Mostly Garden this time.
We have worked incredibly hard to achieve this. We recycled everything we could and bought very little. This was going to be a small pool, then it grew into the garden we now have. Hope you like it.
A look at the gardens.
During this long period of lock down we have been working on our garden. We have completely remodelled it. If we had known the amount of work we were taking on we may not have been so keen.
We love our new garden, so many interesting plants and landscape. It has taken a huge effort but it was worth it. The rocks came as a deal from someone who had over ordered, the stone slabs were a gift and the gravel was really cheap.
Two views from above showing the general layout
Views around the front garden.
Path to the back (veg) garden.
This large rockery will be all succulents, they are growing at the moment. When large enough we will plant them out.
We wanted a rockery..........it grew!
An ongoing part of the job.This will be two benches and a fire pit for those cool Indian winter evenings. Cooking fresh corn and baked potatoes on an open fire, might even have a drop of home made wine with it.
Just resting prior to clearing.
Our new pond.
It took loads of work by us and friends but here it is.
It has a waterfall, a sandy beech for animals to drink, water lilies and various other water plants, and of course fish.
Size
Depth 18" down to 34" in the deep middle. Length/width 21' x 7'
There is a pump that draws water through a reed bed (our only filter) and returns it via the waterfall. We have also put four underwater lights in the pool, our one major expense. It is shaded by two trees that give at least half of it all day shade.
The water is very clear
In the background you can see the small beach (between the reeds and Umbrella plants). No frogs yet but many different dragon flies and the bees seem to love the lilies.
On the top of this part of the rockery we are going to have succulents and a small statue to accent the height. Solar lights dotted about give it a lovely look at night.
All the fish were bought very small from a local pet shop. They have about doubled in size since we put them in the pond. We feed daily and will until flora/fauna gets established.
Those spiky plants (2) are two different varieties of Pineapple that we grew from 'tops' one is almost pink the other yellow....weird. The two tall cacti we have grown from cuttings, both 4yrs now.
Geeta loves the new garden that she helped build..
Orange, lemon, lime and Papaya all fruiting, on the trellis we have a black grape that is growing well... two cherry trees that should Fruit next year.
Oh we also have an apple that we are trying to grow....not in Rajasthan is the usual comment. Game on!
We are also growing a mango tree, three mangoes last year.
In the very front we have planted five banana and a second pomegranite. We also have a Jamon tree that fruits well every year.
When we bought this tree the nursery called it an Orange.....All the trees are two years now.
For scale, that is a normal Orange. Only three fruits on the tree but what a size!
The rockery is made up of different sizes of rock graded left to right by size. Lawn leads to small gravel then stones, rock, big rocks and 4' high raised bed at the end of the pool.
Chilli plants
Path to the chicken run.
Fine gravel follows the grass to give a gradual transition to a much rockier garden and pool.
We raised this level 6" so that in the monsoon it doesn't flood.
Our only lawn. When we moved in all the garden was lawn.
Our flower bed. full of perennials and we will plant annuals here and around the trees.
Our drive and gates with large pots of plants
Simple split Bamboo on the gates give it a nice feel. An arch of flowers looks great when in full flower. As you enter most of the garden cant be seen, overhanging trees and scented plants make it an inviting entrance.
Growing plants and cuttings, next move into the garden.
Most of the plants we have either grown ourselves or moved from other parts of the garden as we have altered it.
Cherry Tomatoes and one stranger that popped up in the flower bed!
If its that keen to grow it can stay.
Cactus all from cuttings of some we bought. Going into the garden rockery after monsoon.
Lovely butterfly..anyone have a name for it?
And we still have our Bees (3) happily living in our carving. They make a mess on the wall but its a small price to pay for the enjoyment of having them here.
Lots of our friends think we are a bit eccentric and ask 'Hows the Farm?'.Well I cant really blame them we do a lot of things our own way but mostly it works.
Our garden food cycle:
Chickens...................Chicken poo and waste from the kitchen all to the compost bins................Once a year bins added to garden, this year into the leak beds............crops grown for food we cant get easily here. Also we use all the egg shells as calcium. Chickens give us super nice brown eggs and in addition to chicken food they get all the weeds and things like cooked rice that would otherwise be thrown away.
Big happy chickens with plenty of room, tree branches and a bush they wont eat all in their run. They peck under the bush and around the logs looking for insects. Bit wet now because of the monsoon.
We heavily mulch our trees and they seem to like it. The ground here is no use for growing until it has been improved, mostly all stone. When we planted the trees we dug good size holes and filled them with a mix of compost and earth.
We have always wanted a fruit productive garden, that is why we planted the trees as soon as we moved in. Then we added the paths. We tried just white gravel......looked like winter. What we have done now we think is nearly perfect, fruit, fish and flowers very little lawn and a rockery. Lots of wildlife visits, lizards and the local variety of squirrel and the birds. Oh I nearly forgot. Geeta saw a pair of Green Parrots sitting on one of the fences. by the time she told us it was too late for a photo.
Most gardens here are 90% lawn so this is considered really radical!
A very chilled garden, many evenings spent on our swing just looking and chilling to the sound of gently flowing water.
We sit in the garden a lot now, we never used to.....says it all.
Our very front garden
Aloevera
Banana (5)
The fence will be taken down this winter as soon as the Banana's are too big for the cows to reach the greenery. We are trying to produce a fruit garden here so a we get them more different fruits will be planted.
The back veg garden
Liquid manure made by Kris. A bag of chicken poo is suspended in the barrel. Water for it comes from our water purifier (RO) that would otherwise be wasted.
