OCTOBER 2015

By Daily Diary

Thursday October 1st

WEATHER: Cloudy

 

VOLUNTEERS;   Susheela, Kate, C.Mahendran, Mahendran, Bala, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Nidhin, Rajan with Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1.    We transplanted  ladies finger seedlings in Le Jardin
  2.    We weeded a brinjalbed  in  Le Jardin
  3.    We transplanted  ladies finger in Pryog garden
  4.    We transplanted sweet potato cuttings on beds in the cashew field
  5.    We made compost using dry leaves and all the weeds we had pulled up this morning.

 

Friday October 2nd

WEATHER: Partly Cloudy

 

VOLUNTEERS;  Kate, C.Mahendran, Mahendran, Bala, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Kamachi, Rajan with Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1.    We transplanted  basil seedlings in Le Jardin
  2.    We transplanted  ladies finger in the Souryan garden
  3.    We transplanted sweet potato cuttings on beds in the cashew field
  4.    We made compost using dry leaves and all the weeds we had pulled up this morning.

 

Wednesday October 7th

 

WEATHER; bright and sunny but very damp underfoot.  This morning there was a definite feeling that the temperature is going down.

 

VOLUNTEERS;   Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luisa, Susheela, Virti with Rajan and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked maize, amaranth, bassella spinach, snake gourd and papaya.
  2. We weeded a very weed infested bed in the Souryan garden and started weeding another one in the same garden.
  3. We went down to the ponds in Jalabhoomi – which still have not a drop of water in them despite the rain – to plan the forest work we will be doing in the next few weeks.  We need to get tree planting completed just as the monsoon starts so we have little or no watering to do.

 

 

Thursday October 8th

 

WEATHER; very overcast and humid and we think it might rain.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Mahendran, Kumar, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, with Rajan and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

Today we spent all the work time in the Jalabhoomi area:

 

  1. We cleared up thorns and twigs left over from when we took a lot of trees out of the area earlier on this year. We put the thorns up against the new fence and I defy any goat to use that way to get into Buddha Garden!
  2. We dug up some of the soil at the bottom of the pond – which is dry – to use as compost.
  3. We took the special soil to holes right at the bottom of the land made quite a while ago to stop people using the area as a drinking parlour. Now the land is protected with the new fence we will fill up the holes with a mixture of the old and new soil and plant trees there. Today we managed to finish six holes ready for planting.

 

Friday October 9th

 

WEATHER; sunny and humid. Our new rain gauge that came via Pierre and I think Tom showed that we had 12mm of water last night.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Kumar, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, withRajan and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked 8kg of bassella and large amounts of snake gourd. We also picked amaranth spinach, roccolla and brinjal.
  2. We planted basil on a bed in the Pryog garden.

 

Monday October 12th

 

WEATHER; first big rain which didn’t stop until work stopped! It feels like the monsoon has arrived.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Joke, Claire with Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil, amaranth spinach, roccolla and maize. Just managing to pick everything before the rain got more persistant.
  2. As it was raining we cleared out and cleaned the store room.
  3. We worked on some bean seeds although with it being so wet I am not sure whether they are going to keep very well.

 

Tuesday October 13th

 

WEATHER; still very wet underfoot but sunny with no rain.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Joke, Claire, Caroline, Vinod withRajan, Pierre and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked bassella spinach and brinjal.
  2. We cleared and mulched a bed in Le Jardin with glyricidea leaves which we then planted with basil seedlings.
  3. We started clearing the bed ends in the Pryog garden. We have extended eight of the beds in this garden but haven’t yet managed to make the brick raised beds. They have got completely overgrown with grass and need to be cleared and planted.

