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.

Anything is better with Limón y Sal

Lime and Salt do the trick with Carambola

Not that Carambola (Start Fruit) is bad without them .... it's just more than twice as good with them.  I hadn't tried it until a couple days ago. It didn't make sense that I was giving most of them away to neighbors and this year I have tons. I have a few older neighbors that favor them for health reasons so they will get some but Lauri and Hugo say don't give them all away

Carambola is rich in antioxidants, potassium, and vitamin C; and low in sugar, sodium, and acid. It is also a potent source of both primary and secondary polyphenolic antioxidants. Averrhoa carambola has both antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Scavenging of nitric oxide (NO) by the fruit extract is dependent on concentration and stage of ripening. Extracts showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Like the grapefruit, carambola is considered to be a potent inhibitor of seven cytochrome P450 isoforms. These enzymes are significant in the first-pass elimination of many medicines, and, thus, the consumption of carambola or its juice in combination with certain prescription medications can significantly increase their effective dosage within the body. Research into grapefruit juice (its potent enzymes) for instance, identified a significant effect (requires change in dose or other side effects) on common medications when taken concurrently by the patient, including statins, which are commonly used to treat high cholesterol and cardiovascular illness, and benzodiazepines (a sedative tranquilizer drug family that includes diazepam).

Had Mistletoe for Christmas and didn't know it

I went up on a ladder to cut some "suckers" (branches that shoot straight up) out of my Carambola tree. Noticed a bunch of leaves that did not match those of the tree. Looking further I could see a vine wrapped around the branches. Parts of it were glued tight and some just a dangling vine. I assumed a strangling fig or Ficus. The neighbors called it "malojo" (evil eye) and said that birds eat the seeds and then deposit them in their poop. Still didn't tell me what the English or scientific name was until I found an article on Mexconnect below. Gonna get my saw back from Ron today so I can cut out the last little bit.

My tree with the embedded starting point

Not the Christmas kind of Mistletoe

An embedded "root"

Of the Mexican mistletoes, some are herbaceous; others are vine-like, even treelike. Their leaves and flowers vary but several have tubular orange flowers growing wherever there is sufficient light. Phoradendron species are "hemiparasites", meaning that they are capable of some photosynthesis and have green leaves, unlike Cuscuta. Various birds including thrushes and tanagers feed heavily on mistletoe berries. Their sticky droppings deposited on branches contain the seeds which give rise to future mistletoe plants. Phoradendron flowers are well adapted to pollination by hummingbirds, though bees and other insects also help. 

One of these mistletoes, locally called "Mal Ojo" (Evil Eye), is very much in evidence at present in the Chapala area. Left to its own devices, it will quickly kill its host trees. It is so prolific that it seems in many cases that the whole tree is in flower; unfortunately, it is not the tree's flowers that are such a dramatic orange in color but the parasite's. 

Evil Eye - MexConnect

Gardening again

I had so much luck with cherry tomatoes last year in these raised beds I had to try it again. Had to pull up and/or transplant a bunch of tropical ornamental plants but this is food that you can eat!! Everything I was growing in buckets made a fast start and then died like they dried up?  Actually the green onions are growing in a bucket but are stunted.

I brought another large bag of coco-peat and mixed it with my compost soil for about 3 inches of good soil turned in to last years dirt.  I'm using that plastic screen over the beds to keep both dog and cat out. Dog like to excavate cool soil and the cat just using it for his bathroom.  So lots of cherry tomatoes on either end, some pepinos (cucumber) in the middle and some green onions here and there. The pepper plant I bought at Home Depot and it's doing well.

Last year the Carambola (Star Fruit) only had one fruit.  Even that was not bad for a tree only a year and a half old.  This year it looks like it may be over 100. There's 4 major branches full of fruit like this and 3-4 branches above filled with flowers.   I may have to support some of them as the full branches droop way down.  Now I have to get the girls to stop eating them green.  Even with the little bit of yellow you see they are still very sour.

The Neem (only one now) is in flower with lots of seeds ready to drop.  Very aromatic with the many small white flowers. Before long I'll either be pulling up baby Neem or trying find places to plant them.   I had thought Neem to be rather exotic but actually it's everywhere in this area.  Even one on the Melaque Plaza.

Now if the Avocado and the Chico Zapote will produce just one fruit blossom.  Both trees are healthy, same age as the Carambola but very slow to develop. . 

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. 

First Carambola

Just had to brag about my first and only Carambola. I thought I saw a few more flowers about a month ago but this turned out to be the only fruit. Strange things happen with the first crop of many trees. Also because it's my first, I picked too soon and it's quite bitter. Will wait longer next time and try to improve it with limon (lime) and salt in the meantime.

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

My new fruit trees

Well the almond tree (almendra or almendro) is not exactly new since I've had it for about 6 months. The winds from hurricane Jova knocked it over and I replanted it a little deeper. Many almendra trees went down during the hurricane. Now that the storms have passed there is a new threat ... the neighborhood kids. The tree is planted just outside my sidewalk on the street to eventually shade the house. This morning the kids were beating at it with a stick. Why they would want to do that I have no idea ... but who knows what goes thru the mind of a 5 year old.

The foto below is not mine but an example of what mine might be someday. You can almost see the layering (levels) of the branches. I always thought you had to "Bonsai" trim them ... but that's the way they grow.

So that got me thinking that I just bought 3 more trees last week at a great vivero (nursery) up the coast in Emiliano Zapata. Huge place and really worth a stop if you pass that way. The three are; Carambola (carambolo) or star fruit, Chico Zapote and a coastal Avocado (aquacate).

I had the idea that a Chico Zapote would be a small to medium sized tree but as you can see below they can get huge. Gonna take some trimming. The Carambola looks just right and I love the fruit when it's fresh. I wasn't paying attention when I planted the Avocado and put it in the wrong place. It's now in transplant shock so I hope it survives.

Almendra (almond) tree

Carambolo (star fruit) tree

Huge Chico Zapote tree