The garden:
The first major project after we started seeds in a nursery was the creation of an annual garden. We started it around the end of January, though the transplanted crops were added later, as we had only started them a week beforehand (some plants still haven't been transplanted). The garden is about 10' x 60', divided into two sections with a fence. Access is through a triangle gate - one gate opens to the outside, one gate opens to the left half, and one gate opens to the right half. The triangle gate and division into two sections is intended to insure against the gate being left open. This way, two gates have to be left open to let the goats into the garden, and if one side is left open, the other side will hopefully still be protected. We prepared the ground by sheet mulching with
cardboard that had been used to line
chicken coops, grass, and rice hulls mixed with goat manure. None of this was pre-composted, so we probably tied up some nitrogen by doing this.
We planted the following species in the garden: ampalaya, beans, borage, calabasa (squash), corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, kakawate (a N-fixing tree), kangkong, mustard greens, peanut, peas, pechay (bok choy), peppers, radish (daikon and small red types), parsley, sweet potato,
tomato, upo (an edible gourd, watermelon, white clover, and yarrow. Of these, the borage, corn, peas, parsley, watermelon, and white clover have been complete flops. Given the previously mentioned need for the systems here to be more or less bulletproof, I am not focusing too much
energy on what hasn't grown, but rather on what grows easily. In this regard, the star players so far are ampalaya, calabasa, kangkong, sweet potato, and upo. The kangkong and sweet potato are dual-purpose, serving both as living mulches underneath other plants and sources of cut-and-come-again greens.
The garden has required some
irrigation so far during the dry season. We've gotten a little under 2” of rain in the last two months, and for a while we were watering daily. Then the watering stopped, and so I've been watching to see how the garden does. Overall, I'm impressed by how well it's been doing without water, though it finally looked dry
enough today that I gave it a thorough watering.
There are still lots of changes I would like to make in the garden. When I first started tomatoes, I used the standard variety available here, which sort of resembles a Roma in many ways. wanting something that would taste better for fresh eating, I had someone send me some heirloom seeds from the US. While they were in the mail, the first seedlings got set back about a month by the goats. Given that, I decided to wait on most of the tomatoes until the heirloom seeds arrived. So the heirlooms are now planted in trays, but there are still empty spots in the garden waiting for them. I have also had some insect (mainly aphid) problems on the beans and okra, so I would like to add more pest-repelling plants. Toward that end, I started some peppermint and zinnia seeds in trays today.
The three biggest problems I have had in the garden so far have been nutrient deficiencies, insect pests, and goats. When the plants were small, some of them seemed to have a severe nitrogen deficiency. It was very spotty, though - some beans and upo died from it, while others in different areas are growing happily. The insect problems have also been somewhat spotty. Several bean plants have had their stems covered in aphids, which have then attracted ill-tempered biting red
ants to guard them. The aphids mainly seemed to attack the nitrogen-deficient beans (so much for N-fixation), most of which have died. The okra has also collected some aphids. (Interestingly enough, I've seen three different species of ants guarding these aphids, but never more than one species per plant. Each plant can have its own species of ant.) I have sprayed the aphids several times with hot pepper and garlic tea, but I'm not sure how much that has actually helped. The goats have also done some grazing in the garden through the fence. I think I mostly solved that problem by weaving aroma, a
local shrub with long thorns, into the hogwire fence wherever the plants were too close.
Most of the crops in the garden are not mature yet, but so far we have been able to harvest sweet potato tops, kangkong, radishes, some pechay, and some okra. The first ampalaya and cucumbers
should also ripen within the next week.