Composting I do

A new batch of Free first-aid course in homeopathy had started.  Its venue was our house, year was about 2002 or 2003 and the weekly evening lectures were attended by a number of persons, every Saturday.

One such evening, I was sipping tea under our fiddlewood tree sitting on the stone bench as was my wont.  It was well before the start of the lecture.   Attendees had started to arrive.  One person who had been attending saw me sitting there as he arrived.  He recognized me and I recognized him as Ramesh [Kikkeri], my high school classmate.  We were face to face after nearly 30 years.  A very happy reunion happened.

Ramesh was a renown mischievous lad in those days and of the adventurous type.  Everyone used to envy him just because his house faced the school gate, but milder ones were somewhat afraid of him just because he was of the always-up-to-something sort.

It did not take much time for us to know the many things we had in common as we began to meet often outside the lecture days.

Old picture, house and my garden in 'that portion'. 

One evening before the lecture, he came and sat beside me as I was sipping tea again.  The fiddlewood tree had dropped hundreds of tiny flowers.  I had swept them aside into a pile.  This caught his attention. “What a fine manure you have there!” he exclaimed.  Till that time, I was simply spreading them to the base of plants without actually knowing its value to soil.  "Just put there, it will become manure" was what all I knew.  Ramesh opened my eyes on 'composting'.  The subject was also latent in me.  But I came to know several other related things that I did not know before.  This was to change the way I garden.  I had just then become part of Dave's Garden and there was some scope for me to know more on the web.   

Another Fiddlewood tree in my portion on the right, Almond tree on the left.  See fallen flowers. Most recent picture.

Just about that time, another old friend and schoolmate Ramaswamy, whose house is in a vast plot full of greenery, became 'more friend'!  Because he, Ramesh and I all seemed to be having the same interests but they were already veterans in subjects like rain water harvesting, energy conservation, environment protection, plants, trees and more.  They had gained practical experience which I never imagined and I never had, because of their engineering background.

I began to observe in Ramaswamy's garden how he did not waste the branches, leaves and other things.  I learnt more from him about how they break down and contribute to the earth.  Why not I too do such things I thought, because I had some space then.  I had stopped thinking of using inorganic manure which I earlier used sparingly.  There was a huge load of dry leaves and other organic material from the trees at my disposal in our plot.

Pictured before the almond tree was reduced to half its height.  This is just about half the volume! 

That is ONE LEAF!

I dug up a large pit and started to dump all the huge leaves from the almond tree that shed twice a year.  I had to compress them with my weight into the pit. They were just dry leaves, the 'brown matter' as I learnt long later.  Listening to the farmers’ programme on radio gave me more insight that 'green matter' also contributes to composting.  The matter in that pit was ready in 6 months.  I used to remove and stock it for my potted plants. The stuff was just like soil!  I was amazed the first time I dug up the mature contents!  Wow, I can create soil!! I also stopped burning up the dry leaves to dispose them, once I realized the value of this ‘green gold’, as one attendee of a later course expressed and asked me if he could have some for his garden.  I happily gave him many bags of them as I had so much extra!

Just to show the other half portion of the plot, picture 2013. Click to enlarge.

The plot underwent a division issue and my garden became half.  Things became easier to manage our yard, but still the almond leaves became a problem due to lack of space to compost them.  So I got the top half of the big almond tree cut down – to reduce the amount of leaves.  The place I used to do became no longer mine.  See above picture.

I had seen how Ramaswamy composted his kitchen waste and other 'brown matter'.  I too did similar things to good effect. Ramesh is an organic farmer and an amazing fellow knowing many skills, always up to something as is his wont even now!  He was to build a fuel-efficient boiler/hearth in our house for which fabricator Ramaswamy made the steel drum. And more recently we jointly did the plumbing work for our house - on the outside!  Such is the versatility of Ramesh, but these are just a couple.

Ramesh, with his 125th hearth/boiler he built/designed, 2009.

I am now composting kitchen scrap and most organic matter including spent coffee and tea powder, in my small way that suffices my garden requirement.  I have made two small pits, each about 16x16x12 inches deep.  One will be active and one waits to break down.  I rotate the contents once in a while, but mostly I leave them as they are until the pit is full.  When the lovely black powdery compost is created, I transfer it into bags or directly on to flower beds - it takes about 2-3 months.   Results are nice.  Moreover, my soil gets added with organic matter. Earthworms love this and I need not tell about the value of earthworms to the quality of soil.  Composting has become a part of my gardening activity and worth every joule of effort!  There are a few methods of composting, but this is my method. Also through Ramaswamy and Ramesh, I came to know about Mysore's Pinjrapole Society which sells 'vermicompost'.  I have started to buy this also at times as a supplement to my own compost.

Bottom rectangle is where the two pits are.  Smaller squares above it are the places I had planned to move them when I reshaped the area.

