The long-drawn construction of what we wanted to be a simple couple of rooms to live in had taken the time and effort of all of us in the farm, and as a result growing vegetables and other farming work had been relegated to the last bench.
Now that these are drawing to a close, and also because of the encouragement provided by the rains in May and June, we have started to do our vegetable cultivation and tending to other plants again.
We have planted agathi keerai (sesbania grandiflora) along many of the stone-fortified steps in the vegetable patch. The primary purpose of these is to provide much-needed fodder for the goats, and probably provide for an occasional dish for the people here too.
We got a couple of kilos of seed onions from Coimbatore from a roadside onion vendor, and they have shown much promise.
We have also been slow in getting Napier grass ready for cow fodder, and finally we have planted some cuttings of CO-3.
Using fishnet, we have fenced off a portion of the land near the vegetable patch for the hens. This way, the rest of the vegetable patch will not be ruined by the hens, and they will also be relatively safer from the big birds inside the enclosure. We now have to "enrich" the enclosure with vegetable and fruit waste so the hens don't have a good reason to go elsewhere.
Some more work is on in the vegetable patch, and I'll be back soon with updates.
To those of you who have enjoyed reading these, and who find these useful in some way or the other, please feel free to leave write back - either right here as comments, or by email to gideonsjoseph@yahoo.com.
Now that these are drawing to a close, and also because of the encouragement provided by the rains in May and June, we have started to do our vegetable cultivation and tending to other plants again.
We have planted agathi keerai (sesbania grandiflora) along many of the stone-fortified steps in the vegetable patch. The primary purpose of these is to provide much-needed fodder for the goats, and probably provide for an occasional dish for the people here too.
Radish and beans are doing well, but we're hoping worms, pests and the wild goats (barking deer) don't get to them before we do.
We got a couple of kilos of seed onions from Coimbatore from a roadside onion vendor, and they have shown much promise.
We have also been slow in getting Napier grass ready for cow fodder, and finally we have planted some cuttings of CO-3.
Using fishnet, we have fenced off a portion of the land near the vegetable patch for the hens. This way, the rest of the vegetable patch will not be ruined by the hens, and they will also be relatively safer from the big birds inside the enclosure. We now have to "enrich" the enclosure with vegetable and fruit waste so the hens don't have a good reason to go elsewhere.
Some more work is on in the vegetable patch, and I'll be back soon with updates.
To those of you who have enjoyed reading these, and who find these useful in some way or the other, please feel free to leave write back - either right here as comments, or by email to gideonsjoseph@yahoo.com.
Fence for the hens, is the top also covered with fishnet?
ReplyDeleteNo, the hen coop is only covered on the sides. Covering the top is really not necessary, as the hens usually don't tend to fly over, though they could. We just made sure there are no trees/branches near the fencing. Also, we have seen that if there's enough food in the coop, they are usually happy to stay in. Will post a pic of the smaller coop where they sleep at night.
Deletehi
ReplyDeleteyour mail is bouncing............
Nice to hear and really happy to know the progress
soon love to visit there.
Chris - are you sure you sent the email to the correct email id? Its gideonsjoseph@gmail.com. Note the "s" between my first and last names. Good to hear from you again!
DeleteThanks for sharing this link Gideon. I think there is a lot of learning for me here
ReplyDeleteRegards
Ramesh Sreedharan