I don't know if it is normal to feel excited about a worm farm, surely I am not alone? A quick search on the net will show you otherwise. Here is one example. Voici un exemple.
I am uploading videos of the worm farm for your pleasure - and possibly disgust depending on your sensibility.
I don't know what you did this morning before lunch, but I fought off an invasion of larvae of the Black Soldier Fly from the worm-bin. Click on the link for a quick idea of what they are. And click on this link too to see how to free your farm. I had a larvae blocking the exit for the worm tea! Have a close look, you can see the larvae sticking out...
According to a few minutes research (as time is precious), if I want to be rid of these larvae then I can pick them out! I need to know if the (apparently easy for the moment) co-habitation of the two species in the worm bin is going to be a problem in the future - will they kill my worms? In the meantime, it was great watching the chickens enjoy their treat - video to follow. More research to be done.
I am impressed with the worm farm so far. On 23rd July I added the third and final layer - I only added the second layer a couple of weeks before that and have 'harvested' a fair amount of worm tea - I'm afraid that when I first took out the bottom layer, once the worms had moved up a layer, I discovered sludge instead of the rich dryish manure expected - I simply watered it down and poured my first lot of home made lombricompost (worm poo to us peasants) around the garden, I don't think it smelt too bad.
I am thinking about adding the lombricompost to the carrot box which has duly been filled with sand thanks to Patrick the tree grafting man. I haven't had time to mix the sand with any soil or earth yet, so am gradually adding the coffee grounds recuperated from the local café , which comes highly recommended, and some straw from a local farmer (who also sells wine). Yipee, the straw has utterly transformed the garden, making it look great and hopefully, amongst other advantages, protecting it from the worst of the hot summer sun damage which could potentially be a problem for the trees. Indeed, two of the trees are already suffering, both commercially bought, not from the local guy! One of them came in a pot, the other with naked roots - racine nue in French, I am unaware of the English equivalent.
We are eating meals almost entirely from the garden, the salads are fantastic even if I say so myself :/ or they were at the beginning of the summer, they are sorely missed at the moment! I am happy with our garlic and onion harvest. The potato plants have suffered from a blight - almost all the plants are affected, and I have been too busy with other parts of my life to treat them as I would have liked, for example using nettle tea. I am sure the plants could have battled on for longer. Actually we have more than enough potatoes, so I am not worried. I will buy more resistant varieties next year, and maybe will have more time to prepare my concoctions. I have noticed that the potatoes planted individually and isolated from other potato plants are not affected - as expected. The potatoes are 'Monalisa', 'Bintje' - for oven and chips plus a few 'Ratte' for posh meals. Here is a link to the European database for varieties, but be warned, there are no photos.
With help from a couple of American friends who are hoping to settle not too far from Fa, we have reclaimed a couple of sections of the garden, ripping out the ivy (do people really BUY this plant?) and replacing it with jasmine and rosemary cuttings that I took some time ago. And of course surrounding everything with straw. Mulching. Much mulching :)
The Chinese Gooseberries (shhhh aka Kiwis) have suffered, again they are commercially bought, not local, and they are probably used to lots of water and will have to acclimatise to a drier environment. The grapes too, but they have fruit on them.
Summer has not been too harsh on the trees, we seem to have managed with help from friends to keep them going on this their first year - fingers crossed.
After a wonderfully hectic summer, as we head into another school year, the harvesting becomes paramount. I would like to see how long I can make the garden produce last - there is a wall of aubergines crying out for my attention, the peppers are hanging heavily on their plants too. I have already managed to preserve one lot of each of those fruit, plus a single load of pesto too. I will do one more load each this year hopefully.
The old garden is not forgotten, Ivor and I were suitably impressed by the work that Jonny has done - do keep up the good work - we will have loads of fruit! The garden will show itself again! There must be thirty odd fruit trees up there.
Ivor and I cleared around a tree that had previously been rescued by Alex in the spring. It was fun hacking our way around to meet on the other side - brambles and clematis beware - yes, it was that bad!
This photo shows the tree in the middle of the jungle...
The treasure for our hard work was the several apples that the tree produced for the first time - it is an apple year apparently, and it's true that some of the trees that have never fruited before have done so pretty spectacularly - I just hope we have the time and energy to transform or simply eat them all! I can already see me using the local cooperative fruit processing unit to make jam and juice. In the meantime, here is a picture of Ivor helping to juice in preparation for some jam:
The pear tree in the new garden that we discovered when we arrived was laden this year! I have only picked the windfalls.
And just for fun, for those of you who made it thus far, here is a video of the hard working nephew and sons as they planted the orchard - a historic moment, 17th December 2017. Reuvan wanted to measure the size of the hole he was digging (we know a song about that!) so he decided to lie down as after all, he knows how tall he is :)
And here are Salix and Noah cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs - a scary job...
And here is a picture of some of the jam...
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