Around the garden

Lorena brought over and planted this Arroyan her neighbor didn't want. By her first description, I thought it would be bigger. I guess we'll just have to wait longer.It has fruit and flowers but don't know if they are sweet. Of course like most things in Mexico it has medicinal uses.

The foto of fruit and flowers I found on the Internet and I'm really anxious to see if that beautiful.

The piña is my second, away from the fruit we eat. This one looks healthier than my previous one so keeping lots of water and fertilizer on it

The garden again and a wasp nest

Had to get a foto of the palm berries before the branch falls off. I've never seen quite so many. Some will sprout new palms where they fall. Before the berries form they are a mass of flowers that attract bees. While there I cut one frond that was hanging in the walkway and behind it was a wasp nest. I just took a foto and will post it below when I get it off the camera. The nest is too high to reach and I don't have wasp spray so I guess they will stay for awhile. 

The papayas are not quite ripe but Lorena says we should cut it and bring it inside before the birds get it. Can't remember what happen on the last batch. The tree is up against the wall and held with a wire because it almost fell over a while back.

Here's the wasp nest. Hugo puts a plastic bag over them and burns them but I think I'll look for wasp spray before I try anything

What's up in the garden

The garden has become pretty prolific this year. It's just about the end of the season for the Carambola (star fruit) but have had lots and the neighbors got their share. 

The papaya is really taking it's time, both trees. The one in the foto is tied to the wall due to being top heavy and heavy rain.

Two banana plants and they both have about as many bananas as in the foto. They too are taking their time. They grow in such a large clump I can't remember if they are the small super sweet ones or the  regular ones

The lime trees are also very slow and produced very little this summer. The first year I couldn't eat them all soo neighbors got some. Fingers crossed this year because one tree is full of flowers.

The Hoja Santa is huge and new plants are popping up around it. The roots send out runners. Asked my Canadian neighbor if she wanted one and she said "No Way" ..... they will take over your garden. Still haven't tried cooking with the leaves. You can wrap just about anything in them and then grill or bake them. Supposed to have an almost root beer flavor. Wiki gives these as possible flavors - eucalyptus, licorice, sassafras, anise, nutmeg, mint, tarragon and black pepper.

An all volunteer garden

Beautiful chard

Fruit trees

I planted all kinds of things in that bed where the chard is last summer and nothing turned into food except the cherry tomatoes. After cleaning up the bed and wondering what to do next I noticed a small but unmistakable chard leaf had popped up. I've been babying it and eating it ever since. All I can think of is chard  and maybe many leafy vegetables do better in cooler temperatures.

The fruit trees all came up from the compost but except for the papaya they were moved for more space. The citrus on the left  (we're unsure which) is almost a year old. The 3 papayas are just a few months old. The day before yesterday Lorena noticed a new plant and said it was a Guayaba so we moved that over to the lower right. I would have just pulled it up but Hugo confirmed it's Guayaba. A couple of years ago some kids from the Prepa came around with plants as an assignment. I put a Carambola in my yard but had them plant a Guayaba across the street in front of a neighbors but it's not being watered or cared for. Now I have one !!  Love the flavor in liquados but the seeds can break a tooth.

Mystery garden

So I guess I need to start with the mystery. I've planted so many things on this end of the planter that haven't come up at all I just about gave up. Leaving it fallow wasn't an option so I grabbed some more seeds, planted them .... and now I forget what they are. It's easier to take care of plants if you know what they are but I know they are not leafy because I've had no luck with leafy. Probably not very large or I wouldn't have planted so many. Guess it will remain a mystery until they get bigger.

The Carambolas are amazing. Neighbors went away with 3 large bags and sold them right away. I like them but way too many for me ...... and another crop is ready for picking.

The Banana plants have a second crop and I think these are the small super sweet ones. There is a flower in there somewhere because I saw a Humming Bird checking it out the other day. This is actually the third crop but because the second was on the lot next door a neighbor beat me to the harvest.

