Birds and the bees

Hummingbird at rest

Bees in the palm with cold pool behind

Roseate Spoonbill over by the Prepa

This was going to be a not very much happening around here post although two hummingbirds were very busy in my Moringa tree. Busy enough one had to take a break. I'm kind of surprised they don't come around the palm flowers because the bees sure love them. Last night we had a small wind storm that blew over parts of the Moringa, a Sugarcane and filled the pool with leaves and pieces of my palapa.

I mentioned a cold pool because every morning for the last week the local weather site shows the morning temperature is 61 degrees which is as cold as it's been all year. It's the end of April if someone didn't notice.

My cat's newest thing is being successful at catching small iguanas. Frogs and lizards have been easy for him in the past but iguanas have been too wary and fast. This past week he killed 3. None larger than a foot and a half long but pretty big for my cat. They live in the lot next door but like to sun themselves on top of my wall. Of course the live ones or dead ones have to be brought for me to see.

Yesterday morning neighbors came over for a ride to the Jaluco Kindergarten because the kids were dressed as cowboys and girls and had stick horses parents had made the day before. Also for me and my camera for some fotos for Facebook. They marched all around Jaluco followed by a band. That post will have to wait.

My Moringa got away

Moringa is a beautiful tree but mine is out of control. I didn't realize how fast they grow and kinda fell asleep while it shot up. I did cut it off once but from ladder height so it was already to big. The idea of keeping them small is for harvesting leaves and seed pods. This one is flowering the second time so have a few babies around the yard but have not seen the seed pods (called drum sticks). I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cut this down and start over. You can see in the video what I should have been doing all along.

Beautiful flowers

About 5 meters when it should be one-two

Moringa grows very quickly and so must be pruned aggressively in the first year to encourage lateral growth and increased production, as well as ease of harvesting.pruning-moringa

When tree reaches a height of 1 meter (3.25 ft) cut to height of .5 meter (20 in.).
When tree reaches a height of 1.5 meters (5 ft) cut to height of 1 meter (3.25 ft).
When tree reaches a height of 2 meters (6.5 ft) cut to height of 1.5 meter (5 ft).
When tree reaches a height of 2.5 (8 ft) meters cut to height of 2 meters (6.5 ft).

Flowers will appear after 9 months.

Seed pods will mature at around 12 months.

When harvesting leaves or seed pods prune trees to height of 2 meters (6.5 ft).

Growth and Use of Moringa

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

Iguana in my Moringa

Iguana in my Moringa tree

I don't get very many due to my vicious cat.  Hope he picks a proper time to come down.  There's a dark grey one next door but this one is a pretty green. Wonder if he's eating the leaves as they are supposed to be healthy.

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. 

Not another tree!

I'm gonna have to buy another lot if I keep running into these miracle trees. First it was Neem and now Moringa. A conversation on a Mexico message board started out about Celiac disease and ended up about Moringa that is supposed to lessen the symptoms. Then people posted links but mostly where you could buy the products ... not seeds or trees.

From a site that sells Moringa products

Moringa is considered to be the most nutrient rich plant on earth. Moringa leaves have been consumed by Asian people for millennia as a healthy food product. Containing more than 90 nutrients and 46 antioxidants, these vivid green leaves are nature’s super-power food.

I eventually found some nurseries in Colima that sell the trees so will start looking around here. Also found a few articles about/by Mark Olsen who teaches Biology in UNAM in Mexico City. He is included in this Discovery Channel video.