Garden Garden

I purchased this oleander at the vivero about a month ago. It didn't seem to like being transplanted. Or maybe it didn't like the spot I picked for it, near the papaya tree. It lost all it's blossoms quickly, and I thought it might be dying. But it suddenly perked up a few days ago, and burst into bloom. With two lovely blossoms. We had a big oleander bush at the house I grew up in the Los Angeles, and seeing one always reminds me of playing in the yard of our home.

This lovely vine is called Copa de Ora according to Chacaleans ,and Allamande(sp?) according to my PV plant book. It's located right below my patio, where I throw my non-soapy dish and clothes washing water. I aim for the vine and it's growing like crazy. Last week I buried six of the stems in the dirt, without separating them from the plant. I am hoping they will root and that I will be able to transplant them.


This is one of the buried stems. Above.
I love the plant. I make cuttings all the time, and end up giving them away about as fast I grow them. They really catch people's eye.
There of three of the scrubby looking trees right around the house. This one is to the south of my patio. This photo is taken from on my patio. There is another one of the west, ocean, side, and one around the back. Or two maybe. I think the blossoms have a very nice fragrance, but they are all too far away to smell. Esparanza, my beach lady, has one of these trees at the entrance to her pay toilets/showers, and it smells wonderful.

Blossoms in Las Varas, Near Chacala

This morning I took my bag of laundry (sheets, towels, and pillowcases) into the laundry in Las Varas. It was 6.5 kilos and it cost 75pesos (about $7US). I mostly do my laundry at home, but it's hard to wash sheets and towels by hand. So I do a big laundry every three or four weeks. Luckily I now have four complete sets of sheets, plus four extra sheets for bedspread. I got a ride right to the laundry, but had to walk the six blocks or back to the bank and computer place.
I took some photos from around town, but these blossoms were my favorites. The first four photos are, I think Poinciana blossoms. It has just started blooming again around here.

And the Flame Vine, (Physostegia (?), is right below. This vine finished blooming about six weeks ago in Chacala. It seems to blossom for about three months at a time. I don't know why it's still going in Las Varas. it looks like the same plant, but who knows?

Puttering Around in My Chacala Garden

Chacala: My landlady came up to the house yesterday morning. She was on her way back from visiting a friend who is very ill, and who lives up the road from here. We talked a little about what a good present might be, for our mutual friend. It sounds like cash for medicine and water and so on is the best bet. I guess the average old people pension around here is somewhere between $600 and $1000 pesos. About $50/90US$. So money can get pretty tight if you are sick.

Anyway, she and I looked around at what I have been doing in her yard, and she picked out some baby plants to take down to the restaurant. She showed me the actual boundaries lines on each side of her property. Originally she told me the stone walls on either side were the actual property lines, but it turns out there is only about 12 feet on each side of the house. Instead of maybe 25 feet. Big difference. I am glad she told me sooner than later.
We walked around back and she pointed out a private place I could garden in pots. It’s about 20 by 15 feet. And surrounded by vegetation, with one cement block wall on the west side. I would have to garden in pots there. The ground seems to be solid rock. But there’s some shade in the morning from trees, and shade in the afternoon from the back wall of the bodega. I am sort of excited about that space because it’s shady. And it could be kind of private. I am picturing an arbor maybe, with vines. And a hammock. And pots. Maybe I will do some hypertufa style pots. I like the idea.

Things are growing well out front. I have four beds going, with another one started. I have to finish a bed on the rock wall, where I am going to plant bougainvillea.

Then I will work on the area to the left of the entry staircase. There are already some plants there, tree or shrub morning-glories, a jasmine plant, I am growing for my friends Bill and Mary, and a tree my landlady planted, and three plumbagos I started from cuttings.A woman who is building a house in Chacala, and planning to going back and forth to the US, is a garden enthusiast. She has only been here a few months, but she seems to have lots of energy. We have talked plants a little. She is interested in bamboo. I love bamboo, so that’s cool. Anyway, it’s fun to be able to talk plants with someone who speaks English. And even more fun to learn about plants and gardening in Mexico from someone who speaks Spanish only.
I was at the tianguis, the street market, at a nearby town this week. I got a Jasmine vine, for 30 pesos, ($2.70US) and visited with the nursery lady. I asked her where she got her plants, and she said she has a viviero/nursery in the next little town. And she invited me to visit, and gave me written dirctions.I am really escited to visit her and she how she gardens and what her place is like. I get to learn new things about gardening everyday. Of course, sometimes I misunderstand what people are saying to me. Oh well.

ALERT: Sidebar/Archives

I just realized that when this blog is viewed on Internet Explorer the sidebar with all the Archives, etc are dropped to the bottom of the bag.

Since I write this on a Mac I Book, I didn't realize what was happening, and haven't figured out how to fix it. But the archives ARE down at the bottom of the first page if you are viewing this thru Internet Explorer.

