Another month has flown past me just like that. There has not been major changes in the garden since the last post. Just more production, more weeding and some more harvest.
I am currently able to harvest about 10kg of basil from the garden a week. I have 3 different varieties curly leaf, classic Italian and African Basil (also called clove basil). I had a lot of basil come up from the roughage from the seeding process least season that I just tossed in a bed. I then transplanted it throughout the garden as it is good for co-planting.
This is the African Basil. I had this one come up as volunteers in a lot of places as I let it go to seed last season. I need to find a good market for the basil as it seems to do well in my garden. Sadly where I am at there are not a lot of Italian restaurants around.
I have been making some pesto and jarring and freezing it but I also take some to my Italian friends whenever I go to the city. I also give some to the restaurant here as they use it in pasta sauce and garnish.
Dill has also been a great producer this season and something I have not had much luck with in the past.
The local sunflowers cam a little bit later than the big head ones that I got from abroad but they produce many heads and seem to get a bit taller.
My friend and fellow permaculturist posing with the sunflowers.
I have now harvested the seeds from about 10 big head sunflowers that have already bloomed and died and dried. I have a lot of seed for next season now. I also just planted a couple hundred of these on about 1/6th of an acre below my primary garden it will be quite the sight to behold soon.
My wife @dzigbordi doing her own pregnancy farm fashion show. She has been a great help in planting the big lower section that the plow opened up in my last post.
These rows are more basil companion planted with tomatoes that are starting to come, and peppers. You can see a brilliant pawpaw planted on the berm below the swale in the back ground. The row beyond the peppers and basil has some Okra and bambara beans.
I am loving this corner of the farm now it is 4 rows planted with millet, sorghum and 2 rows of corn. The sorghum is getting to be over 10 feet tall and the millet is around 7 to 8 feet. You can see here a neighborhood dog who always likes to come visit is exploring the long grass that I have since weeded out and used to mulch the area.
Here you can see a nice row of corn and beans and also a couple of the plantain trees I have recently transplanted here.
Tomatoes are starting to come into season and looking good. There is some scaring from some of the pest pressure though this season. I am hoping as they continue to come I will get some perfect tomatoes. I pull them off the plant when they are starting to show some color because in addition to bugs there are also rats and humans as potential pests.
Yellow Zucchini starting to do its thing.
I finally got a few marigolds to come up in my nursery bed. Sadly I did not want to risk transplanting them to where I need them for help with pests as I want to get fresh seeds from these few coming up to give it another try.
The egg plants have started producing nicely. I am not sure how these will end up because they dont seem to be the local completely white ones or the dark purple ones, perhaps they were a cross bred from the seeds that I gathered. This makes it hard for me to know when they are ready to be picked because I don't know what color they should be.
Last week I harvested a lot of peanuts. @Dzigbordi boiled them in some salt water and they were a lovely snack.
I have been working the last week on catching up on the weeding and mulching as you can see here. I am happy to finally be getting a nice mulch later over a lot of the more sparsely planted areas.
I will leave you with this last one where I am playing with my wife and baby and some fresh tomatoes.
Thanks for enjoying another update from the farm.
Wow, that’s really nice and it reminds me of my parents garden. You’ve done a good job in your garden!
By the way hope your wife and baby are healthy and strong!!
Thank you they are both doing well.
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Wow that's a really big garden farm you have with lots of produce already... I didn't know you call we call the same food different names... Peanuts are called groundnut here in Nigeria 😁
Hopefully the tomatoes will come out more freshly later on without pests issues, they are always prone to pests.
That last image of you playing with your wife and child got me cracking up 😆 that's a really nice shot, you should frame it to show him someday... What do you think? 😂🤣
Yes in Ghana we also call it groundnuts but I was putting it out there for the international readers also. At least with the africans they will know when you also say peanut.
Yes the tomatoes will come better I have faith. I will be doing more regular spraying of neem oil too as I just got 2 liters.
I will consider what to do with this picture lol.
Oh really? Peanuts is for the international readers... Cool!
Haha can't wait to see what you do with the picture 😁
Also, keep in touch with Blurtconnect-ng family on Telegram and Whatsapp
Really good job ! Is this an organic plantation or are you guys using fertilizer? . I tried tomatoes in my garden a few times. But failed. I thought it was the climate of my area. It's in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. But the soil in ur garden seems to be dry too.
Completely organic no chemical fertilizer or pesticides.
If you can give your tomatoes drip irrigation you are in a great place. They actually don't do real well when their leaves are getting wet a lot.
Oh wow great to see all ur hard work paying off and also how my sweetcorn seem to be at the same level as yours here in rainy cold Ireland. I'm so jealous of your outdoor success. Still waiting for even one sunflower to come up here hahaha. I guess they take one look at the grey sky and sink back into the ground disappointed.
Re the aubergine, I guess it will let you know when it's ripe by getting ready to drop? Looks like it is going dark tho so might be a black one.
Yeah the corn is a later planting I had done some harvest from the other ones but a lot of them got hit by fall army worm and termites on the roots early in the season. I have a couple hundred coming up below the garden. They are not big but I think I caught perfect timing on spraying them with a soap, citronella and neem solution. We will see hot wit goes with them.
Oh sorry to hear about your sunflowers. Maybe they will come out in august.
I'm trying again in pots this time. Fingers crossed. My biggest pest is slugs and snails here, so best to plant out when they're a bit bigger and stronger.
I had a garden in the city and had Giant African Land Snails. I would go out at night with a torch light and pick them off the plants. I started by putting them over the wall but then I thought there had to be a better use for them. If I had chickens, ducks or geese that would be the next option. But I actually started collecting them and farming them. They were quite tasty too.
But for you and where you live a couple of ducks would be a great addition to your garden you can just let them have about 30 minutes in your garden after a rain or heavy watering around sunset.
I just throw mine into the wild areas and ask them to leave my food alone. I can't tell if it works coz they all look the same to me hahahaha. I have a friend who does the torchlight roundup thing, I would if I had a decent torch. I've found a few in the polytunnel now too but they are easy to catch as they climb up the sides to sleep where they're easy to see.