Tag: garden

After the rain

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

It’s been raining a lot this past week. That’s normal for this time of year and we’re very grateful for it. It’s what keeps this island from turning into a desert. It’s mostly real tropical showers: extremely heavy rain for a short period of time. Between showers it’s still warm and mostly sunny. I like that. The Netherlands (where I come from) is worse than Ireland. Gray skies and drizzling showers that last days.

The garden is thriving. I’m happy about that too, although I’m still doing damage control after being away for so long. Thorn bushes and neem were taking over and trees are crowding each other out. But that’s okay. We’ll get it under control someday. And meanwhile, I’m thoroughly enjoying having to spend so much time outside.

Unless it rains. But that’s okay too. It gives me an excuse to pause and sit and knit for a while. Until it gets dry again and I happily go into the garden to cut back another tree.

In my garden

~ Maggie ~ 8 Comments

Still very much a work in progress… Some days I’m slowly cutting back useful herbs and trees to process later, other days I’m just pulling grass and other unwanted plants and filling up my wheelbarrow. But I’m getting there. And, more important, I’m enjoying every minute I spend out there.

Working in the garden has always (even in our small garden in the Netherlands) been a way for me to ground, to reconnect with myself. I know that sounds woo-woo, but it’s true.

Anyway, it’s quite rainy these days, and a bit cooler than usual, so everything is growing really fast and blooming like crazy. So beautiful!

(Do you want names with the plants? I always wonder if people prefer that or not. I do want to mention that the orange flowers are from a shrub called tuturutu. Got to love that name.)

A really big harvest

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

Remember this picture from my garden post two weeks ago? Well, I’ve been working really hard to get that under control (pictures will be posted next week, I think). Most of the green growing unto the path is actually one plant (mixed with some weeds). Lippia alba or, as they call it here, Oregano di Korsou. I love this herb. It smells amazing (lemony) and I also love the taste of it (as a tea). It also has some great medicinal properties. So I didn’t just want to cut those bushes down and dispose of it all, I wanted to harvest the good stuff.

I actually had to set up a folding table to be able to process that many leaves at once.

And yes, I did drink a lot of tea, but the amount you need for that (to drink it safely) doesn’t really make a dent in my growing supply. I’ve been experimenting with other uses before (I made oils and tinctures, and I also soaked it in vinegar and rubbing alcohol to make cleaning solutions). I will do that again once I’ve been able to buy the supplies I need for it. I’m thinking it will make a great tasting syrup too.

But there was still enough to play with. And so one day I found myself twisting and braiding those long branches and voila! A wreath. I love it.

Snapshots

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

In the top of my moringa tree, eating the leaves.

Oh well, it’s not as if I can reach those myself (moringa leaves are healthy, fresh in salads or dried as tea). We can share. Just don’t eat it all please…

In my garden

~ Maggie ~ 9 Comments

So, my garden… It’s huge. Or at least it is for me. We’re on 2000 m2 (1/2 acre). The house sits in the back corner of the lot, so there’s no real “back” or “front” yard. Someday we’re going to build guesthouses on “the other half” of the lot, but that part sits mostly neglected at this point. I sometimes try to work my way through the thorn bushes, but well… my energy is limited and it doesn’t help if you’re not home for almost five months. I was actually thinking I was on top of things when we left in April, but when we got back…. Oh well, I will get to it someday.

My pride and joy though, is the part on the side of the house. Technically it’s in front of the house, but our entrance is on the side and we’ve only got a bedroom window and a small kitchen window looking out on it, so it feels like the side (does that make any sense at all?).

In March 2021 it looked like this:

Now, from a slightly different angle:

And from the other corners (I cleared a path that goes around it).

Yeah, I know. It’s a mess. I’m working on it and I will post pictures when I’ve got it under control again. But looking back at that first picture (really, March 2021!) I’m quite impressed with what I’ve achieved here. Most of the plants and trees I grew from seed or cuttings, a few were purchased, but I never buy big (expensive) plants. And look how big they are now! No wonder things got out of hand in only five months.

I have a vision of how I want this garden to be and I do believe I will get there. As soon as I pull those weeds…

Rain and blooms

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

The last bit of the hurricane season is proving to be quite serious. Don’t worry, we hardly ever get hurricanes. We do get tropical waves and tropical storms though. And that means we’re having lots and lots of rain these days.

We did have a little bit of water coming in (the windows aren’t exactly build to keep water out and there’s this one wall that’s half under the surface of the hill) but we’re happy to be high enough not to have any of the “flooding in the usual places”- as our weather channel calls it. The clouds are blocking the sun, so we don’t get enough power from our solar systems these days, but luckily we do have a back-up from the power company now (we did without for almost two years).

So – mindful about people being less fortunate with this weather – I’m actually quite enjoying it. Everything is so green right now and there are flowers and blooms everywhere.

Um, ignore the mess in that last picture. Weeds are growing really fast too these days. I have been wanting to do “in my garden” posts for a while, but I get stuck overthinking it, because taking good pictures of the garden as a whole is pretty much impossible. And then I don’t take pictures at all (the other pictures are plants on or around our porch). And I wonder what to tell you about that garden anyway. It’s not a regular vegetable garden that keeps changing over the months. And who is interested in a garden in a very specific climate (tropical island) anyway? As I said, overthinking.

Because I’d be interested to see it myself and it will be fun to try and capture the things I notice (it will also help me to notice more, I think). And it will be even more fun to talk about my plans and ideas and dreams… Yes, it will be great to do garden posts…

So I plan on sharing more next week. (There, that’s a promise, now I have to do it, don’t I?)