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The gardening project has been really hopping the past two weeks. We have had plenty of volunteers plus guests coming by and giving a hand, projects that we have been working on :
expanding the size of the garden
removing large areas of grass and rocks
removing the old plastic on the hoophouse and applying a new cover
propagating sugar cane
constructing the first aquaculture set-up
removing old mature plants, tilling and improving the soil, and replanting the rows
The plants are doing better now that the days are growing longer. Young seedlings take almost no time before they are ready to plant. Our sweet potato have been rooting and sending out new shoots. The tomato cuttings have grown so large that we need to get them into the garden ASAP. Even the pipinola is starting to bloom --
The plastic on the hoophouse finally gave up and shredded. It was only one year plastic, and that's just about how long it lasted. So today a group of us got together and replaced it. Now the hoophouse is good to go for another year. Just in time to start planting more seeds!
Today we harvested the jicama. My goodness, the roots were super jumbo! I guess we left them in the ground too long. It was less than a year, but definitely too long. We divided the harvest among those volunteers willing to give it a try. So we'll find out next week how edible those jumbo roots were.
We also harvest tumeric for the first time today. None of us have every grown it before so we didn't know what to expect. From those little roots we planted that were far smaller than our little pinkies, we harvest a mass of tumeric almost as big as a soccer ball. Wow, quite a return on our investment. Now we just have to figure out how to use the stuff in cooking. It appears that we are quite good at growing it.
Harvest today also included Jimmy Nardello frying peppers (we all agree that they are winners), eggplant, beans, chard, savoy cabbage, snow peas, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, mustard spinach, purple broccoli, kale, arugula, and collards. The basil is almost ready to eat too --
The coffee trees we had planted look like they have finally taken hold. They are greening up and starting to sprout new leaves. We also interplanted red hibiscus and it also looks like it took root just fine.
Many of our sugar cane starts have sprouted shoots. Time to repot them into individual pots for growing on. We don't have a space yet to plant them out into the garden, but it looks like we will have to get a space ready. Our group has discovered that fresh pressed cane juice mixed with some fresh lime and orange juice is just yummy. So we plan to grow our own supply of sugar cane.
Our pigeon peas were ready for harvest.... for seed. We grew these few plants in order to have seed to grow more. From just four plants we got a quart of seed. Impressive yield! We plan to grow pigeon peas not just for human use, but also to help feed the chickens.
The dinosaur kale continues to grow. It never stops! It's getting so tall that they look almost like little palm trees of some sort --
Speaking of chickens, the girls are doing well. We have learned that if we let just a small group out at a time, they are easy to get back into the pen. But if we let them all out at once, then they are a bugger to corral. So each day we rotate who gets to go hunt bugs. They seem to like the system ok because they are calm and lay a good amount of eggs each day. They are up to 5 dozen a week now.
Our baby ducks are starting to look like adults. No more baby fuzz. This week for the first time they seemed interested in coming out of the pen to go bug hunting. Finally they are getting over their shyness. Boy are they death on slugs!!!!!!!! Every slug they found instantly was eaten. When Doug tilled a new patch of soil, they made a beeline for it, clearing out any bug or worm found. Good ducks! Now before everyone starts screaming at us about the worms, yes they ate them from a small patch. But the garden is teeming in worms. It won't take long before that small patch is full of worms again. And anyway, worms are a good food source for ducks and chickens. We can spare them a few.
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