After two weeks of solid sun the clouds have returned. Cool breezes rush in from the sea carrying moisture with them. The trees again sway violently back and forth, the gusts of damp air rush through my open mesh windows but this time I do not mind. This time I welcome the rains and their life giving resources. My babies are in the garden. My babies that have been battling the relentless sun. My babies that have been moved from their nurturing tubs, moist and shaded, and stuck into what to them must feel like the Sahara Dessert.
One of the projects Pape and I have undertaken (apart from the singing, shelf building, shopping, cooking and reading) is to try to grow as much of our own food as possible. Fresh food, although plentiful in the shops and absolutely delicious, is, none the less, grown with fertilizers, pesticides and is very very expensive. As are most things here!
When Pape visited the UK last year he saw the large raised beds in my garden, I also dragged him repeatedly around C.A.T. showing him all the incredible things they had done there, concentrating mainly on their gardens constructed on what started off as pure stone. When he returned to Moorea he proceeded to build 4 long raised beds. No easy feat on this volcanic bed rock. These he has filled with compost, leaves, seaweed and earth and then baked under black plastic until my arrival three weeks ago.
While I unpacked my belongings, he pulled back the plastic cover on one of the beds to reveal dark moist earth begging to be used.
24 hours after my arrival, I was sowing seeds into pots and standing them in the shade on an old table we had found. In less than 20 days these first few seeds have not only sprouted, but have grown big enough to be placed into the awaiting beds.
The 'potting shed' has been moved from the lawn to just outside my front door. From here I can see them daily and pop out to move, rotated, water, and protect these tiny babies as they battle their way into the world!
Seeds have been sourced from the most unusual places. We wandered up to a small holding that sells fruit and veg half way up a mountain. I was concerned about the heat exhaustion my poor babies were having to endure and wanted to see how the locals did it, so to speak.
We arrived at 8am, the sun well above the horizon, the sun already baking the earth dry. As we climbed the hill we walked over pumpkin fronds snaking them selves across the road, large orange coloured fruit dotted here and there.
Huge sweet grapefruit littered the floor beneath the trees, limes and oranges hung from the branches of withered looking trees. Despite being on a sheer hill, with run off that would have frightened even the hardiest of Welsh hill farmers, the plants seemed to be doing OK. We collected a pumpkin, took a few photos for reference and returned home.
The pumpkin, cooked with garlic and onion, was delicious, the seeds were stuffed into yet another pot and put to join the growing collection. A tomato, destined for a sandwich, was de-seeded along the way, these seeds also ended up in a pot. At the hardware store, parsley, coriander, leeks (!) and cabbage seeds were found and added to the seed assortment jar.
Some French beans abandoned in the shed were sown, the pepper seeds from lunch were covered in damp earth and placed on the table. An Avocado seed from Jan's supper was placed semi submerged in water and added to the table.
One by one the pots began to sprout. The pumpkin seeds were up within 3 days!!! About 20 of them!!!! Others seem to be taking their time! I keep telling myself, as I walk out of the door each morning to check on their progress, it has only been 5 days, 6 days, a week...... but the pumpkin seeds are now huge!!!
In the first raised bed, damp from the rains now it had been stripped of its thick black plastic cover, we have planted two huge courgette plants, plus two little ones, the 3 French beans that survived, a sprinkling of spring onions and a salad vine given to us by a friend! Each day we have watched the sun pound these poor things, we have seen their leaves wilt in the mid day onslaught only to recover in the cool of the evening.
Today, despite our firm belief that our little babies should be left to fend for themselves, to grow against the adversity of the heat, to fight their way to survival like their brothers on the mountain, we took pity on them and picked up a long piece of 55% shade mesh!
This now lies on the floor of my room along with two sturdy poles, awaiting my attention in the morning. Hang in there boys, help is on its way!!
We have also had a plan as to how to utilise the garden more fully. A lot of the garden is just sloping grass with large rocks scattered throughout.
Pineapples are quite easy to grow here. You cut the top off your pineapple, eat the bit you want and put the top into a pot! A few months or so later, you dig a hole in your garden and, very carefully due to the fact that they fight back once they get big, plant your pineapple shrub. From the centre you will get a new pineapple followed by a whole load of spiderlike baby pineapple plants ready to make new Pineapple bushes!
