Recent Activities and Harvests

For the past several weeks we had some wonderful times doing different tasks for the projects. First, I recall transplanting many things such as local ginger, ampalaya (bitter melon), cucumber, red and green mung beans, bell pepper, sunflower, onion chives, tomatoes, and even some eggplant from Greece and contender bush bean from Monroe, USA which unfortunately, some died after bearing a couple of beautiful fruits. Honestly speaking, most of the seeds from outside the country had difficulty surviving or were unsuccessful probably because of the sudden changes in the climate of the area or also due to the poor quality of the soil. But I don't agree that this suggest hopelessness since we had harvested from these "gift of life". 

     

I remember the meaningful times I had with the children every once in a while. I enjoyed talking and listening to them while we are tilling, weeding, planting and having snacks or dinner together at the house after the garden activity. Here are some minor changes within seven months since we officially started the project.

BEFORE

 

AFTER

I also enjoyed harvesting on a weekly basis and even though most of the time I harvest few, I clearly see the potential abundance of the place in the future especially when we had enough time and money for soil amendment and successful composting. Once, I was surprised by some volunteers who offered to help me harvest and peel the mung beans. When they left I gave them most of the beans they harvested including some pumpkins, okra, corn, and bell pepper that was harvested a day before. The next weekend they came again and helped us with weeding, I told them we were glad and since then, they visit us every weekend when they have no class.

Below are green mung beans and red mung beans

We also received some wonderful books from Vandana Shiva's organization Navdanya. Since we are collecting educational materials for the Garden library, we think this kind of resources are also very important. 

Meanwhile, here are some photos of our soil improvement method for the moment. 

 That's me (above) and my friend getting cow manure from the field nearby. 

We tried two method, putting it directly to the soil and composting it with banana peel. Since nobody from the people I know tried composting banana peel before, and this stuff is kind of hard, I don't how many months does it take to break down this mixture into a fine rich natural fertilizer.    

And here is the worm bin I built with the help of my friend. Thanks to the Blissful Village, a community who donated the worms for our garden.  

 In a few days, we would like to post more updates and share more information or stories related to community, organic gardening, and alternative energy. Hopefully it will help and inspire you so please keep checking our blog. For now, we would like to leave you with more photos of our few harvest, thank you very much!