Getting Plants and Planting Plants is Good Therapy!

Some say a good therapy session is the best thing after something earth shaking can help so Sunday we started our therapy session by a short trip. We took a trip to one of the viveros near Alajuela and bought some herbs for the holes in the cement blocks. We also bought 4 trees, two pomegranates and two bougainvilleas. Herbs, estragon, tilo, ruba, albahaca, lavanda, tomillo and sliva, I haven’t learned the English names for them yet. Something I started working on is taking the list of plants for the Ark herb farm and putting it in M$ Excel. In one column set it starts with the English name, the second column set starts with the Spanish names. Both column sets are in alphabetical order. I will make it available to anyone after it is done (may be a few months till I finish).

Algunos dicen que una sesión de terapia buena es la mejor cosa después algo temblores de tierra pueden ayudar para el domingo empezamos nuestra sesión de terapia por un corto viaje. Tomamos un viaje a uno de los viveros cerca de Alajuela y compró algunas hierbas para los agujeros de los bloques de cemento. También compramos 4 árboles, dos granadas y dos Buganvillas. Hierbas, estragón, tilo ruba, albahaca, lavanda, tomillo y sliva, que no he aprendido todavía los nombres en inglés para ellos. Algo en que comenzó a trabajar es tomando la lista de plantas para la granja de hierba de arca y ponerlo en M$ Excel. En conjunto una columna comienza con el nombre en inglés, el segundo conjunto de columna empieza con los nombres españoles. Ambos conjuntos de columna están en orden alfabético. Pondrá a disposición a nadie después de hacerlo (puede ser unos meses hasta que termine).

The herbs were planted in no order, it is all to see how this way of planting them works.

Las hierbas fueron plantadas sin orden, es todo para ver cómo funciona esta forma de plantarlas.

As they grow they will be clipped for starts and expanded unless we find more kinds to plant (hint, hint LOL).

A medida que crecen serán recortadas para arranques y ampliados a menos que encontremos más tipos de plantas (sugerencia, sugerencia jeje).

Caroline thought she would try some lettuce and carrots where the zucchini was, even some carrots in the block holes.

Caroline pensó que ella trataría de algunas lechugas y zanahorias donde era el calabacín, incluso algunas zanahorias en los orificios de los bloques.

Hauled in another load of black dirt and have mixed in sawdust and sugar cane abono/compost, all set for more plants.

Transportados en otra carga de polvo negro y se han mezclado en caña de azúcar y aserrín abono/compost, todo listo para las plantas más.

The old pamagranate may still be alive so it is was replanted, the main tap root had gotten damaged when it was first replanted. I bought the new ones as they have been raised in Costa Rica and should be acclimatized.

El pamagranate viejo aún puede fue replantado vivo por lo que es, la raíz principal había llegado dañada cuando lo primero fue replantado. Compré los nuevos ya que se han planteado en Costa Rica y deben ser aclimatados.

Red and pink bougainvillea’s.  

Rojo y Rosa bougainvillea.

From my neighbor farmer, Juan Nango, I bought this hen and her 4 chicks, slowly building the flock.

Desde mi granjero vecino, Juan Nango, compré esta gallina y sus 4 pollitos, construyendo lentamente el rebaño.

This poor guinea hen is sitting on her eggs and the eggs of the other hen, the other hen does sit with her once in a while which if the extra eggs don’t hatch that will be OK as what are we going to do with 10 or 20 more guineas. They will all be up for adoption when they can care for themselves.

Esta pobre gallina de guinea está sentado sobre sus huevos y los huevos de la otra gallina, la gallina otra sentarse con ella de vez en cuando que si no incuban los huevos extras que será OK como lo vamos a hacer con 10 o 20 guineas más. Todos estarán en adopción cuando puede cuidar de sí mismos.

One of the things I haven’t mentioned is with all the herbs and or jasmine I’m hoping to fill the area with some great smells, all suggestions and location of more herbs and plants are very welcome. We’re hoping that many of these plants survive in the new way we’ve planted them which could help others deal with similar situations and plants. Oh, one type of plant I’m looking for is something like rock moss to put in the holes for the pomegranate trees in hopes that it will shade the blocks and the trees roots.

