Monday, April 21, 2014

April sees some good work

This post will be full of pictures. Click on them to enlarge.

There was nothing much to do in the main Yarden area, which is now covered by shade net to protect from the beating summer sun.  But some useful things were done.  The area is seen on the right. The passage next to it was cleared of weeds which grew from the few light rains last month and early this month. A morning glory flower blooms from a volunteer plant. 


Same from opposite side.  See shade net on top, the filtered sun - see how much it filters. I had also done some exercise to put proper downspout to the rain pipes.  Now water will not splat from the bay balcony on to the passage here. It will smoothly fall on concrete.



I tied jute thread to support the Jaquemontia vine as it grows. I had not done it earlier.



Notice a small plant between papaya on the left and plumeria on the right.  It is an ordinary red hibiscus. It was in a pot for 5 years.  In fact, it was the host plant for some variety of hibiscus I had bought, but the grafted plant died and this survived. I made way for it by clearing up the extra rhizomes of Ginger [kasturi arishina].



I used a vintage stone cooking pot to keep a pot with Daylily in it.   It is about to bloom. It is Hemerocallis fulva.



Some light rains brought up the Pink Rain Lilies. This was a biggie!



The water lily which had grown too long and big in roots have been removed. The old plant may not survive. It is in a tub.  I cleared some silt and removed the extra water lettuce and hyacinths. I want to keep a water lily back.  I have one or two smaller ones floating around.


There was a need to use this area properly.  First I moved the compost pits a couple of feet away.  It was here earlier.  See carefully to the left of the plant in the white sac.


See where the pits have moved.  I cover one half with a zinc plate.  With this, I created a bed that has edges on both sides. I moved ginger [edible variety] next to the papaya, I brought a sugarcane plant from the small cover with soil and planted it behind the pits.  And the 'Big red Canna' next to ginger.  This area now looks organized.  Nothing much grows here because of the presence of many small roots from the three trees within 12 feet from here. 


Same area, another angle.


Junk cum firewood cum empty pot area in that corner also is somewhat organized now as I have cleared up "true junk"!!  *Smile*.   See some morning sunlight on the wall - red!


See the pot stand in the foreground here. It was kept away in that junk area. Brought it out for use.  I painted it too.


I closed my previous post mentioning about the new tomato ladders.  I am extremely thankful and grateful to Ramaswamy [Ramu] who did the welding work.  I had cut the pieces to size and given him.  They are left overs from our new house project - construction steel - some are 6mm and some are 8 mm. 

I had decided to paint all the ladders, many of which were done by Ramu the same way.  This way, I cleared up the 'junked iron rods'.  They will be put to use or stored neatly.  "Cilantro Green" paint was available with me. April 20th I took this up and it took me 4 hours to do this job. 
See pictures:

All items kept ready for painting. See paint tin on the high stool.


The new tomato ladder is about 7 1/2 feet high.  Six of them. All painted. See also the 'trellis gate' and pot stand. The arrows of the trellis gate is from our old gate from the old house where I grew up. So it has some history. I salvaged the arrows from that wooden gate and got this trellis made using some of them.


Another view. 


I brought out the smaller ladders also, from the tool shed.  I used rag to paint them. 


Rag swab as brush. Notice the indelible ink mark on my thumb - 2014 General Elections - for having cast my vote [on 17th April].