April/November 

Notes and Comments:

Production has definitely increased -largely due to the planting of various types beans. Many of these were imported -and it has taken a while for them to acclimatise. However, we not only have had a hopefully still increasing harvest of beans -but also signs that the soil is improving too (without the use of fertilizer).

Papaya, Bananas and Coconuts have continued to grow well -particularly near the end of the year, despite some problems with lack of rain earlier. For some reason we do seem to have a considerable number of new Papaya trees growing and fruiting by the end of the year -some of them bearing quite large (and tasty) fruit while still small trees.

Towards the end of the year we had a few storms -one of which cost us a couple of Banana trees and a young (unproductive) Coconut tree. As a result, we also removed a few more coconut trees which we thought might be of danger to us or our neighbours. This is giving us more sunlight -which we hope will increase yields.

Vegetables (apart from Beans, Alubati, Saluyot and Talinum) did not seem to do remarkably well this year. Although we do have some Celery growing plus a few different types of Onions and various types of Sorghum. We were also mildly successful with Purple Yams (Ube).

However, animals have also played an important role this year -especially our Muscovy Ducks -which are now starting their second generation and are reproducing quite fast. They have been certainly been performing better than our Chickens (which we hope will naturally become resistant to endemic Newcastle Disease). Recently we have improved our chicken food -and the Chickens seem to be responding with a glut of eggs too.

We haven't managed to get our Pig pregnant yet -but will keep trying in the new year.....


In conclusion: We still can't feed ourselves entirely from the garden -but the likelyhood seems increasingly possible. In the meantime, we do enjoy a (hopefully, still increasing) number of delicious natural food products from our garden in addition to our shop bought diet.

We are also continuing to develop "waste areas" (along hedges, under trees -and old tree stumps, etc.) into productive areas for less sensitive crops such as Ginger, Turmeric, Alubati, Talinum and Saluyot, etc. -and to share and exchange seeds and cuttings with our neighbours.