The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. — Alfred Austin
I have been writing drafts on what to share.
It's all about the global crisis, the freak weather, and prepping, but it just seems so normal now that it has become a common knowledge.
If I should have something in mind, maybe I just do it within my circle rather than banter here and complain there, there's just no point in shouting at the wall.
Anyway, the rice harvest at the farm was completed although I have no updates about it. It's a shame that I declined to offer my physical strength there as I have been so exhausted overthinking, just kidding!
I did continue sun-drying the more recent rice grains delivered at us, but with the weather, sometimes it is not good to risk trust the sunny day and ending up panicking to keep everything from getting wet in the sudden rain.
Then my project at the orchard seems to be too tedious, I still haven't completed it all! So here are what I was doing:
- Pruning the fallen Mango trees,
- Make five more raised beds, and
- Continue collecting rice straws.
Pruning the Fallen Mango Trees
I was up the Mango tree in an akward position.
It's a tropical country and the afternoon sun was hitting my back, so much Vitamin D, I was sweating with minimal effort.
Maneuvering myself to keep hitting the same spot of the thick branch, wishing that it would fall from its weight, but, no, it was solid as rock at the middle. Each blow can only chip down a millimeter or so, there's just so much strategy to make it faster, such as hitting at an angle.
My trusty machete did broke and it flung into the air with its weird ninja-assassin slash wobbly sound before it landed at about a second later on the ground.
Don't play with sharp objects!
Also, safety first!
It already consumed most of my time, but at least, the first tree was done... But I was thinking of cutting more smaller branches, is it too much already?
Make Five More Raised Beds
I already have too many fallen branches to work on, so I decided to continue making on the raised beds. It wasn't so different when I was above, but working on the thinner branches was fairly easy. Just one hit and together with the leaves it is destined ton the raised beds.
The bigger branches were used at the sides to contain the plant materials and soil, while the ones thicker than an inch were reserved to secure the raised beds. I just hope it doesn't float away when it floods!
I am now working on the third raised bed and had to slash some of the itchy Taro plants that grows on that area.
If not completely uprooted, it would just keep regrowing until it exhaust its starchy reserves—but I think I'll just do the latter because I felt so lazy now.
It did rain very late into the afternoon and felt like a relief to me even if I'm not sure it's okay get rained on after hard work, reminds me of granny telling me to drink water whenever I get caught in the rain to avoid flu.
Continue Collecting More Rice Straws
As I busied myself into cutting down branches and making raised beds, the seasonal workers were also busy with the rice harvest since all of the neighboring rice fields owners were seizing the remaining sunny days to lessem the damage to their harvest.
I should really finish the raised beds or else I'd lose the precious rice straws and will need to wait until the next harvest probably in July next year!
The rice straws (and rice hulls) are really multi-purpose, it can be used as mulch, processed into biochar, or layered in the raised beds. For the biochar, it is in the form of carbonized rice hulls, so easy to make, might share it when I can.
It's all a plan until I finish framing the raised beds. Then I also need more soil to fill it before I can start planting even if there's a risk of being flooded over again this December.
When all of these are done, I'm planning to grow more bananas, probably the red ones if I can get more suckers. Then I'm also planning to get more fruit tree seedlings to interplant inside the expanded permaculture garden.
Gardening Updates
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The sweet potato vines are now longer than before and they keep creeping in all directions, suppressing weeds from growing all over. Just two more months and they ready for harvest!
The cosmos, marigolds, rain lilies, and zinnias are in a full bloom now, perfect to repel some of the pests while also attracting more pollinators into the permaculture garden.
Today, I was able to harvest young Luffas and a little bittermelon. It wasn't so pretty, but that's just how permaculture works. Also the shallow reason to cover up for my laziness, hahaha!
I am still a bit worried about the freaky weather we are expecting by the end of the year, but I am also excited to complete all of my plans, too.
How about you, how many remaining plans do still have for the year 2022? Share in the comments section down below! ;)
PINNED POSTS
 | Clearing the Damage After the Storm Instead of falling into anxiety, I took time to make use of what the storm had given. |
 | Building Abundance with More Fruit Trees Amid the Economic Turmoil This year, I planned to initially plant 100 trees wherever possible until the year ends. |
 | Using Saltwater and Fire to Heal a Permaculture Garden Plant debris becomes natural mulch and organic matter. |
 | Harvesting Cucumbers After a Year of Labor As crops mature, harvest season began as well. |
 | Fermenting Fish Amino Acid for the Garden Crops It would be a sin to throw away such things, even the food scraps I turn it to compost now. |
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About Me
@oniemaniego is a software developer, but outside work, he experiments in the kitchen, writes poetry and fiction, paints his heart out, or toils under the hot sun.
 | Onie Maniego / Loy Bukid was born in rural Leyte. He often visits his family orchards during the summers and weekends, which greatly influenced his works. |
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