The nursery greenhouse painted and prepared for the visit of His Holiness

The imminent arrival of His Holiness and the ADC event at the end of the week brought about a renewed energy and enthusiasm on site this week.

Positive work has continued in the nursery. We have painted the gates and both greenhouses. We have also buried all unnecessary surface irrigation pipework. The store room, shelves and pathways have been cleared and tidied. Signs were made for the compost bays and I also labelled the vegetables and fruit trees.

Compost bays covered and labelled for ADC event

The Blessing and Inauguration of the Dragon Garden went ahead incredibly well. I had organised for His Holiness to plant an Apple tree in the plant nursery with two of the children to mark the event. His Holiness was very very interested in what had been achieved in the Plant Nursery and what the plans were for the future.

Both His Eminence and His Holiness also delivered speeches which were fully supportive of the work which is happening towards the establishment of the Dragon Garden and implementation of the Masterplan. The evening was rounded off with a very well prepared dinner in the dining hall.

Figure 1: Clearing works in the classroom area and backfilling of irrigation trenches

Construction:
Arlene and I finished off the painting of the inside of the walls in the playground area. I have had several conversations with Mohua (the art teacher) about painting dragon murals on these walls. We have agreed that we will do this with the children in September after the ADC.

Figure 2: Red cabbage in the plant nursery

Planting:
Tsetan and Dorje continue to look after the plants and vegetables very well and the whole place looks incredibly good for its first planted season.

Figure 3: More evidence of healthy vegetable production in the plant nursery.

Work in the adventure playground with St Christopher School

This week we have had the benefit of several pupils from St Christopher school in Hertfordshire who helped in the playground for two days. St Christopher School children assisted Arlene, Tsetan and Paddy with the task of backfilling the irrigation trenches in this area. We were also able to start to paint the internal walls with whitewash.

Upper level of treehouse completed

Arlene Decker (landscape volunteer) inspecting an irrigation system manhole

Construction this week has simply involved 'mending' with a small amount of construction in the form of building the manholes for the valves for the irrigation system. I was very pleased about the manholes given the exposed nature of the valves to children and to the sand/soil gradually falling into the trenches and covering the mechanism. We have not lost anymore plants this week. The trees and plants that have 'taken' continue to develop and flourish in the harsh climate and the housemothers are watering which is helping hugely. We are looking for local plants to cultivate on site.

Wild Aquilegia photographed at Chilling

Breaking through the tree pits for introduction of drip line in the classroom courtyards

This week has once again been primarily focussed on irrigation installation. The masons and labourers have worked hard at breaking through steps and tree pits and digging metres and metres of trenching through the many inaccessible areas (to the JCB) by hand. Some of the work has been gruelling during a very hot week! We are now backfilling the larger trenches with the JCB and also still hand trenching where necessary. The hand trenching has been a very slow process. The vegetables are looking very good and are coming to fruition. The plants in the nursery in particular are beginning to really develop and the fruit trees are also dong incredibly well. The end of the week saw the final judging of the garden competition. Infants, Juniors and Seniors were presented with their awards for the best gardens.

Nursery vegetables with irrigation laterals in place

Senior winning planting scheme

Irrigation trenching along the Spine

This week saw the continuation of trenching for the irrigation and the first pipes being laid. We have been discussing looking further at the flora in the hills directly around the school and the possibility of removing some plants and seeing whether they will transplant successfully during these summer months.

The laying of the first mainline pipes for the irrigation system

Roof detail of roundhouse in the adventure playground

This week the handover began of the Resident Landscape Architect role from Simon Drury-Brown to Paddy Clarke, who will be on site until the end of September. The roundhouse structure is complete providing some much needed shade on site and wonderfully cooling airflow through the structure.

This week several irrigation engineers from Jains arrived on site. We walked the site and marked out the route of the mainline for trenching to begin. Trenching started immediately with Lundup on the JCB. We are all incredibly keen to see the laying of irrigation pipes start!

Initial trenching for irrigation in front of Naropa Photang

Adventure Playground 'Roundhouse' going up

We built the frame of the timber roundhouse in the adventure playground, which is looking beautiful. After asking for the housemothers assistance this week they came to help us begin planting flower seedlings on the spine.

Planting on the residential spine

Unwanted guests

On the vegetable front we have suffered at the hands of lizards, mice and caterpillars having had seed and seedlings eaten...but all a learning process. Now that many of Ladakh's trees and flowers are out in bloom I am reminded of how much beauty there is amongst the native species and what a diverse palate is available to the plantsman.

Native species

Fruits of our labour

This week saw the installation of boxes into the latrines in Residence 4, the idea being that they will be filled with the sawdust from the carpentry workshop. I plan to give the children and housemothers a talk on how to use the latrines, putting a scoop of sawdust down the latrine after use, thus the end-product will be of a better quality than the existing product, the reason being, the carbon of the sawdust helps to breakdown the nitrogen-rich faeces in a carbon-nitrogen balance.

Cuttings pit