I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot. I know, I know… I say that every time when I’m not blogging at all.
But it’s true. I have been thinking about it a lot.
I never stop blogging because I don’t want to blog anymore. I stop blogging when every attempt at writing a blogpost results in something that I don’t want to put out into the world. And as time passes, my inner critic grows stronger and stronger, until I don’t even attempt to come up with a post anymore.
I do miss it. I always do. And I want to get back to it so badly.
Today I told myself to pick up my poor neglected camera, take three pictures and post them. No words needed. Just look around and find some beauty to document and share. That’s always a good way to start, isn’t it? Because no matter how I feel, there is always beauty to be found. I just need to look for it.
So, I did just that. Picked up my camera. Took some pictures. Sat down at my computer and… Well… Four hours later I’m still struggling with the words of this post. The words I wasn’t going to write.
I almost gave up, but I don’t want to. So this will have to do.
After trying to put things into words for over a week now, I decided to skip an update about the past two months. The good news is that we did get to have a family Christmas, we went to the Zoo with our grandson (and his parents), we visited my father a few times and we were able to be fully present at the wedding of our youngest. Let’s treasure that. The rest… not worth documenting.
I’m planning to write a longer post about my resolutions and/or goals for the new year, but one of the things I really want to focus on is the garden. It’s been doing very well the past few years, mostly since we water it automatically, but it’s a bit (ha!) overgrown. Up to a point where it’s no longer a garden. It’s a jungle.
Before. Just ignore that I already cut off a branch before I remembered to take a picture.
See that Moringa tree on the right? I planted it way too close to the house. But in my defense… a friend of ours had the same trees in his garden and they were tiny. Like only about 2 meters (6.5′) high. Ours are all at least double that height, probably even higher. And since this one is was so close to the house, the top branches hit the roof every time there was a little breeze. And that’s most of the time here. It also blocked a lot of light from our office. I already trimmed it back a few times, but it grows so fast that we decided to cut it down completely this time.
Sad, but necessary.
And then we had to clean up that mess and cut back some other stuff. It took me a while, but hey, look. There’s a path!
Isn’t it funny how patting yourself on the shoulder for results like this (although it’s a far cry from the perfect path I hope to have one day) gives you energy to work on the next thing on the list?
So I worked on this mess next:
Hmn, the photo’s don’t do it justice. But here’s another before and after:
And this one is the most visible improvement:
Far from perfect, I know, but that’s the way I tackle the garden when it’s getting out hand again. First I get the bigger messes done, then I go back for “fine tuning”. Well, that’s the plan anyway. The past four years I never got to finetuning, because there was always a reason for things to get out of hand again. But I have high hopes about this year.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s going on with the blue tarp and the partly white gravel… That’s where I got stuck last year with making the paths beautiful and easier to manage. We had a big mountain of gravel delivered in June (you can see it if you scroll up a bit – it’s next to the car) and we were trying to move at least a few loads in the wheelbarrow a day, but fell off the bandwagon when temperatures got abnormally high. I would like to have it all done by the time our daughter, son-in-law and grandson are coming to visit (in March!), so I need to get back to it.
But first there are lots and lots more big messes to tackle. Not to mention the fact that I need to remove that Moringa tree stump. These trees don’t give up so easily.
Such a nice picture to start this post with, isn’t it? But to be honest, this is what my whole garden looks like right now. Lots of rain, combined with the gardener (that would be me) being sick all the time makes a very good combinations for all the weeds.
Of course, as an (aspiring) herbalist and a nature lover, I really don’t see any plant as a weed.
I mean… how beautiful are these?
Look at that beautiful leaf!
But this little square space is more or less our front garden. We have a weird layout, but if you walk up the steps to the front door, this will be what you have to look at. So I really wanted to clean it up a bit and I thought this was the perfect little project to start with now that I’m feeling a bit better. You know, small steps.
Don’t worry, I made sure there were other specimen of the same species growing somewhere else in my garden and I replanted some of the ones I pulled out somewhere else.
So this is what it looks like now. I (re)planted (dug them up from elsewhere in the garden) two bromelias and some lemongrass to add a little bit of green. I am very happy with it!
Oh, for those of you who have been here a long time: yes, that’s the little palm tree we planted four years ago.