I will fix it as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Thanks, Andee

Updates on My New Chacala Flowerbeds

It is so satisfying to be garden here in Chacala, especially since I am now planting in the ground, rather than only in pots. I love having a real year-round growing season. But I am worrieda about the strength of the sun's rays here, and the intensity of the rainstorms during the rainy season.I have to remember, I am on the starting end of my learning curve here. I have been gardening for 3 and 1/2 years in Chacala now, but I still have alot to learn. I mostly watch what other people seem to be doing, and experiment with my own plants.Sometimes I am just amazed about how last things grow here. Especially the succulents. But almost everything grows very quickly now.I have to spray the dust off the leaves of all the plants everyday. The dust from the dirt trucks is pretty heavy. In my mind, i think the plants like having clean and shiny leaves, and clean and fresh blossoms. But who knows, maybe it's hard on them to be washed off. Or bad for them.
This is my newest little bed, which is only half planted. I don't know how I want to use this last bed. They are surrounded by rocks, and filled with about 10 inches of soil, over pickaxed clayish stuff. As the papaya tree grows it will offer less and less shade, and I don't know how fast the plumbago and bougainvilleas will grow. Quickly I hope.

The following two photos are of my first two beds at this house in Chacala. Things are growing very quickly, and I am getting ready to move things around. To plan different kinds of plants in each the four new beds. Based on their sun and water needs, and their tolerance for rain. I don't know how this will work yet, but things are looking pretty good so far.

Starting Plants in Chacala

I have a new routine for adding to my garden plant collection here in Chacala. I will start at least on bucket full of starts of some plant every week, and also, starting new vines by burying a section of a vine stem, at least once a week.Right now I have 34 buckets or plastic dishpans, all with holes in the bottom, with plant starts in them. Most are looking pretty good. I am kind of proud of myself for sticking to my schedule. It's much cheaper to grow my own plants, and I like doing it. I am having pretty good luck, and some failures.I have about 50-50 success with bougainvilleas. I haven't figured out why it's not so good. But I am working on it. My project for tomorrow is to make starts from three different colors of bougainvillea plants: violet, red, and orange. But in order to have room to start them, I will have to plant three buckets of plants. I haven't decided what to trying planting. So much of what I am doing here is guesswork and experimenting.But the climate is so nice for these plants: humid and warm. It's never been colder than about 62 degrees or hotter than about 95, so it's nice for the little ones. Of course, they are in the shade and don't have to deal with the direct sun rays on their tender little shoots and leaves.

I am doing pretty well with this money-saving effort. I am trying to keep myself out of the plant nurseries. My addiction was kind of getting out of control.
But I have gotten some good deals lately. At the vivero near the Pitital Soriana (superstore) in Puerto Vallarta I spent 80 pesos on plants last week. About $7.20US. I got one pot of this plant. It turned out I got 12 plants from that one pot (20 pesos/1.80US).

My favorite starts are the succulents, but almost all the plants here in Chacala seem to be ready and willing to offer me starts that what to grow.

Overcast and Warm, in Chacala

I was down on the beach a few days ago, visiting my neighbors from my beach camping days last winter. They have some beautiful cannas growing outside the pay toilets they operate for campers on the beach. And some coconuts we collected from the creek beach are growing like crazy. I love how the cocos sprout just sitting on the damp ground.
I just started my third little bed in my new garden area. It's partly under a papaya tree that's growing pretty quickly.
I am trying to take drainage during the rainy season in account, but it's hard to guess where the water will come down thru the garden, and where it will be trying to go.I am hoping that by having these slightly raised beds the rain water coming down into the beds will be able to drain out easily, but who knows. I am still struggling to figure out when various plants bloom here. I am always asking people, and often get conflicting answers. Or, at least, they seem to be confusing to me. Things are getting pretty dry here. It has rained one night here since mid October. That was a pretty good rain, but there has been nothing since. And you can tell. The vegetation and vines on the hillsides are starting to look stressed.

Thinking About Gardening in Chacala

I just started reading a book a friend of mine here in Chacala lent to me. It's called (to be add ed later).... and I am loving it, so far.The woman in the autobiography has moved to a part of Canada she hasn't lived in, or even seen, before. She has of time to explore her new environment and to feel nature. Away from other people, and in what seems at first to be a very bare and hostile, semi-arid environment.

It's hard to explain why I am so drawn to her story. Except that I too am in a strange land, and many times I feel alone, although I am not really. Well, I walk alot, where no one else seems to walk, so I have many times when it is just me and the sun and the wind and the birds and animals, and reptiles and insects. If I sit still for just a few minutes, I think nature forgets I am a foreiger, and life goes on around me. Birds talked to each other, small animals moving around, the breezes blowing first one way, then the other. I love it. Especially just after dawn. Everything is waking up then.