Una de las cosas que no he mencionado es con todas las hierbas y o estoy esperando para rellenar el área con algún gran olor de jazmín, son muy bienvenidas todas las sugerencias y ubicación de plantas y hierbas más. Esperamos que muchas de estas plantas sobrevivieron en la nueva forma que podría ayudar a los demás nos hemos plantado les tratan situaciones similares y las plantas. Oh, un tipo de planta que estoy buscando es algo como rock moss para poner en los agujeros de los árboles de Granada con la esperanza de que serán sombra los bloques y las raíces de árboles.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get more work done in the garden area. I’ll see if the sun shines.

Esperemos que mañana voy a más trabajo realizado en el área del jardín. Voy a ver si el sol brilla.

Art

Tickle it with a hoe

and it will laugh into a garden....

Major 7.6 quake delays posting!

Most folks already know that Costa Rica has had a major earth quake. For those that didn't know it was Wednesday morning at 8:42AM. There have been over 700 aftershocks. There was major ground movement, the ground near the epicenter rose over a meter. We were sitting outside in back talking about how well things were doing in the raised beds when it started. It kept building and building, I got up a staggered to the enclosure for the garden and hung onto the end post and the door to keep from falling. Caroline came up behind and hung onto me. The shaker lasted over a minute and a half here, it gave me time to look around and see what was happening, the ground was moving like waves of water, them being at least a foot high. Our home was swaying back and forth and so were the new trees, I thought they were going to fall over. Miss Kitty and the kittens were trying to figure out where to go but they were getting tossed around. It was interesting to be able to see what was going on, do I want to see that again, noooooooooo way! That was the most movement we've ever experienced, Caroline was born in California. A funny thing was I don't remember hearing a sound, perhaps it was because my heart was pounding so hard. We came thru OK, there was some glassware breakage and things moved around a lot. Two TVs fell over but the main one is OK while my little one now has lines in 3 places going from top to bottom, it may last, who knows. Three of our cats disappeared for 5 hours. Did the animals warn us, nope, not a word. 

  Sometime this week I will get up a new post, it has taken a few days for this ol' guy to settle down. Here are some photos of things that fell or moved.

Stuff fell out of the pantry.

There were things that fell of the shelves in the laundry room. The stacked washer and dryer didn't move, neither did the chest freezer.

The TV fell over backwards but seems to be fine. the entertainment center didn't move.

Lots of things fell out of the entertainment center.

I had some wood drying in the sun room, the cat shelf saved the window.

The saw Caroline uses to cut fire wood ended up outside of the wood shed on the ground, still works though. My drill press also fell off my work bench in the car port.

Some of the wood in the wood shed is ready to fall, my electric chain saw fell but it landed in saw dust, no problem.

We have only felt one aftershock, no complaints though. It seems that there was damage coast to coast. 

Folks I'll get some more photos of the yard plants and get busy on the water system, till then, Tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh into a garden....

Art

 I thought perhaps you didn't know where the epicenter was. I had to enlarge this picture so it is a little blurry.Our home is to the right, about center of the picture you see the town of Alajuela (a little north west of San Jose), our home is about where the "A" is.

Things are growing so fast!

Sometimes it is hard for me to realize that a lot of time has passed without my keeping up my blog. It is not that I am so busy that I don’t have the time, I take photos for the blog or think of things to put in but then the sun comes out and off I go. Something that I plan to do from now on is to put in a Spanish translation of my post. I hope my Tico friends reply back to me as to how well the translation comes through.

  

A veces es difícil para mí da cuenta que ha pasado mucho tiempo sin mi mantenimiento de mi blog. No es que estoy tan ocupado que no tengo el tiempo, tome fotos para el blog o pensar en cosas para poner pero luego sale el sol y apaga voy. Algo que planeo hacer de ahora en adelante es poner en una traducción al español de mi post. Espero que mi respuesta de amigos de Tico a mí acerca de cuán bien la traducción viene a través de.

