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Create a healing garden for Pallium India.

  • Three Months On.....

      12 May 2019
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    Time flies! Annie and I have returned to Nelson, New Zealand after completing our time as volunteers from Pallium India, and doing some further travels through Cambodia and Vietnam. What an experience it all has been! While we were traveling Pallium India wrote two lovely articles on the garden and we have included one of these as a series of pictures in the gallery.

    The healing garden is now established and producing fruit and vegetables for its patients and staff. Amazingly the bananas have grown from tubers in the ground to over 1.8 meters tall!!!

    I have posted many more photos of the garden as it is now in the gallery and for those who are interested, if you email me at ianandanniewallace@gmail.com, I can send you short videos too.

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  • Post Garden

      7 February 2019
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    In the week following the gardens opening we received an email from my old Tuesday afternoon table tennis club in Kawana, Queensland, Australia . These kind people had gathered together and collected $160 for the garden and were keen to help get indoor plants into every room in Pallium. Many thanks for your support- what great things table tennis can do!

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  • Final Friday

      7 February 2019
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    Our last day in the healing garden had arrived. It started with surprises- overnight some ten indoor plants had arrived for the reception, and about 20 small fish with lovely red tails had been placed in the pond to eat any mosquitoe larvae. Awesome. Before the opening we painted the new seat, cleaned the whole yard and put a new table cloth on the table. Overnight we had cut up lots of fruit and put them on skewers- so we had simple food for everyone. At the opening Annie said a karakia, one of Pallium’s staff, Arithi, sung s lovely sing then it was just time to eat some food, drink some chai tea and enjoy!

    A Maori proverb in Annie’s speech says it all- He aha mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

    What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, the people, the people.

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  • A Mad Thursday

      6 February 2019
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    Thursday was our last day to get things done before a planned garden blessing and opening at around 11 pm on Friday. The bougainvillea arrived and were potted and placed in position. Every garden should have a feature- ours was a fishpond! It arrived and was duely dug in, filled, and planted with flowering lilies! More plants arrived that had to be divided and potted by a garden team now numbering nearly ten. Our first indoor plants also arrived and got pride of place in reception. And another seat was made- for lounging by the new pond! A busy day indeed, but already got its opening.

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    • 07/02/2019 by Alexandra

      That’s absolutely amazing, fantastic and........can’t think of more words!!! You’ve all done a great job, but what a Marathon, in the time you had! I’m full of admiration. Just hope the legacy will live on for a long, long time.

  • Front Yard- Wednesday

      31 January 2019

    We had a good day today, in preparation for an even bigger day planned for tomorrow. We repotted many plants into larger pots, painted six large pots terracotta for the red and pink Bougainvillea’s due tomorrow, dug some more soil down from the cliff, and made and hung netting so the Bougainvillea’s can grow up and over the white boundary wall. It doesn’t sound much when you write it down, but that took all day! I did also sit with Ashla, one of the persons with paraplegia, in the garden and just talked- she is lovely to spend time with and has an amazing story.

    Sorry, no pic’s today!

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  • Front yard- Tuesday

      30 January 2019
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    Today we did a few jobs in the garden then I got together with a local landscaper and we planned what the entrance and front yard plantings should look like. Then with respective job lists we left. I headed to the local nursery and bought $200 worth of pots and plants to compliment donated roses and exiting red palms! So a shopping day for me thanks to all your support!!

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  • Front Yard Monday

      29 January 2019
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    Today we took the chance to move out of the rear garden area and cleanup Pallium’s entrance and front yard. Weeded the whole site and removed lots of rubbish so felt really pleased. Hope to liven up the white boundary wall by planting red and white Bougainville alternately along the wall in the next couple of days if funding allows!!!

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  • More painting, pots, seating and a new garden.

      25 January 2019
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    Despite intense heat we managed to put a second coat of terracotta paint on pots, created a large raised veggie bed, built some additional seating from ex- box boards and contrete blocks, and fill some 40 more large grow-bags with soil and cow dung! Seeds have also been sown, the compost bins painted and hanging planters hung in the shade house. A fine day, made nicer seeing both current resident wheelchair users coming out and making good use of the space!

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  • Painting & bananas

      24 January 2019
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    Wednesday morning seemed to be about painting . All our concrete pots were painted terracotta by Sham, a recently paralysed arbourculturalist who is currently in the half-way home, and his wife. Great effort!!

