Garden and Demo plot

Gardening this year has been a bit slower than last; the weather in the beginning of the season was a bit erratic and I was away on vacation. But still I have a decent gardening going and do lots of interplanting to save space and improve growth/protect from pests.



Tomatoes, lettuce,cabbage, peas, and carrots sprouting all in less than a meter of space.




Things are looking great in my demonstration plot. Last post about my plot I showed the use of a rolocuchillo when we cut all the Mucuna down and seeded the Oats. Well, it turned out that the mulch left over from the Mucuna was so thick that not even the Oats could sprout through. There are patches where the mulch was sparse and the Oats were able to grow, but there was a huge part of mulched land that no weed could grow through, which is amazing. So I decided to plant Sunflowers with my neighbor. Sunflowers are considered a cover crop because they grow rapidly and if planted close enough together they can shade out potential weeds. Also, it is said that they are allelopathic, which means that their roots exude a chemical which keeps other weeds from growing in their proximity. On top of all this Sunflowers are excellent bee forrage and animals and humans the highly nutritious seeds.

Oats in the foreground and Sunflower in back

Mucuna mulch.



Here are the three volunteers from Amigos de Las Americas after building their final fogone and having a mud fight. Wendy, Claudia, and My (from left to right)