The Palm at the bottom was growing about 3 inches from a neighbors house and they were worried about their foundation. It was 2 meters high then and I bought it for 200 pesos. Now it's 4 meters high and produces more and more of these seeds and flowers that attract tons of bees/wasps. For some reason my not very expensive camera goes out of focus on closeups so I tried my IPhone that I recently found would zoom. It did pretty well though not easy to use .... but that is a bee/wasp at the top. Those little green coco's eventually turn red and drop to the ground.

Mystery veggies

Carambolas - Star Fruit

Banana's - Platanos

Palm flowers

Back to the garden

Last year Linda gave me about 3 each of three different kinds of bananas, all very small so we didn't know which was which.  I planted a couple in the back corner behind the limones. They turned out to be the big ones and soon became trees shading the limes and everything else. Just had to cut them down but saved their babies for other locations, the neighbors and the lot next door. 

The small one in the second foto already had a crop of the sweet small ones but now the plant just outside my lot has got a bunch. You have to wait until a few have a touch of yellow before you can cut them so we'll see if I or the neighbors get to them first.

Star Fruit has finished it's season, Moringa has flowers but no fruit yet, Peas (Chicharo) are up but very slow, Cherry Tomatoes going crazy as well as Beefsteak, all leafy vegetables are just leaves and not very big, Radishes are just leaves with no root

Not quite ready but not secure from hungry kids

The two remaining on my lot - Moringa on left

First crop a month ago

Indigenous girl with kinda traditional dress and traditional Coke

Most of the kids wear shorts and a Tea or school clothes so this was different

Rearranging the garden

Both lots on either side of me are vacant. One is for-sale for too much and the other I met the owner once but don't know who he is. I say that because growing stuff here is so much fun and I just don't have the room with 2 lots. Bananas, limes, star fruit (carambola), Chico Sapote, papayas, sugar cane, various vegetables, flowering shrubs and decorative palms.

The papaya was tired with only small fruit so I replaced it with the small palm that has been hidden under the huge bananas in the back corner.  In front of the palm is the new Moringa which I've been interested in for awhile.  It's grown a few inches there but I'm surprised how tender the "trunk" is.   It will out distance everything around it in a few months but still too young to flower this year I think.   I cut the large sugar cane and shared with neighbors so only smaller ones left.

The second foto was an attempt to show the Star Fruit flowers but they are 3 meters high so couldn't get close.   Makes me wonder how I'll reach the fruit in a few months. The tree is not strong enough to support a ladder.   Will have to consider a pruning plan to keep every thing in reach.  I had one fruit last year and looks like I'll have many more this.

Carambola in the center and higher than the 3 meter wall.   Last Neem in a bucket below it.  Buckets on the left are various veggies.  In the low foreground is my Avocado that has done nothing for 2 years.  It looked sick a few months ago and leaves were weird and falling off.   I sprayed it and all the leaves fell off.   Within a week it had all new leaves and the whole tree was growing like crazy.   Would love to someday have my own Avocados. 

Finally the Laurel tree which used to be totally root bound and less than a meter high when I bought it from a Gringa that was leaving Melaque.  I actually split the pot and have two Laurel plants/trees almost identical. 

A work in progress

Linda, my neighbor from Canada has painted a lot of plant designs on her garden walls and has tempted me to do something on my palapa wall. Her's are all palms or a few broad leaf tropical plants. I need to get a foto to pass along the idea. She was able to use shadows .... but I have no plants under my palapa for shadow or outline. She and I ended up holding a palm frond up against the wall and outlining with a pencil.

So Linda did the one on the right and me on the left yesterday.   I played with sky, bamboo and flowers today.   Totally new for me and with more white paint I can cover over anything..    The original arch looked like I should create a Virgin de Guadalupe shrine below it but I don't know her.   Really think I need another color or two beyond green and blue.   With more white ... it can be painted again.   Just like Graffiti 

The added work in progress was Nahima (our 3 year old neighbor) wanted to sit on our toilet and insisted for 20+ minutes.   She eventually headed home with her sister under protest and we assumed just another 3 year old stage.  She will be just as crazy/independent tomorrow .............