 

Wednesday October 14th

 

WEATHER; getting dryer underfoot and sunny. If no rain tonight will have to start irrigating tomorrow.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Claire, Caroline, Nidhin, Geeta, Hareesh, with Rajan, and Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We spent most of the morning clearing the ends of the beds in the Pryog garden. Because these ends haven’t yet been turned into raised bed the grass colonises them very quickly. We took all the grass out and they are now ready for growing. It is obvious that we need to get the brickwork completed on these beds so that we don’t have to do this job any more.
  2. We cut grass in the Pryog garden.
  3. We weeded a sweet potato bed in the Pryog garden. The cuttings are starting to grow and the weeds were very small, so a perfect time to do this job. The cuttings will now grow more and cover the soil so that no more weeding will be necessary.

 

Thursday October 15th

 

WEATHER; bright and sunny with some clouds. More rain coming??

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Claire, Caroline, Nidhin, Geeta, Anil, Anutosh, Supriya, Vinod with Rajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We cleared a maize bed in the Souryan garden and then found that a lot of the irrigation pipes had split and so had to be replaced.
  2. We continued clearing a bed in Le Jardin that was full of grass, so it was very slow work.
  3. A group went down to Jalabhoomi where they continued getting good soil out of the pond and putting it by the holes where we are going to plant trees. They also managed to fill up six of the holes with a mixture of the ordinary soil and pond soil.

 

 

Friday October 16th

 

WEATHER; bright and sunny.

 

VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Nidhin, wiithRajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

  1. We picked snake gourd, bassella spinach, brinjal and roccolla.
  2. We finished filling up all the holes in the forest area so now we have 20 or more places where we are ready to plant trees as soon as the rain comes.
  3. We finished clearing the bed in the Pryog garden which we started a few days ago. It was great to get all the grass out although it was hard work and I fear the grass will start growing again as soon as it rains. It is very difficult indeed to get ALL the roots out.

 

Monday October 19th

 

WEATHER; rained for the first hour of work and then very bright sun. Saw a beautiful rainbow

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Joke wiithRajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla, bassella spinach, brinjal and almost the last of the snake gourd.
  2. We cleared up a lot of roots of trees that had been dug up last Saturday. On that day the JCB came to work on the new land. We decided to take the opportunity to take up several trees that we have been wanting to get rid of for a while. We took the roots to the bonfire area next to the stone circle as when dry they should burn well.
  3. We planted a bed of roccolla seedlings in the Pryog garden.
  4. We cleared a bed in the Souryan garden as well as weeding a bed there. Easy work just after the rain.

 

Tuesday October 20th

 

WEATHER; bright, sunny and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Joke, Sanjay, Nidhin, Virti with Pierrre, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil and bassella spinach.
  2. We spent some time clearing up in the new plot of land we are looking after. We took all the cactus that had been taken out and replanted them along the new fence.
  3. We cleared up the last of the trees and roots that had been taken out in the cashew area.
  4. We weeded two beds in the Souryan garden.

 

Wednesday October 21st

 

WEATHER; bright, sunny and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Nidhin, Virti, Doritawith Vivek, Rajanand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We composted the bed in the Souryan garden that we cleared yesterday and we checked the drippers.
  2. We cleared another bed in the Souryan garden, composted it and checked the drippers.
  3. We started weeding another bed in the Souryan garden.
  4. As it is Saraswati Devi puja today – also called Ayudhi puja – or puja for the work tools, we stopped early and enjoyed a puja together.

 

Thursday October 22nd

 

WEATHER; bright, sunny and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Nidhin, Dorita, Jayakumar and twelve students and two doctors from the JIPMER medical school with Vivek, Rajanand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We weeded the basil bed in the Souryan garden and mulched both that bed and a bed of bassella spinach.
  2. We weeded a bed of roccolla in Le Jardin.
  3. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin and then checked the drippers.
  4. We started making a compost heap.
  5. We cleared around the fruit trees in VaiyuBhoomi and then mulched them.

