A few weeks ago when our friends from Florida (the Holtons) were here we started getting the beds ready for strawberries. We ordered originally about 150 seedlings from Baguio City, and we were pretty excited as this will be our first crop. Last week, we received the package from Baguio, and our tally was doubled! We got 300 seedlings instead thanks to the generosity of the seller. Good thing the Holtons made more beds than needed!
This past Monday, we went up to Bucari because we really needed to plant the seedlings, otherwise they’d die. This was also in the middle of a storm, in our little truck that overheats. What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, it turned out to be a fun day for everyone. We pulled the kids out of school and took them with us to the mountains. Nothing like experiential learning, right? The kids had a blast digging up dirt until the rains came. And the wind. It was really cold up there when you’re wet. Amy and I finished planting the seedlings with the help of our carpenter, who couldn’t do any work anyway because of the rain. Hopefully the seedlings will survive the storm, as there is another one coming! Three storms in two weeks.
I couldn’t get any pictures because it was too wet for my camera. I did manage to take a photo with my phone before the rain started. Here’s us laying down the black plastic mulch on the beds. I got the mulch cover from Pastor Edwin at CCF. I am of two minds using it, as we are very conscious of our use of plastic in anything. But, at the same time, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it in terms of promoting microbial growth in soil, plus we don’t really have mulch right now in our farm. This is an experiment, so we’ll see. Anybody got thoughts about the use of plastic mulch, in organic farming? We’d love to hear it.