    An old gate which we will use to screen a water tank was also painted bright blue!

    The second part of the day involved digging holes and planting banana plants to beautify and soften the existing white washed plaster boundary walls! Not only will they provide a lovely screen and shade, but fruit too!

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  • Worms go wild

      24 January 2019
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    Today we reorganised our compost bins putting cow dung at the bottom, then all our weed material next and finally..........released about 100 of these into the top!!!!!

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  • A big day!

      23 January 2019
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    Had a really rewarding and busy Tuesday. We managed to get the shade house up which was awesome. This provides much needed shade over our homemade potting table, and an area of our garden we will use for newly transplanted and potted seedings.

    With a little help from the team we also managed to weed along the front boundary fence of Pallium, dig a drainage ditch around the wash tap and washing block and create a sump hole, dig 12 deep holes for future banana plants and paint the new gate lattice screen around the water tank. Yes- Some of us have blisters!

    Big rewards- our first patient families sitting out under the shade area, and a lovely donation of two potted roses and two banana plants!

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    • 24/01/2019 by Alexandra

      Progress is astounding...keep it up, but don’t burst in the process! Working in 32 degree heat - we’re exhausted after a couple of hours on our 25 degrees....

  • First trees arrive

      19 January 2019
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    Today is Saturday- yes it’s quite normal to work a six day week and Pallium does. Very excited as our first plants were delivered today- 6 large red- stemmed palms to feature at the front of the building, and cornerstone plants for the veggie garden including large potted lemons, limes. See the gallery for more photos.

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  • Potting table made

      19 January 2019
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    You honesty can’t hope to make a veggie garden in bags without a potting table of some kind. Ours is made from recycled concrete boxing boards found on site, as were the compost bins!

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    • 19/01/2019 by Alexandra

      Great progress so far! Note the potting table is multifunctional and that publication - surely a gardening guide of some sort? Well done all! Exciting to see Eden emerging!

  • Levelling and raking

      19 January 2019
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    The veggie garden site is full of stone and building debris, AND uneven to boot! Here’s Shriya, the teams keenest gardener and a masters student doing her intern with Pallium India, in action! The site is starting to look good!

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  • New washing lines

      19 January 2019
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    The proposed veggie garden is crisscrossed withstanding washing lines. It’s quite a sight! So as a treat to the amazing ladies that hand wash every, outside with just a cold tap and over a concrete block, we provided new lines just back from our garden space. Sadly we ran out of line that day, but we were happy with progress!

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  • Soil sourced

      19 January 2019
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    Our site is bone dry and hard as. The first foot of soil profile is full of natural rock and building debris as the site has been excavated into a hillside. We have brought in some soil at cost but thought it would be great if we could find something on site if possible. In one corner we found the original hillslope, and we have climbed up, cleared the bank and begun excavation! Lovely rich stone free loamy A horizon! Should be great and save us some money.

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  • New compost bins

      19 January 2019
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    Wednesday saw the team building a good old compost heap for all the weeds we had cleared from the site and for future plant material from the soon to be vegetable gardens! Rama, our volunteer, still our hero!

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  • The work begins

      16 January 2019
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    Monday's highlight was the arrival of our first donations. This meant we could go ahead and buy basic tools and a wheelbarrow. All up we spend $105 NZ!

    Tuesday we began clearing/weeding/removing rubbish from the site in earnest. After some 7 hours in up to 32 degree heat and full on humidity..... well, we were really tired but had made a huge mark!

    Player of the day was awarded to a family member of patient who watched me work for an hour then decided he had to help and did 6 hours work and really set the pace! What a man!!!

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  • First fundraising meeting

      13 January 2019
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    We quickly realised that Pallium India needed some financial help to get this project up and running. Pallium's financial commitments are huge...so funds for a garden simply have not been a priority! Hence the idea to create a Givealittle page to generate some separate funds that can buy tools, plants and pots.

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  • The first site planning meeting

      13 January 2019
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    Friday was a BIG day . Ian met Shriya, a counsellor and Pallium India intern who was equally enthusiastic about gardening and creating gardens for Pallium India.

    He also met Krieshnaraj, a Trustee of Pallium India and the project's Mr Logistics!

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