 

Friday October 23rd

 

WEATHER; bright, sunny and humid.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Ruchika, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Dorita, Roshan, Ashish, Aoki with Vivek, Rajanand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked roccolla, bassella spinach and brinjal.
  2. We finished working on the just built ends of beds in the Pryog garden. This involved breaking up the soil, filling up the small trenches in the foundations, putting the first layer of compost on top of the soil in the beds. We have been advised not to fill up the brick beds completely until next week when the cement has finished curing.
  3. We weeded a basil bed in the Pryog garden.
  4. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in the Souryan garden.
  5. We planted a bed in the Souryan garden with maize seedlings.

 

Monday October 26th

 

WEATHER; sunny but quite a lot of cloud and feels like it wants to rain. Only a few drops so far.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Nelco, Luis, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Dorita, Roshan, Aoki, Aravind, Edwin, Preshant, Kormaless, Aman, Zoe, Rose, Lavanya with Pierre, Rajanand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked basil and brinjal. There was no bassella spinach left as we had an urgent order for 10kg (we only managed 7kg) on Saturday and had to pick everything.
  2. We planted two beds in the Souryan garden with maize.
  3. We planted one bed of amaranth in the Souryan garden.
  4. We cleared, composted and mulched a bed in Le Jardin.
  5. We cut glyricidea leaves and used them along with the weeds to carry on making the compost heap that we started last week.

 

Tuesday October 26th

 

WEATHER; bright and hazy. Supposed to be rain tomorrow but lets see.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Lucy, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Dorita, Aoki, Aravind, Edwin, Kormaless, Aman, Zoe, Rose, Lavanya, Joke, Dinesh, Benedict with Pierre, Rajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We composted and mulched the bed we cleared in Le Jardin yesterday and then checked the drippers.
  2. We weeded two beds in Le Jardin.
  3. We planted ladies fingers on two gaps at the ends of two beds in Le Jardin.
  4. We weeded a bed in the Pryog garden.
  5. We went into the forest area and continued to dig holes.
  6. We also collected up leaves for mulching from the forest area.

 

Wednesday October 27th

 

WEATHER; after 50mm of rain last night it was very wet and humid this morning with the sun shining.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Lucy, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Dorita, Aoki, Zoe, Rose, with Rajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. With the rain coming at last we spent a lot of time digging holes and planting trees in the forest area of Jalabhoomi.
  2. We planted glyricidea on the new plot of land just to have some nitrogen fixing plants growing there.
  3. We picked roccolla and brinjal.
  4. We did a lot of work in the nursery planting various seeds.
  5. We have recently sold quite a lot of fruit trees, so we started clearing up the tree nursery.

 

Thursday October 29th

 

WEATHER; more rain last night so very wet underfoot although also sunny. At last the ponds are starting to have some water in them and look a bit more like proper ponds.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris, Dorita, Aoki, Zoe, Lavanya, Vin with Rajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We did a lot of work in the forest again today. There is one area of the forest where every year we plant trees but they never seem to survive. This year we have planted work trees, digging up seedlings from the other part of the forest where we had cut the big trees down. We planted quite a large area where hopefully they will grow, provide wood and at the same time create a place where indigenous trees will eventually grow.
  2. We finished planting glyricidea on the new land.
  3. We cleaned under the cashew trees and put more mulch and compost around them.

 

Friday October 30th

 

WEATHER; a little rain last night and still very wet underfoot.

 

VOLUNTEERS; VOLUNTEERS; Susheela, Zhanna, Spiros, Caroline, Amrit, Parshva, Aashna, Chris,Dorita, Aoki, Zoe, Roshan, Virti, Mahendran with Rajan, Vivekand Priya

 

WORK COMPLETED

 

  1. We picked a lot of roccolla and some brinjal. Roccolla obviously loves the rain.
  2. We worked in another part of the forest today and dug some big holes for our bigger trees. Despite the rain the soil was quite hard so it was difficult work. Everyone took it in turns to do some digging and we will try to do a few holes every day.
  3. We weeded beds in the Pryog and Souryan garden – very easy after the rain.
  4. We planted some amaranth spinach plants at the end of a bed in the Souryan garden.
  5. We planted some pongamia seeds in bags in the tree nursery.