Hello Everyone, we have been moving along quite quickly with our planting. This is partly because we have computerised our farm work into daily lists. Gnome has put the chores on weekly, fortnightly and monthly cycles so that we can keep up with all maintenance. I can’t believe that such a simple concept can make such a difference! Now I don’t have several scraps of paper with endless lists of work to do. I don’t even try to remember what needs to be done…which inevitably leaves to every thing being forgotten as life gets in the way all too often…the computer can do it for me!

Everything is looking great on the farm…I say that with such glee because this is a first for us. Usually something is sadly neglected but this time, everything is getting care and attention!

Oh look at the pitahaya growing so nicely against our stone rock bed. We are planning to transplant all these into a pitahaya orchard with wooden posts as support to allow the plants to grow upwards. The orchard will allow more space to produce fruit and weeding will be a bit easier. This rock bed method looks nice but requires too much maintenance.

We have some wild rocket (arugula?? Is that how you spell it??) and besides, Gnome tells me that this is the Sicilian name for this popular bitter salad green. In Italian, it is called ‘rugola.’ I like the wild variety because it has a very sharp, bitter taste and has a texture more like a dandelion green.

This is a picture of kang kong (sounds a bit like King Kong! I can never remember the name of this plant and usually come out with a mish mash of the name.). The latin name is Ipomoea aquatica, if that helps. How we managed to procure this green was quite interesting…I bought a bag of kang kong from a Chinese grocery store and rooted one of the cuttings. They grow very easily in wet, marshy areas. This edible green is growing in our water chestnut pond.

This is a close-up of the kang kong:

Oh, and what do we have here? Munchkin and Gnome have branched out into ornamentals!! How we procured this is another interesting story…a hotel!!…we don’t take the towels…we take the seeds from plants (we DO ask of course!). You know those nice pots of ornamentals that they have in reception or at the front door…Ha-Ha!! This is Papyrus: a very good looking plant…

Okay, that’s it for now. I will write again NEXT WEEK!! Yes, you have guessed it…I’ve got the computer to remind me!!

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