So it has been a while since I have done a general update, and I really have not been that consistent on posting. This is probably because of business, lack of a nice motivating post and in general lower rewards here on here and other sites. I should still be posting consistently and any deceases can be also attributed to my lack of consistency.
As for curation project on blurt I have been keeping up with #blurtafrica I am curating posts about 3 to 4 days old and have not made two much headway on catching up to more recent posts yet. But I will get there.
The last posts I have made on my farm updates were some short videos and then the installation of the water tank. Now with water I have been busy moving around compost and planting.
So far I have got about 9 wheelbarrow loads of compost out of the compost system I setup in October at the resort. I have another pile of more raw compost that will now be turned into the area that i just cleaned out. I am sure we will find more ready compost somewhere in the pile during this process. The compost has all be augmented with bio char that I made and I will do a post soon on the process of making bio char. I will also be working on a video that is long over due on the whole process. I think next time I can send everything through a screen to get smaller pieces to work with but I am in a hurry to get a jump on the rain so after I laid the compost and as I do my planting I just throw some of the bigger pieces into the swale out of the beds.
I am being a little stingy and careful with the compost because I do not have enough for full coverage of the farm, some of my beds are still mulched from last season, and my soil is not completely depleted of nutrients anyway since I was putting down chicken manure last season and I will be getting some more this season soon hopefully. Since a number of my beds still have some mulch I did not want to till them and mix the mulch into the soil because this can actually pull some nitrogen out of the soil. So for this bed above I pulled the mulch aside and filled using the compost. This bed I planted corn down the middle, I then planted beans, and butter nut squash around it, making a 3 sisters planting much like the native american's did with complimentary plants. I also added some marigolds for pest prevention and attraction of polinators.
This bed was not well mulched last seasons so I put compost on top and worked it into the bed a little bit. For this bed I did a series of smaller rows in it and it will be mainly greens so I wanted them a bit more compressed to shade the soil and create their own micro climate. Here I planted green onions, lettuce, basil, broccoli, and two times of rocket. The bed behind with the framework is my seed nursery bed.
Here is my seed bed that I put a net over to keep the heat of the sun off of it some. I have amended it with some compost and coco peat on top, I did not have enough left over coco peat. So far I have planted here for transplant into other beds later some chili peppers, egg plant, more marigolds, dwarf pawpaw, tomatoes, bell peppers, and barage. I still have about 3/4 of the bed to fill. These seedlings will grow very close together and I will then dig them up and transplant them around the farm in other beds.
This is where I grew my tomatoes last season and it is always important to rotate growing to avoid diseases and soil depletion. This season I have planted some cucumbers here each surrounded by some radishes to keep pests away and then some marigolds and flower mix with dill on the edges.
In this bed I am doing another high density greens and herbs bed. I did some horizontal rows on this through the mulch again and filled with compost. I then planted so far some onions, red cabbage, green cabbage, Nasturanius, Cilantro, and lettuce.
I have an oddly shaped bed next to the water tank and swale that I threw all the chafe on from when I was doing my basil seed harvest. It is now alive since I have started watering it with lots of little basil seedlings.
I have a high erosion potential area on where my path cuts through the bottom side of the first swale. I have planted some lemon grass here to hopefully help with that and of course provide some nice tea there are a few little green babies coming up now.
I had a whole bunch of black eyed peas that had been infested with little beetles that had bored through them all. I did not think they were going to be any good for planting or eating but hedging my bets I dug a hole and put them all in the hole and started watering it. Now they are like zombies coming out of their grave and I am quite surprised at their vigor. I have started planting some around the farm now.
You can see here that the Pawpaws are now responding nicely to a little bit of watering. Now that they tank is here I have put them in the watering schedule also and I even have one with two small pawpaws on it now. We also have more in the seedling bed that I will put on the two lower swales.
@Dzigbordi and I try to take a walk on the beach in the morning to enjoy the surrounding beauty when farm and resort work allows.
One of the cats at the resort caught a lizard the other day I am sure they had a nice meal.
The other night also I left the farm a little early to catch the Ghana vs. Nigeria match. Sorry for all my Nigerian friends here but of course we are pleased that Ghana qualified to go to the world cup.
Thanks for following up update, I hope things will be looking a lot greener on my next farm post. Keep an eye out for the bio char post and video also.
All photos were taken with my Google Pixel 3xl phone.