:: my lantana really benefits from watering twice a day. It looked almost dead and now it’s flowering again
:: berbena is growing like crazy too, benefiting from the wastewater from my kitchen, shower and washingmachine. Those were never connected to the cess pit, but the water ended up on the path. I finally extended the pipes into the middle of my garden.
:: I’m growing more lemongrass than I’ll ever be able to make tea with
:: the tuturutu is blooming too
:: and the flamboyan trees that were completely bold are having a great time too, making leaves and even flowers (for the first time – I grew them from seed a few years ago)
So, all is great and my garden is perfectly kept? Ha! Nope. Reality check:
:: a thorntree that I usually cut back as much as I can somehow grew a branch that is so long that it’s hanging over my path (it’s hard to take a picture of, but you can spot it in the third picture)
:: devils thread is trying to invade my garden again (nasty stuff, it kills the plants it grows on and you literally have to unravel it carefully, because even half an inch will survive and grow out again)
:: we had a big pile of gravel delivered and we were half way making paths. Right now it’s too hot for that kind of hard labor, so that project is on hold until it’s cooler (that can take a while) or until I feel like I can handle the heat again (had a bit of a heatstroke last week, so I’m a little bit more careful now).
:: and I really need to do some weeding and pruning
I’ve slowly been reuniting myself with the joy I used to find in my garden. It still needs a lot of work, but I try not to get overwhelmed by it. I really do my best to focus on just being there and enjoying the beauty.
Sometimes you have to change the narrative of your life, don’t you think?. Instead of: “I have to do chores in the garden”, I try to tell myself: “I get to spend time in the garden”. It’s only words, but words do have power.
So yeah, I got to spend a lot of time in the garden last week and this weekend and I think I may be lucky enough to spend even more time in the garden today.
It’s funny (or I try to convince myself it’s funny – it’s also a bit frustrating); everytime I write a gardenpost I am so, so sure, that the next one will be a more cohesive and structured one, one with “see how much this grew”, and “look, I planted this”. But gardening here just isn’t structured, especially not when I sometimes leave for weeks (or months) and also sometimes just don’t have the energy to do all the work. Things get out of control pretty fast here.
So, I’m back to the chaos of digging out our driveway and the paths to my garden. I don’t really mind (it’s good exercise), but it doesn’t make for beautiful pictures and informative blogposts.
But wait! There is still beauty in the chaos. Flowers, buds, beautiful leaves. So let’s focus on that.
Ah, that’s better. My next gardenpost will be… Ha, let’s not fool ourselves. It will probably be much like this one, and that’s okay. It’s real life. And isn’t it great that my life is full of beauty if I just look beyond the chaos?
I know… that’s not what you’d expect from a tropical garden. But that’s what we’re at right now. Some papaya fruits and a few tiny tomatoes.
Tomatoes and me… not working. In the Netherlands I struggled with it being too cold and too wet and I had a lot of diseases. And here… too hot and too dry. I know it can be done, but you need to pay a lot of attention to the plants and put a lot of energy and time in it. And right now… well, that’s not an option. I need a garden that can mostly tend itself. Goodness, it’s so hard to accept that – I would love to be a “real” gardener, but I doubt I will ever have the time and energy. Anyway, tomatoes are out for now.
The papaya tree though… Granted, only one of the several trees I tried to grow last year is thriving. But it is full of fruits and oh my… they taste so, so good! I’m trying to let them ripen on the tree as long as I can. I lost one of them to the birds, but since they wake me up with their singing each morning, I think that’s a good trade.
I almost didn’t post this picture. I found it a bit disappointing and not just because the resized picture is kind of blurry (the original isn’t). I have this vision in my head of how it will look someday, but you have to have a strong imagination to actually see it, I guess. But it will be nice to see the progress, so here we go. There will be paths around this part of the garden with that white gravel you can see by the house. I’m planting trees (mostly fruit trees) and I will add bushes and herbs when those are settled.
I planted this guave yesterday. I got it from the supermarket.
This is soursop. I grew a few of these from seed. These one looked the strongest, so I hope it will catch on.
I also planted a Flor de Jamaica yesterday (from the supermarket), but the picture was blurry. I hope to get back into the garden today to plant some more. I still have pomegranate and avocado that need to go into the ground. Oh, and “bonchi kabai” too.
Another coconut palm that we grew from scratch. I’ll have to show you how big the first one got. It still feels unreal to have these growing in our garden.