Main compost bin, it stays here for a year. To the left the current waste bin.
Work area and pot store. The hole is our well.
That furthest small bed has been prepared for Capsicum. About 2' wide. The wall will be repainted white to give maximum light reflection. The whole garden is under shade to protect the crops from the summer sun.
All ready for our leeks
Geeta's own garden. Flowers and veg she says.
Night scented Jasmine just outside the kitchen door.
Well that's our gardens, we hope you enjoyed this look at it all. No doubt it will continue to develop but we both feel its only details now.
If we could we would include pictures of our local Panther. She comes every year to hunt the wild dogs to feed her kittens. She has been around some weeks now and a few nights ago took a cow from close to our colony. The dog population here has fallen quiet a lot lately.
Indian Panther (Can be black) usually called a panther but is part of the Leopard family
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_leopard
The Indian leopard is one of the big cats occurring on the Indian subcontinent, apart from the Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard. [2] [3] [4] In 2014, a national census of leopards around tiger habitats was carried out in India except the northeast. 7,910 individuals were estimated in surveyed areas and a national total of 12,000-14,000 speculated
The leopard varies greatly in size and markings. The average size is 50 to 90 kg (110 to 200 pounds) in weight, 210 cm (84 inches), excluding the 90-cm tail, in length, and 60 to 70 cm in shoulder height. The leopard can, however, grow much larger. The ground colour is typically yellowish above and white below.
Don't mess with Panthers!
Comments
from Kris
Chris’s
Health
Chris’s
health over last few weeks has been concerning, his blood pressure was high and
we had difficulty controlling it. Chris was feeling tired all the time, had no
energy and his breathing was difficult. Chris has asthma but normally does not
cause him too much problems but he was breathless on exertion and difficult for
him to climb stairs. He had absolutely no energy.
We decided
we needed to look at his blood pressure and get a respiratory consultant to
review his asthma. Obviously with corona virus being a problem we continued to
self-isolate as much as possible following government advice for people our
age. Hence Chris had not been out socialising so definitely sure it was not
connected to corona virus.
We saw a
physician about his blood pressure and he immediately changed his medication.
After a week on the new medication we managed to get it under control, Yeah.
We saw a
respiratory consultant about his asthma and he confirmed definitely nothing to
do with corona virus, again he changed Chris’s medication from the occasional
use of Ventolin to a steroid inhaler morning and evening and introduced
monteleukast to improve the asthma. He got immediate improvement but it has now
plateaued and he still gets breathless if trying to do too much so we are
seeing the doctor again. I expect they will increase the dosage of his steroid
inhaler. Other than that Chris is well a bit stir crazy at times due to corona
restrictions of movement but his usual self.
Kris’s
Health
My health
has been fairly good apart from a broken and infected wisdom tooth needing
extraction. I have a good dentist and he takes all the precautions to protect
himself and me from corona virus. I
needed antibiotics and pain killers so
felt out of things for a few days.
I then had
swelling in both knees which meant any movement and weight bearing very
painful. I saw a really good orthopaedic consultant, had x rays, blood tests
and colour Doppler on both legs. Luckily no deep vein thrombosis, just varicose
veins and x rays showed healthy joints around my implants so not bad
considering the knee replacements were nine years ago. Blood tests showed high
markers for infection, hence the swelling and inflammation. On examination it
also appears I have bilateral medial ligament sprains around both knees
possibly from my previous encounters with the bull and car. After several days
of medication and continuing my exercises I can now weight bear without intense
pain and my walking sticks are back in storage. I have no intention of letting
this affect my life, I told the doctor I have continued to do my post op
exercises for my knees for 9 years. He was impressed and said this was the
reason my x rays were so positive.
Both Chris
and I have absolutely no intentions of sitting around doing nothing and
vegetating neither of us could cope with that.
Geeta
I took
Geeta to see her plastic surgeon and he was pleased with her progress. He will
review her in November, corona virus willing and hopefully she will have
surgery to release her wrist and arm. He suggested we try to build up her
muscles pre op, and was surprised but pleased we had already addressed this
issue.
Geeta
started kick boxing lessons at home, she is being taught by a friend of ours Peter
who is a national kick boxer and judge. He knows her well and we are adapting
the programme to suit her individual needs. She is doing well and is very focused. The other reason we felt she needed this was for self-defence and to
prevent her being bullied because of her burns and injuries, and to improve her
confidence.
Geeta looking mean!
Geeta’s only
problem with her arm has been some inflammation and swelling but with rest it
settled in a few days.
Geeta’s
papa is working in a rural village and has been to visit and stay over to see
Geeta. He looked well and it was nice for them to spend some time together. We have
to be careful because of Corona virus, if she gets infected it will delay her
surgery for a further year and she is desperate to have the operation.
Both Geeta
and I have started Hindi lessons from the basics so let’s see how that goes.
It’s been a
couple of months of major expense as two of our AC’s needed repair, thankfully
they were not out of commission too long as it can be unbearable without the
AC. We had to get our fridge freezer overhauled as it wasn’t keeping anything
cold or freezing and our geyser died. Luckily we have a really good electrician
who has now become a friend, fridge freezer fixed but geyser not repairable so
will have to wait till we can afford a new one. On top of that we have to pay for our Visa's this month so our bank account has been thoroughly torpedoed for the next few months!
So all in
all a fairly eventful couple of months despite being restricted in our
movements. Hope you are all well and have enjoyed this blog.
Take care
and God bless from Chris, Kris, Geeta and our menagerie of animals.
