Minutes of the 7th Meeting

Instead of a meeting I had invited the group members to our construction site in Selat Gintungan and Burgel came up with the glorious idea to go trekking. So I asked my neighbour Sri who runs the restaurant Biergarten and offers trekking tours to organize the tour and cook lunch for us.
We, that is Burgel, Renate and her two visiting friends Beate and Marianne, Nicole and Jochen, Johann and me, met around 8.30am at restaurant Biergarten where our guides Pak Suwi and his son Ketut and our gardener Kadek were waiting for us. They carried the water and the snacks, so that we could concentrate on the jungle trek which led along a steep hill flank over a river to a valley which is enclosed with high rock walls over which the water falls spectacularely during the rainy season. Many families in the region take their water supply from here and the water pipes accompanied our way. As it is dry season now the water was only dripping over the rocks. The air was cool and refreshing at the foot of the rock wall where we took our break and ate the sandwiches and fruits. Sorry for the missing chocolate!
Renate had already turned back because she had her shoulder operated recently and was afraid to fall on the sometimes narrow and slippery path. On the way back Pak Suwi discovered a huge bee's nest high up in a tree. So he left us to tend to the honey. Our gardener Kadek who made the trek the first time guided us safely back to the Biergarten while Ketut tried hard to prevent Nicole from falling.
At around 1pm also Silvia and Brigitta from KEV had arrived and we all enjoyed Sri's delicacies. During lunch a lot of information and stories were shared. I got a little confused with so much talking around me and missed Beate's gentle, but determined guidance through the meetings. So if you miss a subject, please add it in the comments section or send me an email and I will add it here.

• Brigitta planted the first tree in her garden at KEV: a mahony or tulip tree.
• Nicole told us about Meridian Energy Therapy, a method which helps to get rid of unwanted habits, fears and phobias. In english it is also known as Emotional Freedom Technique. She offered to introduce the method to everybody interested at her soon opening Cili Emas Beach Resort.
• Jochen told us about LED lamps which use even less energy than the ecology bulbs and are available at the following store in Denpasar:

MULTI DAYA ELECTRIC
Jl. Teuku Umar No. 62 (70)
Denpasar
Tel: 0361 225020
Fax: 0361 236661
Email: multidayabali@yahoo.com

• For everything around wood (floors, sliding doors etc.), stone floors and basins Jochen recommends the following store:

LARAS Bali
By Pass Ngurah Rai 465,
Sanur
Tel: 0361 726505
Fax: 0361 722167
Email: laras@indo.net.id

• For ecological building material Silvia recommended again The Little Tree. See Link List. Although the shop is not yet open, you can buy materials by this contact adress:

Little Tree 0361 8585053, Pak Yudhi, or product information via email with Ibu Ketut: product1@littletreebali.com.

After lunch and coffee we started for a site tour on our property. Thank you for all your comments, questions and suggestions! If you are interested in details about the construction please have a look at my blog or email me your questions.

Next meeting will be an excursion to KEV on Sunday, September 13, 2009 . Details will follow when arranged.

Discovering Neem

I want to share with you the very informative website of Birgit about many uses of the Neem tree. She put all the information together in an easy understandable and usable way. Just inspired me to start spraying the cocoa plants in the garden with a 1% Neem Oil solution today. I add the website to the link section that it is always accessible.

Tomato Blight

Just before the tomato, I got from Gede, started to become red and ripe the leafs of the plant turned brown and dry and the skin of the fruits developed growing brown dots and finally fell down rotten. The same happened to the chillies that stood next to the tomato, except that the leaves stayed green. Now there is only the eggplant left in the bed and the leaves don't look very healthy. But the fruits still grow and look ok, so I decided to leave the plant and watch it. As I have once read about tomato blight in a gardening book I started to research about it in the Internet and learned that:
- early tomato blight is caused by the fungus Alternaria solani which is hosted by plants of the solanaceae family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants)
- the fungus needs water to multiply
- the fungus will survive if it has a host

So planting tomatoes together with chillies and eggplant and showering the plants from top was creating the best conditions for the fungi to thrive. I did not find a better solution than to throw the plants out, let them dry and burn them and then not plant any plant of the solanaceae familiy for 3 to 4 years at the same place.
I asked my neighbours how their chillies are doing and found out that quite some have the same problem.
I wonder what your experiences are and what advice you can give.