On the Mend

T and 'The Back' much better today.
Three beds forked for eggplant and
lettuce weeding commenced. Lots of
rain and the river came down.

January to date

January has been surprisingly wet, we have had a lot of rain that has
enabled us to keep planting when we may have been spending a lot
of time with irrigation , however, a main drain required re digging.
Dasheen and tannia, sweet potato, saffron, (turmeric) ginger, cocoa,
nutmeg and the first mangoes, are all ready.
A bountiful if busy month lies ahead.

We picked the cocoa that was ripe and put the beans to dry in the sun,
on a piece of galvanise that we put back in the shed if a rain falls.
I try to limit myself to one turmeric plant per day, wash off the soil in
the river, before bringing the tubers home, to scrub, chip and dry on a tray
in the sun. When they are totally dry I will grind them, a little at a time.
The dwarf beans, either from weeding or virus, have developed a similar
mildew as sometimes afflicts the pumpkin and cucumber, but we had a
good crop and they were delicious.
We have started to weed those beds now, to plant corn and


















T has planted carrots were the sweet potato were and we began cutlassing below
the remaining 8 nutmeg trees.
The seed tray behind the house is full of cabbage, tomato, more lettuce, eggplant,
basil and oregano seedlings, I wonder if it matters that they are bedded together?
They should be ready for transplanting next week. The cauliflower that were
planted the other week are doing well, those that have not been eaten by a night
time visitor, and the celery and okra are fine. T went to town today and sold 50
lettuce and a box full of basil, which is really becoming popular now that people know
who he and what it is .
Now if we could just resolve the access road situation and maybe,
just maybe, buy a donkey.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, especially to all small farmers,
may it be a bountiful one. Today found us restoring some order
to the bamboo that T cut last week by the river
where it was barring the light and the breeze.

Caution has to be exercised when cutting bamboo.

It likes to cut you back.

We also weeded the basil

Which will be moled and given pen manure this week.
The weather was very kind to us today, misty with drizzle and cool.

Team work

Trev cut grass for the cow and I wet the lettuce, Trev forked, made holes and wet them while I sowed, 3 seeds to a hole, we both covered them. I weeded beans and we picked them together.

Dry Season

There is a change in the air
since the previous post and
the rainy seasons' grand finale.
Now the days are shorter,
the nights are cooler
and there is less humidity. T makes
preparations by putting a pipe
in the ravine that marks the boundary
at the top of Corn Buck. Using a series
of Heath Robinson pipe and hose
connections, we will be able to water
the hundreds of lettuce that we planted
in the beds that T made on the top.
Meanwhile, the dwarf beans
are bearing so I weed, mole , mulch
and pick them









together with more sorrel
and give thanks for nature's bounty.

This week

This week we continued
picking sorrel and cutlassing
the land at the top, picked
limes, citronella, ripe fig
and okra, dasheen, sweet
potato weeded and 'bombed'
the basil, sowed some purple
okra and cleaned drains.











We don't know what this
vine is but it has a tuber
that looks a little like a
yam only smaller, so it
was spared.














The grapefruit are almost full,
first time this tree
has born fruit.
















T forked new beds for
cabbage above the
mango trees which we
dressed with the pen
manure from the old
cow pen by the ravine.
The land is still very wet
from all the rain we have had.
The basil was not happy.

Of Big Thyme and carrot beds

It was cool on reaching Corn Buck today
and refreshingly dry following the thunderous
downpours that we have been experiencing
recently.

I planted some more beds of big thyme,
an undervalued plant, in my opinion.
I much prefer it to the traditional bushy
thyme, both for flavour and appearance.
It is also very easy to grow.









T excelled himself, as usual,
creating new beds for carrots,
sowing two varieties at the same
time,











working on the principal
that if one fails the other will not.

Maintenance

Okra and dwarf beans being given a little encouragement after weeding and moling.

Tania, turmeric and ginger.

