Earth ~ Water ~ Air ~ Fire: Stirred Not Shaken

When everything comes into balance

When we work within Mother Nature's Rhythms we are more likely to succeed.

The Life And Times Of Brian Waddington 

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The garden

 Squash

For those of you who don't know, squash needs to be pollinated. It can be pollinated by hand, or by butterflies or various insects. But it does need to be pollinated. So far this year we have had an abundance of female squash blossoms but an overwhelming dearth of male blossoms. The season's not quite half over, so there's still hope, but as of now we've only got two squash growing.

Cucumber

The cucumber are doing much better. I don't know if that's because they are self pollinating or we simply have the right insects and wee beasties to pollinate the cucumber blossoms. But whichever way it works we've got nearly two dozen beautiful cucumbers growing quite nicely on the vines. Today or tomorrow will be harvesting some of them to make a nice salad. 

Winged beans

For about 3 weeks now we have been harvesting winged beans at least twice a week. They are delicious either cooked or raw in a salad and highly nutritious.

Way too much rain and not enough sunlight

Regrettably climate change is very real here in the Philippines. And our dry season rainy season, hot season cool season, natural cycle has gone all to hell. Which means, the tomatoes the peppers, the peanuts, and a few other veggies that we planted didn't do all that well this time.  

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The ponds

Tilapia

Almost a month ago now we needed to harvest tilapia from the lower pond. They were only about half grown but there were so many of them that the pond was simply overcrowded and they were not doing well. Our best count was that we harvested about 150 tilapia that were five to six inches long. I suppose here I could mention that when our tilapia have the opportunity to grow full size they're closer to a foot long and weigh anywhere up to one and a half kilos. Thankfully even when they're only half size they're really delicious.

Box turtles

Our turtles were not happy when we drained much of the lower pond to harvest the tilapia. It's always a question whether or not they're going to leave permanently or whether they're just hiding until the water goes back to the proper depth. Thankfully once again, they were just hiding.

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The Takeaway

All things considered, we're really happy with how the garden is performing right now. One of the simple facts about farming or gardening is that it really is a crap shoot. We can compost, aerate, try to choose the right seeds for the right season, but when push comes to shove it's really not up to us we can only do our best and hope for the rest. 

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Brian
 created for cellphones - looks great on a desktop