Gardening and Other Tidbits

There has been an abundance of gecko's in the house lately.

Generally we have quite a few, they hang out by the light outside that eat the mosquito's.

But now they are all over the place inside too. We really don't mind them because they eat the bugs.... but I can't help thinking that there are more gecko's around because there are more bugs around.

Which is true, there are definitely more bugs. I think all the rain has brought them.

During the day the gecko's crawl between the metal plate and the ceiling to climb up into the electrical pipes. They then come out early evening, Maria is always so excited to see them. Sometimes there are baby ones not more than 2 inches long, and it's fun to watch them, they don't have quite all the know-how that the big gecko's have.

Today I was making topo gigio's (pronounced toh-poh ye-yo's) which are the local popsicle's. Fruit juice in a plastic baggie. I was making mora (which is raspberry or blackberry... I'm not quite sure) ones. I ran out of sugar (these berries were pretty sour) so we took a walk over to the mini-super to pick some up. Before we went I changed my shirt because I had gotten some of the juice on it, and I put it in the sink to soak.

When we got back the floor was COVERED in water. I guess between kids shoes, crying, changing my shirt, and everything else that happened between turning the faucet on and getting out the door, I forgot to turn the water off.  Oops.

Marco's family doesn't eat their meals together.  Not even dinner.... which is so foreign to me.  They generally eat three-ish meals a day around the breakfast/lunch/dinner times, but I have never once seen the whole family eat together.  I asked Marco if they ever had and he said perhaps once or twice at Christmas.  

And now onto the garden.  This is the garden area that we built not too long ago.  When my parents were here we bought a bunch of different plants.... and I am by NO means a botanist so I have no idea most of the names.  There are a few bougainvillaea, and orange tree (with oranges that taste like orange-pineapple) 4 rose bushes (yellow, red, white & a salmon color), a hydrangea, a yellow shrimp, and a few others.... plus the veggies that we planted not too long ago.

Here is the hydrangea (I hope that's it's name) with it's first bloom.

Oso, the dog, keeps getting into this area so we had to put up more boards to protect it.  He dug up seeds that I put down twice, so I'm not exactly sure what is growing where in here.  These roses here have really taken off.

This last week Abuela and I took a few cuttings from this tall pink rose bush that she has and stuck them in the ground..... hopefully they'll take.  Apparently that's all you do here, cut off a branch and stick it in the ground.

Out of all the rose bushes the red one is the only one that has not taken off.  The others have doubled or tripled in size since we planted them the end of April.

This is the back side of the house.  That window is a window into the bathroom, which is unfinished and acting as a storage room.  I don't want to put food waste in the garbage can for fear that it would attract even more bugs, so we throw it out the back window, our compost pile.... Probably in early April, I threw some tamarind seeds out the window and now we have some little tamarind trees growing.  I think we'll let them get a little bigger and then move them.

This is the elevated garden box that Abuelo built for me.  I've got tomatoes, chile's, and spinach growing.  When things get a little bigger we'll transplant.  I'm really not a great gardener.  I don't think I should have planted so many seeds in such a small area.  But at least they are in lines this time around.

This metal tub is where the ginger grows.  If you break off a leaf of the plant and smell it it smells wonderfully of ginger.

This plant a bush/tree that is mixed up with the mandarin-lime tree.  The red circles shows the "fruit".... little peppers.  That is about the size they get, pretty small, and when they change from green to red/orange they are ripe.

And here is the mandarin-lime tree.  These puppies are still not ripe, they're best when they've changed to an orange color, but they are starting to get juice in them.  There is a TON of fruit growing.

 This is the camaron amarillo or yellow shrimp.

 This papaya tree was next to nothing when we first moved here in November.... I'm not even sure it was around, but it sure is now.....

 ... and it's even beginning to bear fruit.  We have two trees that started on their own that are now bearing fruit.

 This is a pretty little plant that we have hanging by the bedroom window.  Each of the flowers only lasts a day, but the next day there are another half a dozen or so ready to bloom again.

 

So, there you go, a little tour of our gardening efforts as of late. Let's hope that something grows and more importantly, that my knowledge of gardening grows.