Per a suggestion from a garden friend the pomegranate was replanted in its own raised bed. Caroline had to put these rocks in to keep the chickens from scratching out all the new dirt. The holes in the blocks will be filled with the planting mix and some type of moss or vine planted to shade the blocks for when the dry season arrives.

Por sugerencia de un amigo de jardín la Granada fue replantada en su propia cama elevada. Caroline tuvo que poner estas rocas mantener los pollos de arañazos a la nueva suciedad. Los orificios de los bloques se rellenará con la mezcla de siembra y algunos tipos de musgo o vid plantada a la sombra de los bloques para cuando llegue la temporada seca.

Before

Antes que

After

Despues

Under the wire is ginger which Caroline uses a lot of to help with her tummy. The zucchini didn’t make it so it has been removed and Chinese cabbage seed planted. I picked up some of the jade’s leaves after it was moved into the garden area and inserted them in the planting mix just to see if they would make roots and grow, if they do then I will give them to friends.

Bajo el alambre es jengibre que Caroline utiliza mucho para ayudar con su barriga. El calabacín no hace por lo que se ha quitado y repollo chino semilla plantada. Recogí som de hojas de jade después de que fue trasladado a la zona del jardín y les insertada en la mezcla de siembra sólo para ver si se hacen raíces y crecer, si lo hacen y luego les daré a amigos.

When I got up and walked outside it was so foggy it was hard to see the fence, a half hour later this was what it looked like then in about an hour later it was bright and sunny.

Cuando se levantó y caminó fuera de ella fue tan brumosa era difícil ver la guía, una media hora más tarde, esto fue lo que parecía entonces en aproximadamente una hora más tarde fue brillante y soleado.

The sun is always welcome!

El sol siempre es Bienvenido!

The horseradish is loving its new home, I’m hoping that the blocks are enough to contain this rapid spreader. The oregano that was broken off by the kittens is doing well in the lower left hand corner.

El rábano es amante de su nuevo hogar, estoy esperando que los bloques son suficientes para contener este esparcidor rápido. El orégano que fue roto por los gatitos está haciendo bien en la esquina inferior izquierda.

The spinach is doing real well, we’ve already eaten some in our salad, it is so good. We’ve added even more starts so we have lots for salad, maybe it will take over the whole bed. Desi the silly ol’ cat loves to roll in the celery root plant but is seems like it is not bothered by her attention and pops right back up. There is also a sweet potato going in the lower right hand corner.

Las espinacas se está haciendo realmente bien, ya hemos comido algunos en nuestra ensalada, es tan bueno. Hemos añadido aún más comienza así tenemos muchas para ensalada, tal vez tendrá sobre la cama toda. Desi el tonto gato OL ' ama a rodar en la planta de raíz de apio pero es parece que es no molestarse por su atención y COP derecho copia de seguridad. También hay una batata en la esquina inferior derecha.

It is said that the turmeric can grow up to 5 feet, over 1.5 meters. It will get transplanted out in the yard except for one plant that will be kept trimmed to shade the spinach.

Se dice que la cúrcuma puede crecer hasta 5 feet, más de 1,5 metros. Se va obtener trasplantado en el patio excepto una planta que quedará recortado a la sombra de las espinacas.

This new bed has artichokes planted in it. They should do well when the dry season comes. The screen keeps momma PJ from scratching, she and the keets are allowed free run of this area until the sun dries the grass in the rest of the yard. The wire also keeps the cats from using the bed as a potty box.

  

Esta nueva cama tiene alcachofas plantados en ella. Que lo hagan bien cuando llega la estación seca. La pantalla mantiene a momma PJ de arañazos, ella y el keets están permitidos libre correr esta zona hasta que se seca en el sol el pasto en el resto del terreno. El cable también impide que los gatos utilizando la cama como un cuadro de ir al baño.

I saw Momma PJ in a nest while one of the keets waits for her, they don’t let her get too far away.

VI Momma PJ en un nido mientras que uno de los keets espera por ella, no la dejes llegar demasiado lejos.