Yesterday palms only

Fillers, sky, bamboo and flowers

Nahima not on the "tazo de bano"

The garden is producing

I'll start with the papaya since, except for the limones, is the most prolific. It's another volunteer like many things in the garden. The first foto is now and the other two are from a few weeks ago. The one delicious one had a bad spot that Hugo said was caused by a bug of unknown type. I cut out that section and all else inside was well. Seeds went to the compost pile for maybe another volunteer.

My Carambola has it's first fruit if a little odd shaped and more flowers for fruit to come. The Chico Zapote has a bunch of flowers and I'm still uncertain what this fruit will turn out to be. At least the Zapote is only head high while the Carambola is 3 meters. I topped both of them awhile back because they wanted to be tall and skinny. The Albahaca or Basil that was in a planter next to the house left tons of seeds behind but they are coming up in the gravel. I let them grow a bit to make sure they were not just weeds. Little tiny plants will be very hard to transplant but I have a large bag of seeds for when I find a better place.

Papaya today

The delicious one

Ready to eat

Albahaca or Basil that outgrew itself

No work but gardening

I've been learning what works, what things are, what the bugs like to ruin, what stops the bugs and what plants do during different seasons.

As you can barely see I have a new pineapple. The plant is about a year old, I bought one, cut the top off and planted it. Wasn't sure it would do well in partial shade but it looks healthy.

Tomatoes are everywhere. My cherry tomato is huge, tired around the edges, turning brown but still cranking out lots of tomatoes every day. It probably will be finished in about a week. The Mexican or Italian tomatoes are popping up all over my compost pile. The largest has 5 big green ones.

The neem tree had a bunch of babies from it's dropped seeds and just waiting until they get big enough to transplant. Neighbor and I are thinking on one side of the jardin/playfield but there's no water there right now. If not, I'll look further.

The corn is only an experiment. I had no luck with some sweet corn seeds I brought down from Seattle .. so a neighbor gave me a couple ears of dry Mexican corn and that's what you see below. The only problem has been either my cat or the neighbors chickens like to get into them.

New pineapple

Volunteer tomatoes

Tomatoes in the compost pile

The largest new Neem

Corn experiment

Churros on the Plaza

My new job is bus driver for Uriel who just entered his first year of Secondary School.   We live in the country about a mile from the school and 'Uri' is disabled and can't walk that far on a very rough road.   School starts at 1pm and gets out at 7 so last night we did a little shopping and picked up a bag of churros from a stand on the plaza.

Churros are basically extruded donut dough, deep fried and then rolled in sugar and cinnamon (canela) and best eaten hot. I usually don't eat sweets but these hit the spot last night.

I'm getting re-acclimated to the warm weather after the Seattle trip and getting some painting done and more impermeabilizante on the roof. The garden has gone crazy with all the rain ... and the rain washes away my 'ant powder' I use to keep the leaf cutter ants at bay.   The lime trees are full of fruit, a few bats are back even tho I leave a light on under the palapa and there are new cantalopes growing on the compost pile.   Good to be back.

Garden shots on a rainy day

The first good rain we've had in almost a month, about 3/4 of an inch this morning. The driest July neighbors remember. I'm almost over this cold I got from the heat and humidity. Lots of coughing and wheezing in the neighborhood. At least we'll have one cool day.

Lorena is here showing me how she breads and pan fries fish fillets. Just waiting for them to defrost and we'll have lunch. My big 28" TV bit the dust a few days ago so I bought a 22" Samsung LCD model. Not as large but should be more economical compared to the big tube.

Bananas

Oleander

Garden with grass still struggling

The Barrio - by Lee

A person named Lee posted this well written piece on TomZap and it so reminded me of my 'Barrio' that I asked him if I could re-post on this Blog. Lee hasn't posted much in the past but did post two more of equal quality until one of the TomZap know-it-alls chastised him for glorifying the age old tradition that the locals partake in of harvesting the local fruit that is readily available and not always on public property. Sadly it's been over month since we've heard from Lee .....

The Barrio

I live in the Barrio where there is more dust than beans and tortillas combined, and where the lingering smell of smoke from evening fires with its distinct aroma of burnt almond leaves and rubbish permeates the still air. I am surrounded by music and neighbours; sun dried laundry hanging precariously from barbed wired fences.

