March 2013

March 14th

              I've been very busy this past month, too busy to run into town to update the website. Sorry. But we have been busy not only with the garden, but we are also now developing another half acre 5 miles away for seed production. We also plan to use the new land for sugar cane. 

           The volunteers exchange an email each week among themselves. It is basically a newsletter keeping everyone up to date and connected.  Some volunteers suggested that we post this each week in the news area, and I think that is a grand idea. Since I still have copies of the last few emails, I will post them for everyone to peruse. That should be a nice way to bring all our followers up to date. 

March 16th

          Our new seed production/sugar cane project is now in motion. I'll get some photos tomorrow for posting to the website. Here's what has happened so far:

1- Purple Teepee Bean. Two box units have been planted with Purple Teepee bean seed and both have sprouted just fine. Plants are about 6-8" high now. 

2- Two box units have been planted with sweet potato stock plants. Carolina Bunch. Ivy Leaf Carver. While the plants are small, they appear to be healthy. 

3- We have enough parts to put together 24 more growing boxes. Once assembled, they are filled with compost and green waste, then topped in soil before being planted. We can make and plant two boxes a week. So it will be a slow project. 

4- Several weeks ago we cut up sugar cane and planted it in pots. Many of them took and are pushing new growth. We are now digging trenches and preparing them for the baby sugar cane plants. This will be a slow project because the lava is difficult to dig through. But we have time on our side. We aim to get 6 plants put in per week. 

March 18th

          Today we got the gourd patch ready for planting. The trellises have been rebuilt. The holes dug. Compost and manure rototilled in. Weeds chopped out. Yes, we're ready to start the gourd madness all over again!!! 

           Funny thing, while cleaning out the area we found some gourds that had run away from home. Deep in the weedy area around the patch, among the Mexican Elderberry, we found 5 dried gourds. Little buggers got away from us.