Sandias in Pinal Villa

Get ready for watermelon season. Plants are only 3-4 inches but with all the moisture lately they should grow fast. This "patch" is only two blocks away. There are melons in the markets but not from around here. The local kids love to go through the fence and then sell the melons on the street. When the time comes the owners will have guards (veladores) in the field but at night can't stop the kids.

I've got Lirio

Water Hyacinth

In our little lagoon with the Crocodile on the road to Pinal, we also have some very pretty Lirio. While Lirio may be a plague in places like Lake Chapala or even our Laguna del Tules .... our Lirio is just pretty. Lorena wanted to pick some flowers and I noticed they were coming up with roots and a bit of soil so I suggested we take a few whole plants.

Mine had a big flower that disappeared the second day. This is day three and the flower is back or it's a new one. Not sure? The bucket just has water and the little soil that came with it.

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 

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

It's mushroom time again

Normal mushroom time is during the early summer rains but after 5 days of winter rain they are popping up in the yard. Looks like we may have 2-3 more days and the Weather Underground even said we might get thunder showers tonight -- they are seldom accurate. We should have sun by the end of the week.

Plants and lawn are loving it. The new sisus vines (like ivy) are halfway up the 3 meter walls, new leaves and branches on new trees and my badly abused avocado (transplanted twice) is starting to sprout new growth. Even the banana that I salvaged from a vacant lot has a strong second leaf.

The worst part about rain here are the roads and they are miserable.

Best vivero on the Costalegre

I would have waited a little longer to visit this nursery but there was a surf competition in the area so I combined the two into one Saturday. I've passed by a number of times but never really noticed it, tho heard of it. It's about the last place on the north side of town

A great old guy that seems to run it and he'll talk to you about ideas you may have; size, speed of growth, fertilizer, soil, etc. They also have a great garden soil for sale that looks to be mostly shredded coco shells.

I came back with a Carambola (star fruit), a Chico Zapote (Sapote) and an avocado that is supposed to do well on the coast. Also two Sisus vines that are like Ivy. Prices aren't much cheaper than I find in the Melaque area but the place is so large you have a much better selection. There were two pickup trucks filling up with like 40-50 of the same plants making me think they supply the local hotels.

VIVEROS DE LA COSTA Tel: (315) 351 0711
Km 41, Carretera Federal 200, Emiliano Zapata, Jalisco

What you see from the highway

It goes on

... and on

... and on

Young Buganvilla

Gardenia and Coffee

Fresh brewed coffee that is ... both have great aromas, are in the same family ... but luckily smell nothing alike.

Gardenia is a genus of 142 species of flowering plants in the coffee family

People have been giving me plants over the last year and I've had no idea what some of them are. Some died of natural causes, some the dog dug up and some were just plain ugly and I pulled them up. When the rain and humidity starts here they all begin to do what they are supposed to do.

My best survivor is this Gardenia bush ... at least I think Gardenia. The one flower smells wonderful. It just bloomed today but has about 20 more blossoms on it. My sixth year in Mexico but the first where I get to watch my plants do what they do over the whole year. I'll be able to make more educated choices next year

Gardenia the flower

Gardenia the plant

Another flower/plant

This plant/flower came along with a vine that I really like. Actually there were three plants in the same pot but the third faded when I tranplanted it. The red centers are part of the leaves but it does look like there may be blossoms coming in the middle. This is another that I have no idea what it is.

Now Plátanos

Just back from a week in Melaque to the surprise of Bananas on my tree. The tree is next to the sugar cane that really needs water to be soft and sweet. I guess the bananas got the benefit of all the water.

Hey, I'm new to all this sad to say. I just know I cut about 10 canes, they were hard, not sweet and the neighbors say lots of water and cut them sooner.  New shoots come out of the cut off cane roots if they haven't already started before you cut them

Melaque was great. Cool nights, no humidity and maybe not as warm as the Chapala area around mid-day. Planted a few trees, plants, ran waterlines and built a pump house. 5th wheel is blocked up and covered. We'll see how long those blue tarps last with some wind but hopefully will get though most of the rainy season

A Mexican flower garden

Something about our garden is typically Mexican to me. Even though there is earth to plant the flowers around the perimeter they get placed all over in containers. The lawn can't be used for kids to play but that might be to keep the kids out so they don't destroy everything playing soccer. Anyway, Mari really likes her flowers and we get them for only $20-30 pesos down the street or they are given by friends. Need to buy a few plastic pots so she doesn't start with the pots and pans and old tin cans.