Book No. 8

One of my favorite books on worms. This is about spectacular achievements of worms since they were studied by Charles Darwin. Philippines is quite popular in this book. It was mentioned that there are still lots of earthworm species in our country that are not yet discovered. I wish I can find one and get to name it... :)

Book No. 7

Now let's go to the more specific stuff, like this book. A must have for those who want to start vermiculture and/or vermicomposting. It has lots of information about different varieties of composting worms and all that technical and scientific stuff. The best part of this book is, for me, the worm recipe section. It has different recipes, from worm brownie to worm meatloaf. Now that's high protein diet for you!!!

Books No. 5 & 6

These books are, for me, the most updated reference books on herbs. We bought these because these are the only books (about herbs) that contain information about our favorite herb - Stevia. I showed these books to a friend of mine, an herbalist, and he was surprised because he saw pictures and information on herbs he never saw on all of his herb books before. But to be honest, I haven't thoroughly read these books yet since we bought them almost a year ago. I only look at the pictures... :)

Book No. 4

Go Forth and Multiply!

This is an amazing book! Now we seldom ask ourselves "bakit kaya hindi nagpropagate?" or "pano kaya ito padamihin?"

Book No. 3

Know your enemies! (and friends)

Another book from DK (publisher). Like other DK books, this book is full of high quality photos that illustrate plants' pests & diseases. This book will eliminate the guesswork on what's wrong with your plants or if the insect resting on the leaves are friendly or not.

There was this other book similar to this one, they almost have the same content. They actually have the same title. The reason why we did not pick the other book even though its cheaper was because it listed earthworms as pest. Sometimes earthworms become a nuisance but their benefits outweigh their detriment.

Book No. 2

This is where we took the farms design.

It has 'lots of DIY stuff, like our trellis, we took the idea of wax as organic wood preservative from this book. Plus more...

Book No. 1

Our very first book in Organic Gardening...

We bought this book about 2 years ago and we still get lots of ideas from it. The high resolution images really help a lot especially for those who doesn't want to read lots of text.

Books!

Sorry we cannot post pictures from our farm right now. We're in a far away place... :) We'll just post a picture of our bookshelf, and then later on we will give you recommendations (based on our opinion). If you have any questions about a certain book, all you have to do is leave a comment on the link below or send us an e-mail at nonatus@gmail.com .

DIY – Sowing Lettuce

What you’ll need:

Potting mix
Seedling tray
Seeds
Sprinkler (lagadera) with water (no chlorine please)
Sprayer (mister) with water or compost tea
Wooden stick or a chopstick
Steady hands
Sharp eyes
Patience

Fill your seedling tray with some potting mix. You can buy ready made potting mix or you can mix it yourself. At Daily DOSE Farm, we mix 30% vermicompost with 30% carbonized rice hull and 40% aged coco coir. Make sure you fill every hole of the seedling tray. We use seedling trays with 128 holes.

Soak the potting mix with water using your sprinkler. Make sure it’s thoroughly wet. At our farm, we use compost tea instead of water.

With your steady hands, pick up your wooden stick and dip the tip in water. You can now easily pickup a single seed with the wet tip of the stick. It would be easier if the seeds are widely spread out in a dish. Place the seed in the seedling tray, one seed per hole. Now is the best time to use your sharp eyes and patience.

After filling all the holes with seeds, water them with your sprayer or mister. You don’t want to use your sprinkler here, trust me.

You can use this method with all leafy vegetables.

Culinary Herbs

We’ve decided to plant culinary herbs at our spiral plot. Some of the herbs we planted were: lavender, rosemary, sage, tarragon, dill, stevia, marjoram, parsley, fennel and onion.

DIY - Double Dig

Double digging is easy, all you need is a spade or shovel, a spade fork, and some muscle.

First, mark the area where your elevated plot will be situated. Loosen the soil with your spade fork by pushing it into the soil and moving the handle forward and backwards.


With your spade move the top 8 inches of soil from one side to the other side (just look at the picture and maybe you’ll get what I’m trying to say) J

Note: the picture above shows mung beans (green manure) being incorporated into the soil.

Now, loosen the bottom 8 inches of your plot (again, look at the picture). Do not mix the topsoil with the subsoil. Just loosen the subsoil.

Do this over and over and over until you reach the end of your plot.

I hope you got that. Some people have a hard time putting words into action. Me, I’m having trouble putting action into words… :)

Fruits of Labor

Our First Papaya

Hopefully our first watermelon

DO NOT DISTURB

LOVE BUG

(mating ladybirds)

"Ehh, what's up, doc?"

I planted these carrots without any soil preparation. I just sprinkled the seeds around the tomato plants for companion planting. Some of them forked out.

Be sure to cut the leaves (leaving only 2 inches above the rootcrop) of the carrots immediately after harvest. This will keep your carrots from becoming rubbery and stay crunchy longer.

Baboy - Big Brother's

These are my brother's pot bellied and native pigs. They are free ranged and fed mainly of grass and over-riped fruits.

This one is running with a big chunk of papaya in its mouth.

This piglet is saying something... I think it has something to do with kissing...

BAD PIG!!!

Dig In

Here's how we dig in the green manure:

First you push it with your spade so they lay flat on the ground. Then you cut them by stepping on your sharpened spade. It's very easy, this guy in the picture is just making look hard. Who's this guy anyway?

Patience

I was going to name this post "Disaster!" but i changed my mind. Patience is more appropriate since it is what organic farming is teaching me.

Yesterday was my first visit in our farm this year and its been almost a month since my last visit. I already expected the farm to be a bit out of order but what I saw still took me by surprise. Only a few plots were planted by salad greens and the rest were empty and drying up.

I never spoke a single word, instead I took the spade and started to dig in. There were so many things to do, I don't know where to start.

Well, I think that’s what you get by being an absentee landlord. And I also learned that organic farming teaches you not only the kind of patience you need for slow growing plants, but also patience for things you cannot control or change...