Garden Growth

I have kale in my garden!  I didn't realize until this week that some of the radishes are actually kale.

I love it!  It is bringing me garden joy!!!

And we cleared the rest of the mini-plot of as many rocks, added some bags of soil, and planted some seeds.  We're claiming the rest of the garden now!  No more waiting for rocks to be cleared and leaving it to the weeds--we'll plant and claim it, and just have paltry yield until we get more rocks out.

Thank the Lord for our D.R. garden!

Santiago Gardening (Finally)

Mango tree (left) and pink guava tree (right), both only about a year-old--
probably growing so rapidly because my compost pile is directly in from of them.

 OK, it's been a while since I had a real gardening post.  Actually, it's been a while since I had any post, sorry about that.  Somehow my "free Friday mornings" have been a little less free than I thought they'd be.  Lots of our days off fall on Friday, I've had to schedule appointments on Friday mornings, and, somehow, almost every time one of our kids is sick it's on a Friday.  So there went all that delicious free time I thought I'd have.

Anyway, anyone reading my blog is familiar with my unsuccessful attempts to garden in what I was told is some of the most fertile land on the planet--not a big boost for a gardener's ego I can tell you.  In fairness to my ego, the soil has so much clay I haven't known what to do with it and most of what is grown here is in ample supply and not the foods I want to grow (i.e., I probably could have been successful growing yucca or plantains, I just don't want to).

Some of my challenges have been:

1) the aforementioned clay,
2) stolen soil,
3) a bird that eats baby spinach and red beet seedlings,
4) tropical sun combined with neglectful watering,
5) heat (don't always feel like being out trying).
6) lots and lots of small rocks, intended to decoratively cover the land for I know not what reason,
7) rats in the area as a discouragement for composting,
8) and going back to work part time being closer to full time.

I basically gave up.  But last May or so, I decided that it was too depressing not to compost.  I decided I would compost and just ask myself "If I was a rat, would I eat this?" for foods I wasn't sure about (so, no grains!).  And now, after stealing leaf trash from neighbors' trash piles and lots of our own veggie and fruit waste, we have compost.  And the compost being added to the clay-ey soil (and lots and lots of buckets of rocks taken out) has led to nice garden soil.  So, hilariously, this time my need to compost led to gardening instead of the other way around.

So today we have (once again, I nust say) planted some seeds: kale, red radishes, french breakfast radishes, red beets, and tomatoes.  Not sure how it'll all do, but hoping to get something out of it this time.  Here are some pictures.

My newly planted garden--tiny, but relatively free of rocks and well-composted.  I'm hopeful that when these
seedlings come up, the netting will solve the seedling-eating-bird problem.

Palm leaves I had the kids drag over from neighbors' yards and then stripped and cut into
smaller pieces.  Awaiting sunny weather (we've had a lovely wet weather streak this weekend)
to get them dry for my brown composting material.

Baby chinola vines (passion fruit)

Our first garden harvest, a tomato plant with a single tomato.  Hilariously, this tomato plant was a
volunteer growing in our the strip where our garage door opens with virtually no soil.  We transplanted it
with little hope for its survival.  It is our first successful gardening venture here.  Abigail got to eat it.

My "Garden"

I don't know if I blogged about it at all years ago in Philly, but much of my "gardening" there was really picking out tons of decorative white rocks that someone at some point decided would be easier than grass (before the grass took over through the rocks).  I spent many, many hours picking rocks out of the soil.  At first, there was as much rock as soil.  But gradually, over the years, I reclaimed the garden from both the rocks and the weeds who thought they owned the place.  I added layers of compost and worked the soil year after year.  And it became a garden.

Now, as it turns out, I've moved into another rock-bed-yard house.  And I'm trying to reclaim the soil from the rocks.  We've put in a good 20 or 30 hours at this point and I have a 1.5 by 4 foot little rectangle of dirt to show for it.  Micah wrote in his school journal something like, "I picked rocks out of the garden this weekend." Which surely must translate to "I have a meaningful and stimulating home life."

I've also started composting again.  I was scared for a while, I'll admit it.  I've seen rats in the empty lots near my house.  One even chewed a hole in an old sock we left to dry on the front porch.  Ew, I know.  It was my sock.  And it wasn't that old, just dirty.  What if I attract rats with my compost?

And it's hot, which is a de-motivator for outdoor work.  Enough said.

But I get so restless sometimes, because so much of my pre-Dominican identity was related to gardening.  And I so wish I could get my hands on more varieties of greens!!!  We have arugula, lettuce, herbs, bok choy (randomly), cabbage, spinach, and napa cabbage.  But only rarely can I find any good sautee-able dark greens other than bok choy.  And I miss them!  And I miss gardening!

So I'm giving it a try.  The compost is in full swing.  We're having to steal leaves from neighbors for the dry materials (Owen actually got some security guards restless getting our last load--he got greedy, do you need to steal five bags from one house?).  And the tiny plot of land is ready.  We plan to expand to a full 4 by 6 garden once we de-rock sufficiently.

And the volunteer guava tree should be big enough to make some fruit in a year or two.

Poco a poco, little by little . . .