After two months away from this space I am back with big developments in our life at IG.
Most importantly we have recently added a new member, a baby girl born May 2nd. Our little one will undoubtedly have an impact on how the garden develops over the next year, particularly in making it more educational and child-friendly, but she has already left her mark in a way.
Through the exhausting end of the pregnancy and first days of life, the garden has mostly been neglected in favor of the little one. This turned out to be a great litmus test for our system. Some things carried on without a problem while others need to be re-worked or abandoned altogether.
For example:
- The fruit trees adapted to less-frequent watering from me and were surprisingly not completely shriveled as I have found them in the past.
- The herbs and forgotten root vegetables seeded themselves all over, and we learned just how beautiful tiny turnip flowers can be.
- The coconut coir rope trellis for the beans, unfortunately, did not hold up so well. Two of the three vertical lines rotted in the sun and rain.
- Our beautiful banana in the lower garden was not sheltered enough to survive a very windy thunderstorm. We will not be enjoying our own bananas any time soon while we redo the banana circle.
- A local herb, used for homeopathy and a tea flavored like basil and cinnamon, has flourished beautifully and is attracting more pollinators.
- The PVC planters did not transition well to the new season. More mulch and compost need to be added as soon as possible to make them productive again.
Among many other lessons learned.
Needless to point out, I have a long to-do list over the next month. In between cuddles with the new babe, tomatoes need to be planted out, all the containers need a good layer of compost added, and compost tea production needs to resume.
Our IG 101 series will also continue through the coming months, so be on the lookout for those updates as well.
