Sunday 29th April The Beginning
Welcome all to this new venture which defies time and space... oh sorry that's the wrong blog.... just joking ..no but we will defy time and space. Our little gardening project takes us back in time when we really were in touch with nature and space its about the use of land space to plant, nurture and harvest really really useful stuff.. food
Fran, Theresa, Brenda, Helena, Sarah , Daniel, and Lisa |
So this is our little cabbage patch (except it will blossom with tomatoes cucumbers and the like) with a huge pile of natural fertilizer which needed spreading
So the women got to work and boy was it tough and ever so ever so smelly. In fact if you look closely at the pictures you will be able to smell it too
The work progressed fairly smoothly but smellily (I really cannot stress that enough) for a good few hours
So shit shovelled and levelled, time to get the water system down there. Again women power to the rescue.
And so after hours of toil in the hot sun we are ready next week to lay out the water pipes and hopefully start planting.
Come follow us on this trip back to nature and over the weeks and months we hope you can share our joy as our little patch becomes a vibrant garden
WEEKLY TIP
Each week as we plant, prune, weed, tender, water, harvest and hopefully eventually eat, we would like to share a few gems of wisdom collected from our collective cooperative consciousness/ So here were go (or to prolong the horticultural theme earwig go..)
1. Don't shovel shit wearing nice white socks...really not good
2 Aphids
Evidently these little chaps are avid non smokers. How to kill them in an environmentally friendly way.
First you need to be a smoker a find a smoker or nip into those outhouse bits of the pubs they reserve for smokers and collect a lot of butts...you know fag ends... Having then procured these bung them in a bottle and let them seep with water for a week. You will get a disgusting liquid that is full of wonderful anti aphid juice.
Spray on leaves and the aphids will run off to the aphid hospital for their yearly check ups. Anyway your plants will be free of them. Voila. fags to fend off aphids. No cost.t patch of vegetable and herbs. The task is fruitful in may ways yes obviously we hope to eat our home grown organic products and in these tough times every little helps, but also fruitful in the shared work, shared friendship and........ oy you share that bottle of beer... (did I mention the fridge yet) OK more later.
Well done Fran! Looks brill and your writing! Very creative and here is to more creativity in the proceeding weeks and beer bottle counting! Hic!
ReplyDeleteI live in Kalamata, would love to volunteer in your garden project! Please provide contact email information or contact me directly @ ybertaud9@hotmail.com Looking forward to being part of your teamwork ladies! Be well ;-)
ReplyDeleteCrikey Fran, we are so jealous. We are with you in spirit. The parcel that is winging its way e'en now contains seeds. A variety of vegetables and flowers. Hope you like them. Do let us know what we can help you with.
ReplyDeletelove jimi and Anne
xxx
Dear Fran
ReplyDeleteFantastic...
Reading about your comments on Complimentary Gardening with the
Marigolds reminded me of the 2 most influential books I've got
re. Mallorca... Creative Sustainable Gardening by Diana Anthony
published by Centre for Alternative Technology and as background
and some great advice on irrigation ( as book deals more with
ornamentals ) Hugo Latymer's The Mediterranean Gardener published
by Francis Lincoln / Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
As for the aphids with tobacco... a great thing for more persistant pests is Alcohol 96 / cosmetic grade alcohol mixed
50:50 with water and mist sprayed on to plants 3 times at weekly
intervals. Some young plants might find this too strong. Its the
dosage and frequency for established interior ornamental plants.So best to experiment with a small sample first rather than the whole crop. Also avoid application in sun... just before
dusk best.
Regards Chris