Miss Kitty caught a moth and was playing with it and the rug at the same time, she has a great time with it.

Miss Kitty atrapada una polilla y estaba jugando con ella y la alfombra al mismo tiempo, ella tiene un gran tiempo con ella.

I’m off to fertilize and scatter more cal-dolomita.  Even though we have spread ashes around the plants it seems like the cal-dolomita has made a big difference to some of the plants. Perhaps the ol’ clay soil really needs the boost from the cal-dolomita, well it will get more now that I’ve seen the improvements in the plants. I’ll get busy and show the new water system when it is finished. I’ve also been thinking about what I want to use to water all of the new plants when the dry season comes. I prefer to give things a good soaking once or twice a week rather than a quick squirt with the hose.

Me voy a fertilizar y dispersión más cal-dolomita.  Aunque nos hemos esparce cenizas alrededor de las plantas parece que la cal dolomita ha hecho una gran diferencia a algunas de las plantas. Tal vez el suelo de arcilla OL ' realmente necesita el impulso de la cal dolomita, así obtendrá más ahora que he visto las mejoras en las plantas. Voy a ocupados y mostrar el nuevo sistema de agua cuando haya terminado. También he estado pensando acerca de lo que quiero utilizar para todas las plantas nuevas de agua cuando llega la estación seca. Prefiero dar cosas un buen remojo una o dos veces por semana en lugar de un squirt rápida con la manguera.

 Tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh into a garden....

 Art

So much to do so little time!

Things are doing well and moving along!

The morning has changed a lot since I got up, the sun has been out for a while but now it is mostly overcast. I have mentioned that I was planning on fertilizing twice a month with 15-15-15 so this morning I did the second round. Today I also added cal-dolomita to the fertilizer figuring every little bit helps.

In the middle, hard to see is a red hibiscus that was broken off the main plant by the kittens maybe a week ago, it is doing well already. Also you can see the cal-dolomita that I scattered around.

Brought out the chicken’s roost to allow the rain to help clean it up. The other roost was put on the coop till this one is clean. One of the ladies is inspecting the cleaning job, “not good enough” she says.

One of the little Mapolas was beaten up pretty good by the hens scratching, it is coming back very good. You can see the grains of fertilizer on the rightside of the base.

Caroline moved these plants as they were shading the new truenos trees. Got to get Juan to write down the names so I can post them and someday remember.

This trueno is really doing well, it likes its new home and of course likes the fertilizer. These are supposed to grow quickly, we’re hoping they with become a back stop for the ball field.

The little tea tree is doing well, most likely will have to remove the queen of the night growing behind it.

This pomegranate has not done very much. It has been where it is for almost two years. It is doing better now than it ever has, perhaps the cal-dolomita is helping a lot.

This Mapola is really happy, almost 3’ tall already. That is lemongrass sticking thru the fence which BTW is about ready to head out, it sure looks good when it does. It is almost as tall as the roof of the garden.

One of the blackberries is hanging over the fence, we should be a few berries this year.

The elephants ears are doing well and spreading out, I had to remove the cage as the leaves were caught in the wire.

Now here is a surprise, this little running or traveling iris is thru the fence into the chicken’s area but they haven’t bothered it.

I haven’t seen this before, the mint is flowering, I don’t know if there will be seeds as it is so easy to take cuttings and start them plus wherever it touches the ground it roots and takes off from there.

The white rose is blossoming out all over. The blossoms like the red rose get so heavy I have to prop up the cane to take a photo, pretty isn’t it?

The kittens love to scratch, they will scratch on the little stick in the background so I put this up for them to mutilate, they haven’t touched it yet. Perhaps I insulted them, cough, cough!