These things, as I said, fight back once they get big and should never be allowed near raised beds full of delicate lettuce. Total abandonment in the middle of the garden, we have decided, is the best place for these fiends. The triffid style pumpkins are also destined to be positioned far away from the civilised plants and allowed to rampage their way down the embankment. Water also poses a bit of a problem. At the moment the rains have emptied their loads onto the parched earth, our water tank has refilled and everything looks green. But I know in a few days the rains will stop again, the sun will bake the earth and the water tank will stop filling.
I have also become concerned about the amount of water we waste each day, washing up, cleaning our teeth. Both Pape and I are extremely concious about the water usage here, after all the water tank has to last from one set of rains to the next and you are never quite sure how long that will be. Never the less, all the water that goes down the drain, ends up in a soak away beneath a very healthy patch of grass!
Last night we finally ended up with a workable plan. The grey water settling tank, the surface water collection system, plus the nitrogen rich water from Papes urinal, would, once we built it, be redirected into a constantly open trickle system that we could move around the garden. This water mixture would be allowed to trickle into the bases of our wild plant area, feeding the voracious pineapples, the rampaging pumpkin, the wilting lemon tree, each taking its turn, each getting a little something every day between the rains.
As we waited for our 55% shade mesh to be cut, we collected the various components to our by-pass system along with a super battery recharge unit plus 4 spare batteries. If we are going to live the low impact life, recycling all we can, then a few investments need to be made and I am afraid my camera eats batteries! The camera is the only non rechargeable thing I own. My lap top runs from solar power, my phone is charged from solar power, my lights and the hot water from my taps is all solar power and we have a lot of solar around here! My camera takes 4 AA batteries every two months! Until now.....
4 rechargeable batteries were today filled as the sun powered our solar electric supply. 4 fully charged AA batteries were placed into my camera as the second set were placed into the charger and the still half full batteries that had occupied the camera were placed in the side pocket of the carry case for emergencies. The rechargeable batteries will probable be less efficient than the bought non-rechargeable ones but I have two sets, one to charge and one to use, I have unlimited sunshine and power, if I have to charge them daily, it does not matter, this is free energy, and more importantly this is non-polluting battery recycling.
The other totally mind blowing life fulfilling thing we have come up with is the 'SUN TENT!' (And you thought i was coming out here for a rest!!)
Now I like the sun. I love to lie for hours in the sun. I love to bake my body black, risking skin cancer, wrinkles, cafe spots, premature ageing (mind its a bit late for that now!!). But, I DO NOT LIKE MOSQUITOES!
Mosquitoes here are rife between the hours of 6am and 11am. They are 'around' between 11am and 3pm. They take to the sky's to swarm about the place from 3pm until dark, then they linger in the darkness feeding on everything that sets foot outside of the door. The only way to keep the little darlings at bay is mossy spray, a chemical infused concoction that just can not be good for the body!
The other thing that works is the local answer of Monoi Oil infused with citronella. Between the hours of 11am and 3pm, IF one covers themselves with Monoi Oil, one can get a good 2 hours outside without being bitten, well not being bitten much. The only problem with this is in the words, OIL and MIDDAY SUN!
Now I am a total sun worshipper. I would even go so far as to call myself a professional. I have baked my skin with oil and vinegar in the UK, I can subconsciously rotate my body ensuring all surfaces are cooked evenly, I can sleep with one arm raised above my head to brown those hard to reach places but even I can not stay out for more than 20 minutes covered in oil in the midday sun of Moorea.
It has been a hard choice, mossie attack yet bearable heat at 9am, or barely bearable mossie annoyance covered in oil in the full heat of the sun. I have done them both. I have suffered for my vanity, I have rubbed soothing oil onto my wounds. But no more!!
Today, along with the seed planting (we bought more compost this morning too), the water system construction, the 55% shade mesh installation, we came up with an idea to not only protect me from the blood sucking little beasties but also slightly from the sun. Today we carried my mosquito net from my bed and installed it in the Garden!!! I can now sit, lie, read, eat, sleep, reassured that I am alone, with a possible 5% shade factor to boot!! My life is complete!!
And so another week comes to an end. The wind is blowing a wonderful cool gale though my open mesh windows as I sit typing this. All the mossies are outside (except for the two who keep whining past my ears) and I have yet to tell you all about the singing ideas and the solar cooking!
But not tonight. It has been a busy day already and it is time for bed. Good night Dear readers, sleep well, with love from Moorea. xxx
PS the Finished Plant Protector is in place and working fine!!!
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