The Barrio wakes with the rattle of vehicles on dirt roads, barking dogs and the repetitive announcements of gas and water trucks delivering their goods. In the empty lot next to me, two unbroken horses add voices to the cacophony of roosters and radios and garbled messages from speakers secured to the rooftops of cars. This is the song of the neighbourhood - distinct notes in a chorus.

Yesterday, a trio of errant cows mingled outside my door; the day before a horse trailing its twenty foot tether stood awaiting a bucket of water, its lips moving in anticipation. The doors to my house are open. I have an unobstructed view of my neighbourhood, apart from the metal bars on the slider that prevent my own dogs from becoming roaming miscreants. My garden teems with bougainvillea and hibiscus, roses and climbing vines bursting with bright yellow flowers. The palms tower over the frangipani, their fanned fronds brushing the delicate blooms releasing the most intoxicating fragrance. The jasmine climbs the wall to the staircase and I stoop daily to water the single pineapple growing close to the earth. Soon I will savour the sweetness of its flesh - my reward for nurturing. The 'Nancy Tree' is in bloom - deep orange blossoms, and soon the yellow balls of fruit will laden the branches. 'The Nancy' and I have an awkward relationship. I loathe its incessant falling leaves which scatter about my courtyard; I adore its shade and sweet fruit and the grandeur of its stature.

It is nearly time for the daily ritual of sweeping the road with a straw broom - an action which at first seems absurd and futile, but in fact is extremely effective. This to be followed by the watering of the street - the most primitive form of dust control, and a delightful way to socialize.

Afterward, I will warm corn tortillas on the open flame of my gas range and top them with dollops of re-fried beans and spicy salsa. My daily bread so to speak. If the back tire of my bicycle continues to hold air, I will ride to el centro for an ice cold Pacifico and a caballito of my favorite tequila. A table in the shade, the breeze of the lagoon through in my hair.

This is where I live. This is where I'm alive.

Coconut husk processing

My Canadian neighbors found a coconut shell processing plant on the way to Cihuatlan so I gave them a try the other day. What they do is spin the dry husks in a large wire drum and separate the stringy part from what becomes powder. You can see the baled stringy part below but what it's used for I don't know. The powder they bundle and sell locally for garden mulch. For some reason they didn't want me taking pictures so this is the only one I have. Very dirty - dusty work for the guys feeding the cocos into the machine.

A very heavy bale of mulch was $150 pesos

Just learned that the fiber is called Coir

Coco coir and coco peat is one of the promising coco-based products with a huge market potential due to its wide array of uses and its eco-friendly qualities. PKC Fibre Industry

And Wikipedia for it's many uses

Dog fences for my garden

Never expected this to be an issue but suddenly in the last month with the heat my dog likes to excavate anywhere moist and lay in her hole. First she started with the new grass ripping it up to reach dirt. That required a cyclone fence to keep her out of half the yard.

Next was the elevated flower bed in her half of the yard. Tried chicken wire, chicken wire with rope and boards .... and finally new posts with barbed wire, chicken wire and a few strategically placed blocks.

It's been two days now and the blocks will come out if this is a proven remedy. Animals are a responsibility and often a pain

Cyclone protecting the lawn

Barbed and chicken wire for garden

New walls around the roof and Jimmy's place

Got walls almost all around the roof area now. The last section needs castillos (posts) to support a future screened room plalapa and I picked up the materials for that last night. Even included two galvanized posts for a future clothes line.

We're hoping the guys that put up the wood supports for the roof will take them down today so we can start work inside the house next week. Lots of cleanup and wiring yet to do before any stucco work can be done.

The two fotos below are of Jimmy and Sandy's place behind me. The house represents about 6 weeks work. Still another course of bricks before he does the roof. Their garden is looking good and is about two years along. I still don't have room for much in the way of plants.

Yesterday Sandy was taking down clothes from the line when she was stung by a scorpion hiding in a clothes pin. They are here without a car so I drove them both to Centro de Salud to get the normal anti-venom injection and pain pill. Doctor said that getting her there within 20 minutes saved her from a major reaction. All is well

Roof walls and clothes line

Six weeks into Jimmy's house

Jimmy and Sandy's garden - they live in the garage on right