Coconut Shells

At Jiwa Damai we are using a special way to place our coconut shells around the base of our plants. Since we are producing our coconut oil form our own coconut trees , the shells are available and we are using them for several purposes. During the rainy season they can collect some of the water with their inner softer hairy material thus allowing to keep some water away form the plants.

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The second reason is to have them soak up the water we are distributing in the dry season  around the fields. They will hold the water longer for the plants to feed .

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Last but not least when they decompose they will make an excellent nutrition to be added to the soil. On some plants we are just setting them directly around the root of the plants.

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Salju the snowflake

This is a pretty awesome shot of our beautiful Balinese dog Salju. Salju translates to snowflake ;-)

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Balinese Passion Fruit

This is one of our lumbungs, located in the middle of our permaculture garden, surrounded by fields with organic veggies and fruit. A passion fruit plant has grown over the roof of our garden Lumbung and by now it  covers the whole straw roof.

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The plant carries plentiful fruit, but they are not ready to harvest yet. The fruit needs to get more yellow.

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The ripe passion fruit, after cutting it open, contains juicy brown seeds with a sweet-sour taste. Very refreshing!

Galungan Celebration on Bali

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For this years Galungan Celebration our head gardener Ketut built together with two of our volunteers the panjor which is erected at the entrance gate to Jiwa Damai.

A huge Bamboo is cut and then decorate with all details along the stem and the top. A little alter is created to give offerings to the gods. The panjor remains put  for 3 weeks and looks very wonderful.

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Tradition demands, that each house in the village  places one in front of their entrance.

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Jiwa Damais Guardian

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Margret at Jiwa Damai permaculture and retreat center, where she takes care of all aspect of managing, running and expanding the gardens as well as supervising the teamwork .