GARDENING BY THE YARD

IT HAS BEEN raining on and off at night, for the last fifteen days. It is nice for not having to irrigate. However, the lemon tree in the south continues with leaf miners or whatever comes along, requiring constant monitoring, a pain in the neck. Spraying, watching, spraying.

The Carica papaya is already on its way to the first crop. Notice to the uninitiated you
need a male and female tree if you want to get some fruit. The flowers are handsome, white and hard, not the typical flower in that sense.. This tree is one of 3 originally
planted from seed in the south side, about ten months ago. It measures about thirteen
feet. One passed away with some disease.

The grafted lemon in the south side, is about to offer the second crop, something unexpected, since as some readers may know, I am was not into the edible bag until recently. If I had to become a farmer, orchards will be my thing.

I remember the first time I saw peaches/apples in in New England. What a trip, to
see those fruits hanging from branches. After all, I was almost thirty years old. Before that, all those fruits from temperate climates were seen, appreciated in the supermarket. For that reason many children in USA, who have only seen chickens in the refrigerators, believe they are borne and grown like that, until they see one with feathers.

Going back to our patio. A new Ipomoea was discovered yesterday while resting after
the daily clean up. It has yellow flowers and is the only one you may encounter here(Puerco Rico) in the wild. For that reason it takes a special ranking among the rest. Everyone else is pink, purple or white with different shades/intensity.

The process of eliminating Bejuco de Puerco and Wedelia trilobata continues. They
will be exiled/eliminated for their irritating habit of leaving their assigned premises
getting off the garden limits. It is not easy, a real headache. For this reason if you are
one of those with a garden in an acre or close, be more careful than I. In such a space
I do not see how you could eliminate this kind of vine/ground cover.

Two new inductees will appear in the OVER ONE HUNDRED CLUB: Euphorbia
cetinifolia, tirucalli. The Ipomoea will enter once the botanical is found. Even though
it may seem that I abandon the garden to get into the writing, mentioning things that
are/are not related to horticulture, I check it twice a day. Plant/transplant/weed,
irrigate, prune/trim when I have too. Contrary to other blogs, I do not feel why the
whole has to deal with this kind of activity. If one practices horticulture seriously many things are implicitly there, there is no other way.

I prefer, however to practice my critical skills constantly from memory moons ago or
recent events that I witness on my strolls, and that is how we are leaving today.

VERY STUPID
GARDENING ACTIVITIES

Some may remember the olmec Mexican indian
Gabriela Ocampo, the wife of that other character
Areces Mallea, Phd.

Check this out.

Even though she is still claiming to be an 'agronomist'
not even having a $19.99 elementary school soil acidity analysis
kit in her office, when anxiety ridden, she will visit their
nursery to do some pruning.

Her victims were tens if not hundred of Bursera busaris.
You should know that no tree should be pruned before reaching
the first of age.

When you do, you destroy the scaffold/architecture.

In consequence you get a top heavy tree that will bend
permanently towards the ground. That is cool if you
have a Weeping willow, or Callistemon, their natural
form.

This idiot mutilated more trees that I could count daily.
Then she will religiously place tutors to each. Unfortunately,
the mentally challenged aboriginal will leave the strings so tight that the tree will
not swing. The reason why a tutor should
leave some room for the tree to move with the wind is to develop
roots for resistance.

Finally, Wilfredo a neighbor two blocks up the street. Somehow,
he has become Farrukito's pal , a character mentioned here in the beginning,
some time ago..

This guy will start mutilating with a DULL machete everything in front
of their ugly, cat poop smelling residence.
Those branches refusing the dull machete are snapped by hand and
dropped in the sidewalk. He kept on going for about
ninety minutes.

Even though there are FOUR big trash cans in front
of his EYES, behind the low fence separating the property from the sidewalk.
When I mentioned it, he put that face of
God, how stupid can one be?
Time to go.