It's weekend, so I was able to have a free time to do gardening. My visits were lasts only three hours at most but during those hours, a lot things can already be done.
The task for the day was to mulch the garden beds. Mulching is just layering the soil with organic materials in order to slowly feed the soil, suppress weed growth, and retain moisture.
I planted cover crops on two of the garden beds. I used Baguio beans and Mung beans because both are nitrogen-fixing plants and are readily available locally.
As mentioned from my previous posts, the area frequents in flooding during the typhoon season which is usually at the end of each year. Aside from mulching, the use of cover crops can also suppress the weed growth in the garden beds aside from preventing soil erosion.
These nitrogen-fixing plants can also act as a preparatory organic fertilizer for the garden beds. It is a living mulch which supports and prepares the soil for future use.
I also built a wooden trellis for the Bagiuo beans made from branches, coconut leaf rib, and twine.
It was done in a whim and was so lousy that it may not survive for a long period of time but so long as it could hold out until the bean's life ends, then it would be fine.
Mulching my Garden Area
I'm also thinking about using the rice hay to mulch the garden beds thickly as if the 'Ruth Stout' gardening style.
It is still quite a long wait until the rice harvest season begins. So, I have to put up on whatever resources I have at present.
When we arrived at the Garden, the first thing I noticed were the new spur of leaves on the mango tree while the fallen leaves gathered below it.
I decided to use those fallen leaves to mulch my Hügelkultur garden bed. It is not much but it is better than just bare soil.
The area is also abundant with coconut trees and I made most of the coconut leaves scattered around. I had to cut each leaflets into shorter sizes before scattering it on my other garden bed.
I'm also planning to add more kinds of mulching media such as banana leaves, grass cuttings, and saw dusts on the garden beds. I can also try to ask for rice hulls from the local mills next time.
My Tree Guild Progress
No plans to start working on the Mango tree guild as of yet. However, I already listed the plants that I want to add and it is as follows:
- Attractor - Marigold, sunflower, and cosmos.
- Repellant - Chives, oregano, and marigold.
- Suppressor - Lemon grass, strawberry, sweet potato, and mint.
- Mulcher - I couldn't think of any as of yet.
- Accumulator - Strawberry.
- Fixer - White leadtree, perrenial peanut, and peanut.
Also, I am constantly adding more organic materials around the Mango plant to thicken up the mulch. All of the organic materials that I can collected from clearing the farthest end of the Garden, I used it to pile within the tree guild area.
Garden To Do List:
- 3 out of 4 garden bed completed
- Mango Tree guild
- Compost Bin
- Planting along the borders of our property
- Heavily mulch my whole garden area