With the arrival of a friend's cow, we now have no worries regarding manure. T cuts grass for it in the early mornings and our alarm clock has been altered to 4.30a.m. We were late this morning having had a disturbed sleep due to a vehicle reversing almost into the yard followed by loud cursing and getting on, for what seemed like ages, when eventually help arrived and the cursing drove away. Pre carnival festivities. The ginger plants, that T's sister K gave us, were ready to plant out, which I did, after weeding the beds for them, next to the parsley and turmeric, (or saffron as we call it even though it isn't) but I didn't fork as the beds are still good from when the tomatoes were there and anyway I feel that rooty tubers like a less sandy soil and , to be honest, I was tired. T , who was also tired, nevertheless, cut three loads of grass for the cow and then opened over one hundred holes to plant the Tania, on the top, just by where the cow is tied. There is so much weeding to be done or as a man that was passing observed,
"The bush killing you"

Harvest

T organised a larger

water collector for

the hose which seems

to be working

admirably.

We have had no rain

and everywhere

is very dry.

I watered the carrots,

which are almost

ready to harvest,

T the new lettuce

and okra beds.

25lbs of beans.

dwarf,

were picked, which

makes a total

of 43lbs since Saturday.

There are nutmeg, mangoes, okra, cucumber, cabbage, basil and rocket.

Monday moments

T cutlassed behind the new shed
while I cleared below the second
mango tree. We have resolved to
spend the first hour of every day,
keeping the land clean.














After, I weeded and moled and tied
some more tomatoes, while T forked
some new beds for cabbage.
Some cocoa was cut and cracked
and put to dry.

This week's endeavours

This week
the cive
were weeded
and moled,









and a new shed
was under
construction.
We will be
spending
some nights
here, when the
tomatoes
and beans
start bearing.


New beds were
made and sown
with lettuce,
okra and
cabbage.







The dasheen
was weeded











as was the
rocket.
Some rocket plants
were transplanted
into
the small leaf
basil bed
and the drain and
land
below the Ceylon mango
was cleaned and cutlassed.



The dwarf beans
were weeded and moled
as were the tomatoes
which
were also tied.







Now all that is
needed is a door











and
a
lick
of
paint.

This week's harvest;

Cucumber, dwarf beans, okra, Julie mangoes and full fig.

Cabbage beds

T

spent the day

making more

beds for the

cabbage

whilst I finished

thinning the carrots.

We are having

a back ache

competition.

Baby steps

Yesterday we made
some more beds for
cabbage,
treating ants' nests
with 'Sevens'
when we
encountered
them.






I sowed about
80 little plants
and T cleaned
the next area.











The dasheen
he planted
is looking
very happy
after all the
rain that fell
last night.







Later, whilst
T burns old
wood from Ivan,
I get to play
in the cocoa









and
down
by
the
river.

A bit behind with the blog but not the work.

February 13th 2008
T forks around the
blugga trees
above the river
where the soil
is soft and sandy
and where i make
and sow
the carrot beds.

T makes a drain
for the spring,
where he finds
a loca, a river serpent,
that I am too slow
to photograph,



before it disappears
beneath the mud.



We transfer


the tomato seedlings


to their new home


above the mango trees.


I hope they will be


happy here,






it is a bit hot






and exposed.




February 20th 2008


T cleared the vine
and bush from the
hill below the
sentinel stones and I cut
bamboo sticks for
the tomato plants.


T in his new






Valentine's





garden hat.









February 25th 2008.
We cleared this
area of stones and bush
and removed
old and diseased
fig trees.
T forked and I made
a bed for rocket.


T threw together


















another shade/shelter,

planted dasheen in
the drain while I thinned
the carrots, that were planted
by the blugga trees
justbehind him
in this picture








and these strange looking
bugs
were relocated.

Will look them up here.

Update feb 7th 2008

We are now at the far end
of the garden, by the river,
as it loops around to leave us
and heads off down to the falls.












I clear and clean
between the fig trees

whilst T tackles

the hill.

When he reaches

the top, a surprise

is waiting, an old iron

axe head is found beneath

a stone, in a hole

in the bigger of the two

large sentinel stones,

at the top of the hill.

So we wonder,

who it was that hid this here,

when and why?

The hole is deep and full

of water.

and the view from here

is refreshing.