Garden

On last two Saturdays, our twenty students were drenched in sweat to make a vegetable garden and compost pit beside the residence of Drubgyud Tenzin Rinpoche. Rinpoche was very kind to offer his garden to the class as a learning space for the students. The continued monsoon rain in Dewathang has loosened the soil and it was quite easy for us to dig the earth. So far we have dug 20 small beds and we are getting set to sow seeds in a few weeks of time.

It’s been quite some time, waiting for a bright and dry day to begin work in the new vegetable garden. We will be experimenting in the garden with growing different seeds that are locally grown in Dewathang and also few other seeds from other place.

It was quite surprising for us to come up with long list of vegetables that can be grown in Dewathang: potato, eggplant, coriander, spinach, bean, pumpkin, squash, spring onion, cabbage, cauliflower, ginger, cucumber, tomato, radish, carrot, turnip, lettuce, etc. The list goes on. There are abundant vegetables we can grow in our garden.  

We also discussed about the right time to sow seeds in Dewathang. Students have pointed out that the summer season is usually not a good time for sowing seeds because of heavy rain fall. A few of them said we can sow seeds after blessed rainy day (which falls sometime in late September). Tshering Samdrup, a student from our class has called his parents, to ask about sowing seasons and few others have enquired to villagers. I'm happy to see how they take their responsibilities in learning.

It was quite a challenging for all of us, especially to make a bed on steep slope and leveling it, however with joined effort and cooperation we could managed to make the beds. The students have used unwanted logs and planks to make a supporting wall for the beds and to make it hold in a position they have used strong pegs.

Now, jointly we have agreed to sow seeds after the blessed rainy day. The beds are yet to finalize this weekend.