The rainy season is about to start here, there are already signs of the rainy season coming thanks to the light rains a few days ago. Although this year the rainy season comes later than usual, usually from mid-April to September. The rainy season also gives me more headaches because I know that pests and diseases that damage my garden will be very complex and develop proliferation of harassment. I visited my garden again today, the number of vegetables of sufficient size to harvest is rapidly decreasing as we are having a long holiday to celebrate the country's reunification. In recent days, my restaurant is always crowded and the demand for vegetables for the kitchen has also exploded.
Currently this garden has many plants in the growing stage. About more than a week until they are harvested, some vegetables are lolo lettuce (green and purple), roman cabbage, oak lettuce, spices such as parsley, marjoram, perilla ,... I still keep some of those vegetables in standard sizes so as not to disrupt the ingredients for the kitchen. Good weather conditions and methods of controlling pests and diseases seem to be giving good results. Those methods have been detailed by me in my previous gardening blog.
Some tomatoes are about to be harvested, some are already ripe, but this tiny cherry tomato I use is only for eating raw. I intentionally planted two trees next to the steps leading up to the garden, my uncle and I often pick a few fruits every time we enter the garden to enjoy. Cleanliness is paramount because it is mainly fertilized with organic fertilizers and micro-organisms. Less acidity and sweeter than large tomatoes. Large tomatoes with damaged fruit or eaten by birds can be used as food to raise earthworms. A type of red worm that produces fine powdered manure that makes a very good fertilizer for plants. It is also widely farmed commercially in the surrounding croplands.
I also recently purchased an ingredient shredder, which will be used to shred old and diseased leaves when removed prior to processing. This is how to make fertilizer from the ingredients in the garden, avoiding waste. The dried leaves in the garden are collected (except pine needles) and chopped together with vegetables. A little more wood sawdust is collected at the wood workshop. I would mix them all together and mix them with the microorganisms for composting. If anaerobic incubation, I will soak the mixture in these drums and cover it, the downside is that it takes a long time to get the results. The rest I incubated aerobically outside, microorganisms thrive and quickly. But these mixes are pre-cut and not with a blender, so they are still quite large and it will take longer to get the compost.
The small wooden house above is planted with a handful of abalone mushrooms, some of which seem to be ripe. I can pick some trees of all sizes, I am also researching to grow some other mushrooms to diversify the source of ingredients for meals. Some American fig trees are being planted by me in a small plot at the foot of the mushroom house, which will add some snacks in the garden for me. In addition, my uncle also recently renovated the previous spice beds to replace them with stinging nettle, a wild plant with quite interesting edible fruit.
This lush green garden of mine is always favored by me to spend a lot of time on it when I don't have to work. I have placed 2 chairs next to the small lake where I can relax after walking around the garden. Flowers are also planted around it to make it more attractive.
Hopefully this garden will still keep this cool green after the upcoming rainy season.
Your garden is so beautiful. A lot of green vegetables planted. Lovely ripe tomatoes in there😍
Thank you very much, it's not too much variety of vegetables, but some is just enough for me.