We employ a gardener. Sadly, his father passed away a week ago. Beginning about one month ago he has not been here off and on, and not at all the past two weeks. Yet again today he has to attend to legal affairs concerning his father's property.
Back to the garden dilemma. First we wanted to compost, and after finding a nice size plastic bucket with lid I began to gather kitchen scraps. Imagine my horror, late last week to open the bucket to find it crawling with maggots. There must have been eggs, and the heat inside the bucket, plus abundant food made the population explode. Mary and I walked it back to the furthest part of the property, and I tossed it out, and washed the bucket out.
Begin again. Saturday night we went to the vigil Mass and met two long time ex-pat families. They were asking if we had any problems with snakes. "Uh, no, is it a problem?"
Well, apparently, yes. They seek out debris piles (so much for my idea to build a compost heap in the back 40!) So, again, we are at a dilemma.
Our gardener told us we needed manure, which we knew. The soil is not very rich in humus. So we drove to where he said we could get it, but they didn't have any. Turns out to be fresh chicken manure. Not exactly what I had envisioned.
I would love to do some container gardening, but again, we have to find a way to build the soil. Hopefully our two new acquaintances, who have lived here in Chingola for over 40 years will visit so I can quiz them. I have a list of various questions, and know that they should have more answers than we've found so far.
Tom and I want to build a raised bed, so now we have to locate concrete block. With termites, and ants, using wood borders is just inviting more problems.
In our innocence we had our gardener plant some seeds ... in three cardboard egg flats. The idea was to get them started, then transplant. With him being gone, success is not so high. Hopefully in a year this will all be figured out and we will once again be able to enjoy lettuce. You can't imagine how much we miss having fresh greens!
On Sunday we spied this growing where the termites had been exterminated. The hypothesis is that it is a result of their infestation, and the more recent rains has caused them to bloom.
When our gardener stopped by yesterday afternoon to let me know he would not be here today, I showed it to him. Typical, I asked him what it was, he looked intently at it, pulled some out and announced that they were mushrooms. (I knew that!) Then I asked what we needed to do. He said he would just turn all the soil in. NOT. We will have him remove all the soils and plants to the back 40. Then get new soil for the planters. Perhaps I can get some real vegetables growing here, instead.
Part of the problem is that in our not knowing, the gardener has pretty much decided what is planted where. His idea of esthetics is vastly different than ours. Now it is time for me to step up to the plate and actually begin to manage the grounds.
This tree towers on the edge of our yard. The tree, as you can see in the photo looking over the roof is quite tall. Apparently it isn't monkey food, as I watched them troop past and not take any nibbles.
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