There are actually papayas growing on my tree. You can cook them as a vegetable when they’re green, but I’d rather wait until they are ripe and orange.
Meanwhile, at the other side of the house, Poes is sleeping on top of my mint. Oh well, it wasn’t really catching on anyway. It is strange though, at the other side of this raised bed I’m growing catnip, but he never even looks at it…
I was planning to do a garden tour, with lots of explanations and things like that, but… well… my garden is still a big mess. And I don’t really have time right now to write blog posts like that. But I do want to get into a blogging routine again, so I decided to just post some random garden pictures this week.
My moringa tree. One of three actually. I grew them from seeds. This one is the highest. Almost four metres already (they tend to go up first and spread out after that). It’s hard to see in the picture, but it’s blooming. I plan to plant more of these trees (already have some seedlings going), since we drink moringa tea daily (for it’s healing properties) and it would be nice to harvest that from my own garden.
I sowed some cucumber seeds and those came up pretty quick. Some local gardeners on facebook make a big deal about the whole process of pollination, but I just hope the bees will do their jobs. Meanwhile, I love those bright yellow flowers.
My desert rose is still going strong. I bought it two years ago when we still lived in our rental studio and it hasn’t stopped blooming since.
This is a new one. Lantana. The flowers change color from bright red to light orange. It also has some healing properties, but I haven’t had time to study those.
Besora kora. This one is considered a weed, It does grow everywhere, but I really like it. I’m told they use the above ground parts in water for cleaning in India. Here they use it for smudging. The stems make excellent brooms (that’s what I’m told, still need to try to make one) and the roots are used to make a gargle for sore throats.
I am studying local herbs and trees. Most of it on my own, by trying to find out about the plants I have in my garden, but I’m also following workshops with our most well known local herbalist. I have a lot to learn (so many plants I’ve never seen before), but I love it so much.
More garden content… I’ve been thinking about starting another blog for my garden and things related to that (herbal medicine) because there may be a lot of that in the nearby future, but I decided to just keep it all together and go with the flow. This blog has always been very personal and changing along with my interests, so maybe it’s time to accept that it is what it is, instead of trying to be “more professional”. It’s supposed to be fun. Don’t worry though, there will be knitting/crafting too 😉
Anyway, this morning I started early (before it got warm) and walked around. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
:: watering the banana tree and wondering if it’s a plantain (banana in Papiamentu) or a banana (bakoba in Papiamentu). I asked when I bought it, but I was talking English and the woman I bought it from was speaking Papiamentu and Spanish (she wasn’t from Curaçao). I only realized there might have been a miscommunication about this being a banana tree when I was driving back home. I tried to look it up online, but I’ll have to wait until more leaves and fruit are growing to know for sure.
:: watering my papaya trees and wondering who’s eating the leaves. All six of them look like this or worse. I suspect iguanas, but we’ve also seen a deer on the other side of the fence and there is a part missing. I do hope this will stop soon.
:: hoping the geraniums (pelargoniums) I planted out yesterday will survive. Over the day they lost about all their color and they don’t look too happy. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all those years of working with plants, it’s that you have to give them time. Even if you think they’re dying, they’re often just trying to adjust. So we’ll wait and see. I did move them to a spot that has a little bit more shadow though.
:: noticing the neem tree is flowering. I checked online to see if neem flowers have any use. Oh yes, they do. So I gathered a few to dry them and I will be clipping more this evening or tomorrow morning. I also want fruit, so I have to be careful not to clip too much.
:: thinking this ancient Kalbas tree just outside our property may grow one kalbas this season. At least if I’m right about this being the flower. It’s fun to get to know these local trees and plants.
:: treating my desert rose with dish soap (diluted of course) and hoping that will get rid of the bugs that are bothering it. It’s still flowering (all year long!), but it doesn’t look as happy as it usually does.
:: wondering what tree this is. It’s almost always bare (iguanas eat the leaves), but right now it has flowers that smell wonderfully sweet and there are berries on it too. Maybe it’s time to join some of those local gardening groups on facebook so that I can ask if someone knows.
:: planning to do so much more. Sow some of those seeds I bought Wednesday, plant my avocado tree (it needs more room than the planter can give it), remove more thornbushes to make room for more plants, make ginger oil, look up more recipes like that… Oh, the list in my mind is endless. I think I’ll start by writing it all down, that might help 😉
NOT A STATION 