The First Garden

A couple days after we planted the seeds David & Meira joined us for our final week at SaeLao. David is one of Luc's sisters best friends, and Meira is his lovely girlfriend.  It was great to see a familiar face and spend New Years Eve together. Side note, having a master chef on hand is always a good idea, David whipped up a baked sweet potato and goat cheese dish in the wood fired oven that was super delicious, and baked some very tasty loaves of bread for us all. Mmmm. They also brought something very interesting to our attention, we'd planted seeds to sprout, but had no garden to put them in. With their help and expertise we started to dig up a garden. 

Runner bean sprout, these little guys grew so fast! from seed to this three days.

Ginger made plastic bag covers for all the labels, hopefully it lasts. They really looked cute.

This was after five days, told you they grow fast! To the left is Chinese cabbage, the tall ones in the back are sunflowers.

The spot we decided to put the garden got good sunlight and was in a nice spot, but it had a few tree stumps in it. Those were a little stubborn. 

David using the "peanut planter" to break the ground, which is cement like clay, making this task a whole lot harder than it looks. Meira watches in fear he may lose a toe. 

Collecting cow patties from the road to help fertilize the soil. We filled that wheelbarrow in fifteen minutes.

Ginger pulling out some of the last remaining bits of grass. The rock border was shaped like Manitoba if you looked from the other side. Although it looked nice, it was very heavy to haul the rocks over.

Once we broke up the ground and mixed in some manure and better soil, we started to transplant the sprouts. This lucky zucchini was the first to be put in his new home.

The last sprout getting put in the ground. It's hard to see, but the perimeter of the garden is lined with 24 sun flowers. They should help keep the air and soil free of toxins. The front row is zucchini, and beside that are potatoes. The rest of the sprouts will find a home soon. Assuming a volunteer decides to do it anyway. 

More about our time at SaeLao and the Organic Farm to come...