I took this shot from my chair just to give you one of my views. In the background is my little 4’X8’ trailer that gets the dirt and such for the yard and hauls the wood trimmings for our wood stove. So far it seems like all of the plants transplanted to the little raised beds are doing well. Soon you will see herbs of some sort growing in the holes in the blocks (holes filled with dirt of course) following the suggestion of Donald Rose. As always, anyone who has a question, suggestion or comment, don’t hesitate to email me, I appreciate all the comments. Folks sometimes see things that we don’t or have good suggestions on growing things like we have but we could do it better. Tomorrow the cars should get their yearly inspections then I can start putting in the water system in the garden and get something growing. I need to pick up a couple of gallons of bleach to clean the white cloth and the poly roof so things can get sunshine to grow with. Oh yeah, the kittens are doing great, Miss Kitty just got up on the back of my chair, she’ll snooze there till it is time to play some more.

It just started sprinkling, no more outside work, Miss Kitty is on my left shoulder purring and nibbling on my ear. Tickles like crazy!!!!

I think that is it for today. Take care, be well.

Art 

So much to do so little time!

Tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh into a garden....

The Garden is the Main Purpose of This Blog!

A friend has remarked that he was concerned that I might forget the garden in my blog. His concern was that other things (subjects) might distract from the news about what is going on in the garden. I had started a personal reply but as I began to type and explain what is and what was to happen with the garden and such I thought perhaps others would like to know what was in the planning so here is my reply to him and to all.

The primary reason for the blog is the garden which right now has most everything removed waiting for me to get new plants sprouted so I haven't said much about it.

The seeds for bell peppers turned out to be something else, sort of like a jalapeno, just maybe hotter, they turned red instead of staying green which maybe jalapenos do but being that I have never raised them I don't know. The okra never did much of anything. The tomatoes weren't pruned and grew way too big again. Which was more plant than tomatoes. The new tomato plants will be pruned to 4 main stalks and constantly suckered and trimmed for height. I did a lot of reading about trimming and pruning tomatoes and now know how much more I can do to keep them from getting too big. When we had tomatoes in a regular garden their height and size was no problem so they were left to grow as big as they wanted and they did in the well prepared soil back in CA and when I was a kid.

Also the little raised beds are an experiment too. As many plants don't like their roots wet for a long time I am trying these little raised beds with different plants to see which ones improve and do well during the rainy season. These little raised beds will have to be watered during the dry season (for which I’ve been planning a water system for, mostly a drip system), perhaps they'll end up with different plants in them as well, it’s all an experiment. I'm thinking of doing one little one for one tomato plant to see just what can be done with them during the dry season (maybe two, one trimmed and pruned and the other just suckered).

What I don’t want and would have a hard time with is a regular type garden where I would have to bend over to tend to it properly; the ol’ back just won’t allow me to do that.

I have planned to start my tomato seeds next month in my window greenhouse for the garden so I’ll also start one for the little raised bed as well. By the time the rains have slowed down they’ll be good size, ready for transplanting. What I’m doing now will give me good large tomatoes so I can save seeds for myself and for those who have asked for saved seeds. My plan is to save seeds from the best of the best, nice shaped and good size tomatoes.

I’m thinking of planting some lettuce, radishes and carrots now just to see how well they can do this time of the year.

I’ll install my water system this week. I will post photos of before and after and also with the system on so folks can see how it works.

I will continue to post about all that is happening around here as well as the garden. I email folks about this and that all the time which as all of you know, can get very time consuming so I’ll post more often to the blog instead of doing single emails about things. Some post may contain only information about the garden and plants while other post will contain everything.

Today is bright and shiny, no rain (yet). Have already been in the garden and worked in the yard, time for lunch.

Art

So much to do so little time!

I did good, I got the blocks for the planters

I was busy, I got the concrete blocks for our little raised bed planters hoping that they will drain fast enough for the plants that don’t like wet feet. The soil is a mixture of good black topsoil and wood shavings from the chicken coop. We’re hoping that mixture will drain fast enough for the sensitive plants.

This is what is left of a trailer load (4’X8’X2’) of good black topsoil. It comes complete with worms, ants and who knows what plant life. Mixing it with the wood shavings makes it easy to pull the weeds.

This is our new horseradish bed. The plants are already perking up thou it is hard to see here. Lots of good wood shavings.

A planter full of spinach and some starts of oregano. We should end up with more of each than we can use, we’ll share all the excess.

