Little Garden Surprises in Chacala or "Success in Ignorance"

Gardening in Chacala is full of nice surprises. I am ignoring the topic of bad surprises for the moment. Today I was out messing with the town water line to this house, and I noticed, looking from the ground-up, that one of the large pots looked different. It's a plant I don't know the name of. The homeowner bought it last winter. Sweet little purple flowers on peculiar, low-growing strange leaves. Nice tidy plant. When I moved back into this house in May the plant hadn't been watered by the owner for quite while, and appeared to be dead.

But, since it wasn't my plant, I didn't want to chuck it, so I added some Vinca's and
Geraniums in the pot, and let it be. Well, after about two months the purple plant was back and looking good. So this morning, then I took a closer look, I realized there were 8 small plants growing from shoots from the mother-plant. nice healthy little guys. So I removed the other plants, and later today I am going to transplant the babies. That is, I will transplant them if my dirt ever arrives.

Then I was fooling around on the veranda, draining excess water from the plants that got drowned in the torrential downpour last night. I think the holes I initially made in my bucket-pots are now plugged up. So later today I am going to try smacking a couple of new holes in the both of each both with my trusty hammer.

Next, I started draining a large diameter plastic tray that is supposed to go under large pots. I use it for piling things up. Plant material, etc. Those trays don't work well here during the rainy season. The water sits in them and draws mosquitos, and the water can't drain out of the soil.

Anyway, I noticed that the pruning cuttings from some succulents I had thrown in the tray, and were sitting on some old not-yet-composted potting-type soil, were definitely rooting. Hoorah. This kind of plant reproduction is new for me, and it seems to be going okay. "Success in ignorance", that's my new motto for gardening in Chacala.