Anyway. It is reassuring to read about someone elses's struggle to feel comfortable in a new place, filled with unfamiliar plants and trees and birds. With new and different names. I feel luck to be here, to have a chance to see a new world, but sometimes it's hard. I guess that's why I like the book. It's hard for this woman to make her new life,and she just keeps going at it. Of course, I have only read two chapters, so who knows what's next.

Thinking About Gardening in Chacala

I just started reading a book a friend of mine here in Chacala lent to me. It's called (to be add ed later).... and I am loving it, so far.The woman in the autobiography has moved to a part of Canada she hasn't lived in, or even seen, before. She has of time to explore her new environment and to feel nature. Away from other people, and in what seems at first to be a very bare and hostile, semi-arid environment.

It's hard to explain why I am so drawn to her story. Except that I too am in a strange land, and many times I feel alone, although I am not really. Well, I walk alot, where no one else seems to walk, so I have many times when it is just me and the sun and the wind and the birds and animals, and reptiles and insects. If I sit still for just a few minutes, I think nature forgets I am a foreiger, and life goes on around me. Birds talked to each other, small animals moving around, the breezes blowing first one way, then the other. I love it. Especially just after dawn. Everything is waking up then.

Anyway. It is reassuring to read about someone elses's struggle to feel comfortable in a new place, filled with unfamiliar plants and trees and birds. With new and different names. I feel luck to be here, to have a chance to see a new world, but sometimes it's hard. I guess that's why I like the book. It's hard for this woman to make her new life,and she just keeps going at it. Of course, I have only read two chapters, so who knows what's next.

Another (!!!) Trip to the Vivero

The photos below are of the two plant nurseries near La Penita.
The two people at the head stafff at each of the two nurseries we visisted. Benjamin and ???

I am writing this in Chacala, while I am waiting for a ride with a friend to a plant nursery, or two, or maybe three. This woman built a house here last year and is working on her garden during this visit to Chacala. We are going plant hunting, hoping for succulents. And just looking around to see what’s available.I really like what she has done so far at her place. The area in front of her house is mostly rocks, and she has some great plants growing there, including some agaves and a really beautiful bougainvillea. It’s blossoms are kind of a rust creamy pinkish yellow and really pretty. That’s a ridiculous description. I will take a photo some time.The nurseries I have been to in Mexico: In Chacala, P.V., La Penita, Brucerias, El Tuito, San Miguel de Allende, Tonala, and San Juan de Los Lagos share a lot of similarities. For example, there are no labels on the plants. And the staff rarely knows anything about the plants except for it’s colloquial name. Sometimes they know how big the plant will grow, and how long that will take. But mostly they don’t, or they seem to be guessing.But the plants always seem to be well cared for and watered. And the grounds are usually very orderly and pleasant to be in. Shady and comfortable. Generally with decent bathrooms, which is always nice.San Miguel seemed to have some pretty sophisticated nursery staff, and also some of the strangest. I think one parking lot nursery had stolen plants for sale. I think that because three men drove up in a large truck and started screaming at the guy who was watering the plants, and pushing him around. Then they started loading up the truck with plants. Apparently chosen at random, but who knows. Of course, there was really no way for me to know what was going on, and I walked away. A little too exciting for me.Nursery staff here rarely recommend plants be grown in the direct sun, that is, more than six hours a day. And almost all the plants are arranged in the nurseries so they get either no direct sun, or maybe four hours a day. I am assuming that’s because the sun is so intense here. We are only at 22 degrees north latitude, but that’s a difference that being at 45 degrees, or whatever. I don’t exactly how being closer to the equator effects the strength of the sun’s rays, but it sure seems to make a difference.Yesterday afternoon I made cuttings from Desert Rose, Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, and Ixora plants that are growing at this house. (Photos of the lants are in the previous post.) They are all softwood cuttings, and who knows how they will do. I have been doing a set of cuttings every 10 days or so, and most of the cutting stem to be doing okay. Maybe I loose 25% of the non-succulent cuttings. The succulents pretty much all do okay. I am learning about this stuff, but I have along ways to go. I have been keeping my pots of plant starts under the papaya tree in front of the house. But the papaya is growing so fast it’s not giving enough shade, so I am going to have to figure out sometime else. Maybe a little shade house or something.

Follow-up. Had a very nice trip to the nurseries. But we didn't really find any good plants. I hope the lack of succulents in the local nurseries doesn't mean they always fail here. Well, i know that's not true, because I have Desert Roses and some other succulents growing here in Chacala that are more than three years old.Did get two sacks of dirt and a couple of little cactus starts and a Portulaca. It's fun to go to the nursery with another plant lover. We found a couple of beautiful cacti plants that my friend probably will buy. It was a different afternoon than my usual hurrying around trying to find things while the driver is waiting for me. We went into La Penita for the ATM and for a lovely ice cream break in a nice little place with good ceiling fans. A nice afternoon with a safe driver.