Some starts of aloe for anyone who might want some. The plant on the right is an herb that has a licorice flavor but neither of us remember its name. At the bottom of the photo is turmeric. I'll pick up more concrete blocks for at least one more planter, well that is what Caroline says. The next one is already started waiting for more blocks.

The Jade we had in the front outside planter was getting crowded out so it has been temporarily potted in plastic till we can get some nice clay pots for them. Oh, the little guy was one I bought not understanding the fellow that gave the name, the leaves then were just round and the stalk did not look like a Jade plant but it do now. Je! Je! Je!

We could not get by without some entertaining wrestling matches. Here is Daniel and Miss Kitty having a match.

Then Aly had to get into the action with Daniel while Miss Kitty observes. For some reason unknown these two love to fuss around this plant in the cage (the reason for the cage) and these rocks. They play paws under the bigger rock below Aly’s head, oh, and of course under the bottom of the wire cage.

I also had to included a photo of Momma PJ and the two guinea keets. She is taking a dust bath in the wood shavings which filled the plastic green dish to her right and also some got on the keets. These wood shavings aren’t the good shavings (lots of fines) we get but those shavings are vented outside at the sawmill and are now wet all the time. As soon as we get a few days without rain I’ll rush over and get 10/15 bags full.

The elephant ears are growing like weeds. They get all the moisture they like from the water dish for the chickens which KitCat aka Ning shares with them. I feed the fermented feed for the chickens in a dog dish on the sidewalk about where I am standing so the excess and water that collects in the bowl gets tossed around the plants where it adds to the soil.

Here is one for the expert tree folks, I do not know the name of this tree but it has these, what I guess you call flowers and berries. Next photo shows the tree better.

The leaves remind me of the sensitive plant, Mimosa, that we had when I was a kid, eons ago but the blossoms are different. Could it be a Dormilona?

Our coffee plant struggles to keep its leaves and berries. No idea why it hasn’t shot up more unless the soil was very, very short on cal dolomita which I found and added the first of the month, I didn’t know it needed a lot of this till I was talking to a person who raised coffee. The soil it is planted in was 50/50 clay and abono which may not have been all of what it needed, now we will see how well it does.

The golden dewdrops are doing much better but I have no idea what causes the little black dots on their leaves. There are more and much fuller berries on some of the trees, perhaps they too liked the added cal dolomita. Being that the back yard was really disturbed when the house was remodeled the topsoil got turned under and the ol’ clay came to the top so I took several buckets full of cal dolomita and scattered it around the yard trying to improve the soil. I’ll get another 50 kilo bag and do some more scattering around the yard.

And this is Patches our ol’ friend from the states. We brought her and our other old cat, Coal, on the airplane when we moved here 4 years ago. She loves to roll in the wood shavings but wouldn’t pose for a good photo of her showing her face, no she is not shy.

The garden is mostly cleaned up, enough so I can install my watering system which is PVC pipe with very small holes spaced along its length. There are two advantages to what I am doing. Water will be better distributed all over the garden and with a mechanical timer I can set it and know the whole are is well watered when it needs it (and walk away).

Funny thing, the two new quail which were raised in close human contact are more nervous when I get near than the other ones we’ve had. The older ones hardly pay any attention to me when I’m in the garden area but these new quail try to fly and butt the fencing trying to get away. They’ll settle down over time I imagine.

 In the morning while it is still dark thirty I’ll get Henrietta the little black bantam hen and put her in the garden area to scratch around in the dirt getting bugs and old seed from the parakeets. The quail do not get up in the garden dirt even with the ladder I built for them.

This was taken some time ago of Henrietta. She has the strangest voice, there are times she sounds like a duck and then she can sound like an old rusty hinge needing oil but she is a good brooder and a great mom.

Well I guess I should get this posted, the tummy is saying it is dinner time and I do like a good dinner. I’ve been thinking it is about time for a good meal of chicken and dumplings, soooooo good tasting but soooooo bad for the calories. . . . .

Art

So much to do so little time!