The usual intense focus on rainfall was no longer necessary after the 11th by which time we had 7 metres of water in the talaab.

 A miracle indeed and so early on in the piece. Weeds stood at nearly 2 metres in some places around the ashram by the end of the month and everywhere is of course stunningly green and fresh. Many of our vegetables started to flower this month and to date we have only needed to water our monsoon veggie patch once this month. On the last 2 days of the month I collected sweet juicy cucumbers from our veggie patch.

Then came fierce heat and blue skies from the 11th until the end of the month as though the monsoon has done its work and now gone elsewhere. By the 18th we needed to start irrigation again and the ground had started to toughen again and weeds were harder to pull out. It is cheering to see on the forecasts that more rain is due between the 30th August and the September 12th but of course nothing is guaranteed. However our water supply is for another year and the main tube well is up and running again.

So this month saw a lot of weeding and snake proofing areas in the big garden, preparing the kheti for the new rose garden, removing thorny bushes here and there and working on the tree nursery and cutting grasses daily for the horses.

It was so hot this month that we were actually able to dry some tulsi leaves in the shade. Usually the humid conditions of the monsoon do not allow this.

Our broadcast vegetable seeds were very dry by the end of the month but are hanging in there and waiting to be soaked again and we started to transplant some Napier grass to the Shiv Bagh but then the dryness and heat prevented the completion of all transplanting projects. We irrigated the cowpeas at the end of the month and on the 31st extended our sprinkler line to the snap melon area behind the wood workshop – prior to this we used the one inch pipe to irrigate it.

By the end of the month our water level in the talab had dropped nearly half a metre and so from this we may surmise that there is some leakage. Yes – nothing is guaranteed and we need rain in September for our jowar plantations and everything else. September and October have high temperatures – around 36 degrees – so please pray for our fields!

Regards from Jadan Ashram
Puspa Devi
31st August 2014