Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts

My little flower house.

When we first moved into our little rental house there was very little hope for the garden at all.  It had been totally thrashed by the previous tenants and much to the dismay of our very sweet landlord.  we began to work hard to fix up the garden.  I tried to grow all sorts of peppers and tomatoes but nothing took. 


Ruben built me these great beds out of cinder block.  They do a great job.  Well, we had sort of given up n planting anything for food- so we started just collecting plants from friends and from my old work.  Along walks we would find offshoot papayas growing along the back road to the super.  Well, those are now over 10 feet tall and hold over 10 papaya.- the pic at the right was taken MONTHS ago.

I am not sure if these papayas will ever get color but some of them are huge!  But it has been a few months now and still nothing.  But then again, I do not know anything about papayas.  But I have learned that certain birds really love them and while they are beautiful- I wish they would stop eyeing our papayas. 

The rest of the garden boarder bed is filled with elephant ear plants that grow pretty big but block of our fence to the street. I like that.  We also have a few of your palms that cover  the fence. I have also acquired a little collection of Pole de Marco plants.  These are very cool plants that grow low.  They are green on top and purple on the bottom and I love them.  I learned about them when I was a tour guide in the jungles.  They are great for making a tea that settles your stomach and heals stomach pain.  I have used it and it totally works. I give it to the kids too with a bit of honey.  Lena loves it.
We also have the aloe plants that we first bought.  They are huge and have produced several other aloe plants that are in the garden.  Aloe is great for just about everything.  Yes there is the staple skin- face hair stuff.  But also internally.  Aloe juice is really amazing for you and said to have killer health benefits.  I do not drink it much but I have and can imagine that I am just a little bit healthier on the inside for it. jaja.

But my favorite thing in our garden in my little flower house.  This idea bloomed out of my childhood dream as a little girl to have a gazebo covered with flowers in our garden where I could go and play.by myself. I had 3 brothers- 2 of the m older and they were not as interested in playing dolls and store as football and harass the little sister. 

We planted the bougainvillea in the corner of the yard and Ruben made a simple wood frame structure that we hoped would one day hold the plant.  WOW did that happen fast.  In only a few months we were bending a winding.  As Ruben added the "2nd story" to the fence the plant really grabs hold. 

The great thing about bougainvillea is that it has thorns- BIG ones and the longer a branch is left to grow these things turn into small hard tree trunks and the thorns with them.  They are great to use as a fencing on a larger property because no one is going to try to climb these things.  Plus they are beautiful - full of color, attract butterflies--- they are cool pants.  I love that as the offshoots happen and I need to cut them off- a few small branches look great in a vase for a week. 

It did not bloom after its initial flowers for almost a year and a half. We were starting to worry.  But all is well. It took off just like a friend of mine said it would and in the past 2 months has spurted flowers all over the place.  Just the other day the kids took us out there so we could have a picnic in the flower house. 

And I have the best seat of all.  In the morning just after the kids have gone to school-- it is in the shade- the light is perfect and I get to sit and relax in my hammock with my coffee and my computer and just be.  I must admit- the computer does not always make it.

hahah

Posted at 11/09/2010 10:49:00 AM | Labels: | 3 Comments  

The garden is growing- and being eaten by HUGE beasts



Well, the garden is growing very well. The herbs and some of the vegetables that I planted in the front yard I think are getting too much sun. Some of them are doing great, some are just starting to come out and I think a lot got burnt. But that is okay. The pumpkin is doing great. It is huge. And there are at least a few onions, tomatoes and radishes that are coming out.
The herbs in the back are also doing very well. And the strawberries are also growing well. The garden has defiantly been a fun project. I hope that the plants start getting bigger. At least bigger then the beasts that are trying to eat them.

This morning while watering the garden I noticed this HUGE grasshopper. I think it is a grass hopper. I am not really one for insect knowledge. I guess it could be a dragon fly. It was huge and just lying there dead in my garden. Scary stuff. maybe that garlic/habanero pepper spray killed it. :) I hope. But anyway.


The kids and I are going to make our very first home made pasta today. I think it is going to be good. We will see. I found some blue cheese (Gorgonzola no less) at my super in town. Any cheese is very hard to find all over Mexico but is really hard here in Tulum. I will post the findings on my cooking/goddess blog.

And then there is always my HUGE cat. Calvin is doing very well. She is coming up on her She is coming up on her 11th birthday. She spends most of her day lounged in the backyard, spread out all over the pavement trying to keep cool. And then there is Hobbs, our adobted cat. He was rescued by our old neighbor when he saw some other kids trying to bury this 5 day old kitten alive. They said that they were buring it because it is a girl cat. Not that it would have been okay then wither but it is ironic that Hobbs is in fact a boy. And when I got Calvin, also at a very young age (about 4 weeks) I thought that I was taking the boy cat. Funny stuff. So now we have Calvin and Hobbs and they are both doing great. Hobbs is much bigger then her original palm width and Calvin can barely be heald with 2 strong arms. (She is even famous around the neighborhood)

Posted at 2/08/2009 08:56:00 AM | Labels: , , | 6 Comments  

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