Life in a Mud Hut: Gardening

Gardening is another thing that has been interesting to do here. Although life here in J has much more selection than D where the main things available in the market were tomatoes, garlic, onions, flour, rice, tomato paste, and pasta; there are still many things which are simply not available. Thus many of the team have started small gardens and are growing a variety of things. when I first arrived I thought I'd try my hand at a few things and planted basil, catnip, rosemary, and lemon balm since my internet research suggests they are good to keep mosquitoes away. A few weeks later and only the basil had come up which was kind of surprising as the catnip can reportedly be a bit of a nusance and hard to control if not in a pot. Since then I've planted many more different plants and have already notice that after just a few days I had some cucumber and watermelon shoots. I've been keeping things watered but have since noticed that the basil has had some sort of animal plant its eggs on it and soon after removing them both plans have started to wilt. I've also noticed that the pots are either really wet or dry out really quickly which is making me consider getting a real garden and not the small pots I've got now. I'll still start seeds in them but soon I hope to dig up an old garden that hasn't been used in a while and do some work with the compost pile which is growing. hopefully with the better dirt and water system I'll get bigger plants that will produce lots of food. Then I can pick food as I need it and not have to get it at the market and use it in a few days. Out here even the carrots only last a few days before I have to freeze them or eat alot of veggies (not J's favorite idea).