This was just before I dug up the new pits just a couple of feet away. 

Flies and mosquitoes are attracted to compost.  Let them, but not to open shit!! 

Happy composting, happily composting!!

Good beginning to the New Season

Plenty of things happened in the last four weeks since I 'flagged off' the new season in June which I had scheduled beforehand.  And the rains, fortunately good so far till July, alleviated the water scarcity in the city that was looming large. Many seeds I sowed last month are coming up.  Rains helped weeds to grow fast and I spent two days to keep them in check, by removing the lush growth.  Today it looks like it had just had a 'hair cut'!  :)   Cleaned the rain barrels too as it is a must, lest the mosquitoes proliferated. Most of the water was diverted to the sump. A good monsoon so far and is expected to be that way for 2013.  So, 2014 summer should sail smooth. 

Today, 20th July, first blooms of Morning Glory "Pink Star" opened. Seeds came from half way round the earth with the kindness of Dee, from Dave's Garden. 

Last week, I shifted the Gerbera plants to another spot and made this bed ready like all the others. So with this, all the beds are in good shape.  Cosmos flowers sent by Dee is about to bloom too. It will be shown in the coming post. 

The kitchen garden beds are also providing some produce!   Today some beans were harvested. I ate some fresh raw ones.  It was really 'beany'!   Coriander is aplenty now proving how just a small bed would provide.  I cannot see them getting over-mature without being used in the kitchen.  

You see some tomato plants on the top right corner among the coriander.  I had sown seeds of Cherry Tomato my friend Ramaswamy gave 2-3 months ago.  But they had not grown. Now after I made this new sowing and turned the soil I see these!  They were carefully replanted with enough spacing.  The one tomato you see there is the ordinary tomato. It was a volunteer, mostly coming with the composted material from the kitchen-waste pit.  

Tomatoes.  I've planted 5 plants close together against the gate-trellis. 

Ten seconds are enough to run and stand there as if seriously admiring something!  That was the Morning Glory you saw there, but now folded up. The vine has reached 7 feet and touching the pipe above. See Cosmos grown tall. 

I rescued these volunteer cosmos plants from the workplace campus, to add some colour in my yarden. They were growing near a hedge. 

I thought this had gone, the Cardinal plant with white flowers.  These seem to be not as prolific in seed production as the red variety.  But I was so happy when this came up below the almond tree near a small sand pile.  Planted it at the base of the arch. The seeds of this was a trade from a DG friend some years ago.

I also planted the Evening Primrose sent by Dee in the bed. I have to look for a place for the Asclepias tuberosa [butterfly weed] which have sprouted very well.  Also Nicotiana plants. Space has run out already and I have to choose what 'annual' I have to put in the place where I moved Gerbera from. Gerbera went to the foot of Thunbergia erecta, behind the tomato trellis.  See picture below.

So much for now. 

My Yard - Then and Now, 2013 season

A post was done on April 1 showing a couple of pictures of the re-shape of the garden. See that here to recollect. [Click]  June is the best time here in Mysore to start a garden. A dry and warm summer had ended with a couple of rains at the end of May. 

In the first week of June, things were set as I had wished.   I had cut off a papaya tree near the wall as it was a hindrance to my plan.  We had enough fruit from it. Since there was an infestation of mealy bugs, I removed it entirely, which anyway I would have done.  This was a volunteer plant that grew there and saw all that took place in the yard during the 2 years.

I show a few pictures of the same place before showing how it is now, towards the end.
All pictures you will see were taken from either end.  Keep an eye on the house/wall to know. 

Those were in 2008 when the  house was partitioned and my garden had to shift from the eastern side to here to the west of the house where I shifted.  It gets full afternoon sun on this side.  See the compound wall has been raised.  

Some more developments started to shape in 2010 when a new house was planned to come up behind our old house.  Again, the garden was in jeopardy.  No asking why, just see the following photos.

It was like this earlier.

When I shifted the garden I had moved the plants in sacs.

All the things that were in that demolished tiled room where the new house came up had to be moved out into the yard. My infant garden became overcrowded with zillions of things!  

My gardening had taken the backseat. Slowly, the things were cleared, organized and reused. Added to that, more construction materials had to be kept there during the house construction.  

Bicycle of a construction worker. 

Just enough space to walk! July 2011.

See changes and the new house at the back. The tiled shelter which you saw in the preceding view was reversed to the compound wall. You can see the frame in the above picture taken April 2012.  

Did you see the Papaya Tree there?  Keep an eye on that now.

April 2012.

Papaya tree grown tall, higher than compound wall.  Pictured September 2012, now the garden area was set. 

View from first floor room. Did you see papaya tree?  That is my garden area now. 

