked and cleaned basil for pesto.
  2. We weeded two beds in Le Jardin so that we had some weeds for the compost. This included pulling out sweet potato plants that had grown onto some of the paths.
  3. We cut the tops off a bed of sweet potato plants, again for green material for the compost.
  4. We started composting and mulching beds in the cashew area which we are going to use as intermittent beds. We will plant them with pumpkin and sun hemp to improve the soil and then lettuces when lettuce season comes around again.
  5. We started making compost, being very careful not to put too much weight or pressure on the walls of the compost bin so they do not fall down.

 

Tuesday March 24th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Parthiban, Vera, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Spiros, Rodriguo, Bala, Shiva, Lav with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We began by carrying on with the compost heap we started yesterday and got about half way finished.
  2. We weeded several beds in the Pryog garden as well as clearing up paths and beds so we are ready to cut grass there.
  3. We weeded and cleared several beds in the seed garden.
  4. We carried on composting and mulching the beds we have recently made in the cashew area.

 

 

Wednesday March 25th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Sammy, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Mahendran, Vera, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Rodriguo, with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We continued composting and mulching the beds in the cashew area which we then planted with pumpkins.
  2. We cleared and composted a bed in the Souryan garden which we started planting with basil seedlings. We also started checking the drippers, something we haven’t done for a while on this bed and by the look of the dry bed was badly needed.
  3. We started weeding a bed in the Souryan garden.

 

Thursday March 26th

 

WEATHER; hot

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Vera, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Rodriguo, Pablo, Mathew, Diego, Spiros, Parthiban with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We continued planting the basil seedlings in the Souryan garden that we started yesterday and then we finished checking the drippers and mulching the plants.
  2. We continued making compost, finding green material from the sweet potato cuttings and digging out a lot of material that had got compacted under the piles of leaves.
  3. We watered all the trees in Jalabhoomi. Despite the heat there is still water in two of the ponds.

 

Friday March 27th

 

WEATHER; hot, but still cooling down a bit at night.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Rafaela, Pavitra, Divaki, Vera, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Pablo, Mathew, Diego, Spiros, Parthiban, Cindy, Ree, Josh with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked beans, brinjal and a papaya.
  2. We finished weeding a bed in the Souryan garden so we had some green material for the compost.
  3. We finished mulching the basil bed that we started yesterday and also mulched the bed that we had weeded. We used leaves from our Peepul tree to do this.
  4. We cut some glyricidea for green material and finished the compost heap that we have been making all week.
  5. We sieved some soil to make nursery mixture.
  6. We put drippers into pipes to make the irrigation system for the new beds in the cashew orchard.

 

Monday March 30th

 

WEATHER; hot.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Tapan, Pavitra, Rahul, Vera, Veda, Monica, Samuel, Spiros, Ree, Josh, Yoann, Pierre, Jaykumar, Elumalai with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked the last of the lettuce, beans, basil, papaya, chilli and brinjal.
  2. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin which we planted with maize seedlings.
  3. We cleared a bed in the Souryan garden which we will hopefully plant with maize tomorrow as the seedlings are starting to pop out of their boxes.

 

Tuesday March 31st

 

WEATHER; more overcast than usual and very humid. We even had a few (a very few in the end!) drops of rain.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Vera, Veda, Sammy, Spiros, Ree, Josh, Elumalai, Lyle, Jay, Nathalie with Rajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla.
  2. We sieved soil from the chicken house to make nursery mixture.
  3. We cleared composted and mulched two beds in the Souryan garden. On one we planted maize and on the other a mixture of snake gourd and maize.
  4. We watered forest trees planted near the wild orchard.