Garden in M'sia (Day 38)
Above: This baby's looking great. (Day 38)
A little history on this Garden in Johor Bahru, Malaysia:
-Inspired by agroforestry-based farming/gardening, I decided to try a watered down version of sheet mulching, omitting much of the thick layers required in the typical sheet mulching process.
-Sheet mulching involves layering alternate layers of nitrogen-rich and carbon-rich organic materials to prepare a bed for planting by suppressing weeds and providing rooting media with good structure. It is a form of composting-in-place since the organic materials are not intended to be relocated upon complete decomposition. Cover crops are often planted on the upper layers of the mulch to shade out any weeds that may have hitched a ride on the compost materials.
-I had previously taken part in the preparation of a garden via sheet mulching back in February 2017. The materials used included topsoil, compost, perlite, coir and dried leaves. As the materials were rather unobtainable in the Malaysian nurseries I visited, and they were not inexpensive too, from the known sources in Singapore, I elected to do sheet mulching with only recycled newspapers and a readily available mix of compost, river sand and coir.
Wednesday 13 September 2017 (Day 0)
With the help of my family, the garden plot which was originally a field of weeds like cowgrass (Axonopus compressus) and white kyllinga (Kyllinga nemoralis), was covered with sheets of newspaper, followed by some compost-river sand-coir mix bought from the nursery (Spent RM1440 or about S$480 on 120 bags of the mix). Various types of legumes were then scattered on the surface of the compost. We used mung beans (Vigna radiata), black-eyed peas (Vigna unguiculata), soybean (Glycine max) and the perennial butterfly peas (Clitoria ternatea) as nitrogen fixers. I also scattered seeds of a few other plants: Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), Indian snakeweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis), and sunflower (Helianthus sp.).
Above: Initial weed-covered field.
Below: Work in progress.
Above: Done. Looking pretty.
From Day 0 to Day 38
Via Whatsapp updates:
-Birds ate some seeds, resulting in bare patches. More mung beans were sprinkled on the bare spots by my parents. Rain was particularly prominent throughout this time. The neighbour's cat does seem to enjoy taking a dump in the garden too.
Saturday 21 October 2017 (Day 38)
After over a month of only receiving Whatsapp updates from my parents' weekly visit to the garden, I was finally able to be at the garden physically to see for myself how the plants had grown. I was (and still am) quite ecstatic with the growth of the cover crop. The wet weather throughout my disappearance must have played a crucial role in allowing such productive growth. However, it seemed that the mung beans and soybeans were the dominant species in the garden (They were flowering too). There were no signs of any black-eyed peas, which I attribute to a non-viable batch of seeds used since that species is known to be rather vigorous and competitive too. The okra, sweet basil and indian snakeweed were no where to be found too. However, much to my delight, a couple of sunflowers had grown pretty large with one having a bud even. A pity I won't be around to see it flower though. Ah well, guess Whatsapp will update me.
Above: Flower of mung bean plant (Vigna radiata)
Below: Flower of soybean plant (Glycine max)
Above: The dense greenery of beans shades out most weeds.
Above: A butterfly pea plant (Clitoria ternatea)
Below: A sunflower plant (Helianthus sp.) about to flower!
And with me, an insect-obsessed creature, I will always be on the look out for any animals I can find in the garden. I noticed many ants of several species attracted to the flowers of the soybean and mung beans. A sharpshooter leaf hopper (Bothrogonia sp.) was also seen on the underside of a mung bean leaf. Much to my delight, I spotted a two-tailed spider (Hersilia sp.) on the concrete wall of the garden's border. Other animals spotted included a nursery spider (Pisauridae) and a lone injured butterfly. I think the hot, dry weather that day contributed to the lack of soil animals seen, as most of them would be hiding in the soil to prevent desiccation. The collection of plant litter on the surface of the soil in time to come should produce a more conducive environment for the soil organisms.
Above: A cool two-tailed spider (Hersilia sp.). Hope it stays around to control herbivorous insects.
Below: Sharpshooter leaf hopper (Bothrogonia sp.). Hope it attracts predatory insects.
There were a few empty patches left in the garden. Due to the ubiquity of nitrogen fixers in the vicinity of those patches, I decided to plant several crops like tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), chilli (Capsicum annuum), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), peanut (Arachis hypogaea) and sweet corn (Zea mays).
Overall, I am very pleased with how this fun little project has gone, and am brimming with impatience to visit the garden sometime soon.
Above: Look at those nitrogen nodules of a mung bean plant! They were really red on the inside too, which means a lot of nitrogen is being fixed into the soil.
Below: Pretty large leaf of a healthy mung bean plant. Granted, my hand is quite small.
