New Year's Eve 2012

Quickie

Just a quick update as am really tired and having
problems with uploading photographs.

Today I reached the garden about 8 a.m. despite
my best efforts to get there earlier, weeded and
'thingd' the parsley beds and cutlassed the edges.
All looked happy for the few showers we enjoyed
last night and it was quite cool like it is at this time
of year so possibly a dew. Set too on a newly forked
bed and broke up the heavy clay clods with the
cutlass and planted the sprouting garlic cloves, we
will wait and see how they do. Have searched
online for a good, down to earth! 'how to' website
re tropical organic gardening and found some
interesting information here with regard to the garlic.
However, that was on my return and I chose to make
shallow holes and rest the bulb with just sufficient
soil to cover the roots and see how they do before
moling. Also cutlassed under the nutmeg tree in
an effort to make nut collecting easier, later on will
have a look at T's grandfather's diary from the 1980's,
to see what they were doing at this time of year.
Whilst cutlassing, found the monsoon lily bulb and
relocated it, again.
Back sore, shoulders stiff and nose sun kissed.
It's very hot and dry today, also very happy.

The return of the exile

In June I broke my foot and it has taken until now for me to

return to the garden. This morning was bright and breezy
and T invited me to join him. I packed a bag with a sketch
book and pencils and set off to climb down, slowly, into
what I imagined would be an overgrown and abandoned
space. On reaching the big Calivigny mango I looked down
to see ......
beds that were cutlassed and newly forked with a dressing
of ashes from the remains of the dead french cachou trees,
freshly dug drains and pathways, the irrigation pipe with a
hose attached to fill the buckets in this area, together with
parsley and dill seedlings in a little bowl, all ready for me to
plant out.
Thank you T, for giving me the most wonderful return from exile.

Back to Basics

During the course of last year T worked hard to make the land in Toby our short crop space. It's a fair sized  area, am guessing an acre. His efforts coincided with the loss of the p.c., which finally gave up the ghost having served us well for about 6 years.  Now we are back on the net, no photographs as yet, but the work continues. This morning I joined T for the first time since my return from away. Am astonished at what he has, singlehandedly, been able to achieve in the last three weeks. I picked a fair five pounds of yard long beans and one pound of okra, whilst T tied hundreds of tomato plants to stakes. I wish I knew what type they were, all in all they have done really well. Cabbages, hot peppers, chilli peppers, sweet peppers, celery, parsley, spinach, pineapples, all in abundance and ready to pick. There is also a new shed and an irrigation system that defies gravity.