This morning I was chomping at the bit to get into the gardens. I could hear Boyd in the kitchen after our communal breakfast in the eating hall.
"Make sure you work her hard. She's like a race horse...if you don't exercise her, she gets a bit ya know, grumpy."
And I have. There is 15 areas of beautiful gardens, interplanted orchards, ponds, tens of adobe buildings. There are so many creative minds to investigate, experienced gardeners to work alongside that I struggle to fit it into the couple or three hours a day that Boyd takes the children in the morning. And, though, in many ways, the children open doors and personalities, its hard to focus on a conversation on fermenting effective microorganisms for inoculating garden beds, in broken English, when the kids are fighting over who gets to eat the remaining fish eye ( I'm not kidding:-))
And I have. There is 15 areas of beautiful gardens, interplanted orchards, ponds, tens of adobe buildings. There are so many creative minds to investigate, experienced gardeners to work alongside that I struggle to fit it into the couple or three hours a day that Boyd takes the children in the morning. And, though, in many ways, the children open doors and personalities, its hard to focus on a conversation on fermenting effective microorganisms for inoculating garden beds, in broken English, when the kids are fighting over who gets to eat the remaining fish eye ( I'm not kidding:-))
So this morning Boyd took the children to visit Om at Earth Home Thailand. Nang took me to collect Chillis for seeds.
For awhile there was quite a crew of westerners and so our family began integrating into the community with the help of the western long termers like Sheena, Jessica and Wyat, and some other short term volunteers. When Jessica left for a 2 week holiday we really felt the gap as she was soo special to our family. A former primary school teacher she quickly became Tara and Luke's super special person and they could be found trailing after her on a mission to feed worms or chickens or plant seeds.
And then, beautifully, Tara found her confidence with Wyat and could be spotted chatting with him about Indian Weddings and gardens and such. And for me, some of the Thai personalities began unfolding. And then the gardens became a manifestation of those personalities. Moat's garden; immaculate, regimented vegetables producing in ordered rows. Doa's gardens; extensive and beautifully carved from the landscape, filled with rich compost and wriggling with microbacteria. Wyats gardens: always different , experimental, raised, layered, keyholes. Jessica's garden; an effusion of flowers, rambling sweet potato blurring the pathways and beds. Cucumbers scrambling into the fruit trees in a delicious confusion.
Jessica with the newly created worm farm
Jessica helping Luke to share his food
Tara and Wyatt with PAC man garden.
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