Some serious watering.

August 13-17, 2007

Summary: This week was exclusively about the core Planet Drum group, me, Brian and Lindsey. We watered all of the reforestation sites as usual and continued planting seeds and upkeep in the greenhouse.     

Monday we watered and weeded at the greenhouse, and also dug up a new seed bed and mixed soil for it. Then one of the other new seed beds was planted with Cascol seeds. After that a walk to Maria Dolores and watered the trees there.

On Tuesday back to the greenhouse. While there we broke open Guarango seed pods to collect the seeds for planting, and also did an overhaul of the compost, turning the heaps and sifting some that is almost fully decomposed. Before leaving, two more seed beds were dug up. On the way home we watered the Don Pepe site.

Wednesday and Thursday some serious watering was done, covering the La Cruz, Bosque en Medio de las Ruinas and Bosque Encantado sites.     

Friday started by heading to El Toro for some more watering. On the way, we stopped at a local woodshop and picked up some free bags of saw dust which we will use for soil mixtures in the greenhouse. After watering we talked to the brick making crew that works near the site, and they allowed us to haul away some of the broken and poorly fired bricks, also for free. We will use the bricks in the greenhouse to make platforms to raise trees off the dirt floor. 

Some of the trees have grown to over a meter (3 feet) and the roots are growing through holes in the bottom of the three-liter bottles and then into the floor. This makes transplanting more difficult later on; hopefully the bricks will prevent this. After watering at El Toro, we took the bricks and sawdust to the greenhouse, and built the first platform for a group of rather large Ceibo trees. 

Friday afternoon Brian left to continue his travels in Peru. Thanks for all the hard work and long hours you gave us, Brian.