You saw pictures in the link.  Now let me tell  how I started my 2013 season. I have to limit my plants now as the area is small.   Last year, a kind friend from Dave's Garden, Dee, had sent me some ten varieties of seeds for me. Now was the time to start them.  I had gone to the Pinjrapole Society and bought 50 kgs of vermicompost.  I am using such compost for the first time. 

I had prepared beds by sieving out the soil and separated the stones and small hardened cement clumps that had got mixed up during construction work. 

I have added compost and planted Gladiolus bulbs there. 

I had to use the seed tray now.  Seeds from Dee were tiny.

I filled the tray with half soil and half compost.  This is how I put in seeds.  My watch-repair tray came in handy to tap the tiny seeds.  Those are Primrose seeds.

To know what went where in the tray, I made an index. 

As I saw standing up.

Half of my garden.

New bed added. Now that is where the Papaya tree was. Now there is mint I transplanted from another bed. I sowed seeds of beans near the wall and sowed Coriander [Cilantro] beneath the green gate.  I grew it in March also.  But now I have added compost to the soil and have to see results. 

So much for now.   We have not had rains the first 9 days of June. Let us hope it will be a good monsoon this year. 

Small tribute to Shirley

I had been posting images from my Yarden on Dave's Garden [DG], be it flowers, birds or insects, for some years before.  There was one person using the screen name as 'scooterbug' who was also taking part in the discussion forums where I had posted images.  I had come to know that the person was Shirley, the same name as that of my earliest primary school teacher of decades ago.  

One day, in September 2006, she sent me this message on the internal mail at DG: 

Hiya Dinu ,

is the address listed here in the 'Members Address Exchange' your current addie ?

~ ~ ~ S

There was a move to register all the members' addresses on DG at that time.  She had found it.  When I confirmed to her, she said she was ordering a book for me online.  So I gave my office address, surprised, delighted and moved by her gesture.  She was sitting half way round the earth in the United States and had ordered a book from an Indian supplier!  Book pictured above.  The book was delivered at my desk two weeks later and I did not know how to acknowledge her.  She had not told what it was about.  Now the book I was actually looking for, which she did not know, was sitting in my hands!  She had gauged my interest in birds from the forums. So she had decided to choose this for me!  

This is why I have held DG in high esteem also because it has members as generous, kind and helpful to others as Shirley and Ursula.  There are many others who I have heard of.   Shirley knew me only on those discussion forums and she was coming forward on her own to gift me with that!  What we receive, must be transferred to someone and this cycle must go on. Ursula, of whom I have already mentioned in my earlier posts, called this as 'pay forward'. 

Late in December 2012, I got the news that Shirley was no more.  She had left us on 18th December and the previous day was her birthday. It was really shocking news.  One member got to know that it was due to a heart attack.  I checked her facebook page and found that her last posting there was on 17th.  I had posted this screen shot image on DG in the 'Memory Garden' forum where the sad news was shared.

Some who had seen her images opined that she did not look that old, while some admired her sense of humour and kindness. There were a few images of her shared on that DG forum.  May he soul rest in peace. The book will be specially cherished.

[This post is also up at Mysorean Musings]

Plant Markers

I came to know about Plant Markers from Dave's Garden in my early years in that website.  Gardeners have used myriad items to label their plants in their beds.  They have used discarded spoons, ice cream sticks, Venetian blinds, whatnot.  Some companies even manufacture and sell their plant markers, but some gardeners prefer to make their own as it is so much fun.  Also it is a way to recycle or reuse materials suitable for this.  

Some years ago [2006] I had tried to put paper in a plastic cover and hang it to the plants or put it at its base.  But the writing in it got completely faded in the weather.  I tried marker pens and that too did not help.  

Then came the wax crayons, which was a flop.  

There was another method.  Thin foil was to be embossed by writing.  Insufficient foil availability, so dropped it.  In the end, I thought paint would be the best bet and it is. Worth the extra work.

I had plenty of electric casings, of plastic. This suited for plant marker labels.  It had failed to retain all of them before - marker ink and crayons.  Recently, I made up my mind, skipping the afternoon nap and sat to make a list of plants to which labels would be nice. It would also serve me to brush the memory as I look at them when I water.  I also plan to make a chart of Butterflies that I've found in the Yarden, so that I would look at it when I have nothing else and that way, the memory of names would stick better.  

I had quite a few of these plastic labels I had prepared 2-3 years ago.  They had to be hung on a stiff wife and pierced into the soil.  So I painted some 15-20 and this long-pending project finally materialized. 

It was tough to start with, as I had not used that size 'zero' thin brush. Taking the right amount of paint on it to write properly is a must.  No less, no more.  

I chose the bench beside the pond to do this, because I like that skylight and the sun was behind me. 

This time, I put the maker's name on them, just for fun! 

As soon as the paint was dry, I placed them where they were meant to go.  I hope they last as long as the plant.

Look at the one I wrote with a marker pen.  All gone. 

____