It's the Garden again

The cherry tomatoes are coming out in bunches now and it's like an Easter Egg hunt for Nahima every day she comes over. Right now they are at her eye level but soon she'll be asking for help to reach them. With 6-7 plants I'm gonna need help eating them. The Roma tomatoes are still very small.

Four in a group

The second crop of chilies from seeds Hugo planted. I'm gonna have to make a decent bed for them and try again. This was the only plant healthy enough to produce.

The big Neem came down a few months ago but a 4 foot stump was just taking up room for other things. Hugo excavated around it and chopped it down to about a meter with a machete and then called Juan to come over with his chainsaw. First he's chopping off bark that was below ground and may have rocks embedded and then the saw. He even hauled all the pieces out to the street and wouldn't accept a peso.

A lesson on water

The few storms we've had taught me something I had forgotten, ie; plants love water. It's not that I've been ignoring the garden but it has not had the same amount of water these rains bring. The soil here absorbs water like a sponge and sometimes we don't have street water for 4-5 days up to a few weeks. I'm certainly not going to water anything but potted plants with tinaco and cistern water.

Anyway, I suddenly have a jungle. Have to cut back the limes just to get between them, bananas grew 2 feet in a week, pineapple ripened, papayas getting bigger and my neems are almost ready to transplant. My neighbors who are in Canada are in for a surprise when they come back in November. Their caretaker left for Autlan a few months ago and their garden is out of control but will be impossible in a few months.

The Neems are growing from seeds that fall under my only remaining tree. Five neighbors have them and still have 4 more in the ground. These 5 in buckets are waiting to get a good root system and we'll plant them around the plaza. I'll probably have to get the stakes and chicken wire to protect them from playing kids.

Dalila which turned out to be minimal so far

Neems in buckets

Papaya is finally getting there

Pineapple was small but delicious 

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

Plants and trees like the winter weather

Well they must is all I can figure. The compost pile is sprouting tomatoes, a melon and baby Neems. The lime trees were quiet for almost two months and now are full of blossoms. My avocado tree that has done almost nothing since I got it is suddenly sprouting new branches and leaves.

I transplanted the avocado to a more open area and realize that probably shocked it but that was about a year ago. One major branch died and what was left was way lopsided. I trimmed it today to balance it out a bit.

Lime trees are very unruly, with branches going in all directions. The best I can do is cut some of what I call 'suckers' that grow straight up and look to be non fruit producing. I doubt I can keep them at standing on the ground picking level but so far so good.

I'm gonna have a bunch of baby Neem trees if I can get them planted in pots in a month or so. They are just coming up from dropped seeds from their parent tree which is now about 5 meters high. I might offer a few to neighbors if they look healthy.

My 2 Cherry tomato plants are producing 20 or so a day but the neighbor kids are eating them as soon as they turn a little red (with my permission). The cilantro and sweet basil are doing fine. Herba Buena (mint) and Romero (Rosemary) are new and some radishes and chives are just popping up. Gardens are good

Avocado coming alive

Lime blossom

Largest neem baby

More neem

Tomato in compost

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.

Flowering Neem

Yesterday I thought I was smelling the Gardenia while watering the garden but it was 15 feet away and I was next to my largest Neem tree. Today the Neem blossoms really came out and gave them a good sniff. No doubt why the Neem is also called the Indian Lilac. Not real strong because the flowers are tiny but I hear in India where there are many trees the aroma is distinct at the beginning of summer. Another sure sign summer is here in Mexico.

Neem is not supposed to flower or fruit until 2-3 years old so it means this one sat in it's bucket before I planted it about a year and a half ago. Very interesting tree and I'll let you look it up. Will be interesting to watch how long the flowering goes on and how large the seeds become. Found two interesting videos below - an animation on 'natural insecticide' and one of my old favorites - CBC -The Nature of Things with David Suzuki

My Neem flowers

How to create a natural insecticide from Neem seeds (in English)

Miracle tree NEEM