GARDENING MISCELANEOUS

THE DAY started early. Swept the leaves on the roof, a present from the TABEBUIA, in the noisy, smelly Sagrado Corazon, in Santurce, a private college not far from our residence. During the week,
one awakes with the thunderous noise of the WasteManagement dumpster garbage collect truck, metal against metal between five and five thirty in the morning.

Later is the refrigerated delivery truck with some more irritating noise with the idling and the air extractor from the probably illegal cafeteria in a building that is mostly classrooms. Or the feeders for the air conditioning with an infernal zumming day and night. And the conversations from the laborers in the cafeteria, still talking as when they were in their country of origin, as loud as possible.

I debate which is worse, all these noises day and night, or the repugnant smell of Lipton soup,
bacon, pepper and roasted pig between 6AM to 11 AM. All this special effects, when I go out
in the morning to monitor for insects, smell the Frangipanis, sweep the cement floor and
whatever else is necessary to keep the collection. On Monday I will go to present a formal
complaint about the smell, since one about noise is already with the agency dealing with this
problem.

I want to mention the great advantage of using spraying bombs to irrigate your plants. That is if you have mostly medium and low vegetation in your garden. If you observe carefully, lizards stand guard wherever they regularly hang out while you spray. I believe, they know insects not fond of the water spraying will come out for their breakfast. They do not move
at all, even when I am about two feet from where they are watching.

With this spray bombs one can perform three tasks. Feed the plants with foliar fertilizer, tea compost and plain water. With any task, one will scare away the few insects there are and watch for damage at the right moment to solve the problem before if gets difficult.

I use two spray bombs of one gallon each. Make sure you buy the bomb you need with a filter. Otherwise, even after you filter the tea compost, it will get clogged, a pain in the but, when you have a wide court to cover. If you buy cheap flimsy ones, after fifteen minutes your hand will hurt. Spend a few bucks more for an ergonomic handle that also allows you to
leave the water running constantly, just pump.

I spray about 3/4 of my plants in the ground or pots twice a day. Using about six gallons of water daily, if it does not rain. Before the sun heats and in the afternoons when it cools down. This allow me to check daily on the Cosmos sulfureous, Mirabilis siciliana, self seeding plants that I am very fond of for the color of the first and the smell of the latter.

I would say that if you keep the ground moist for two or three months while different generations of seeds develop and grow at different rates, you will cover the
space as necessary. Remember to leave empty spaces to allow plants to dry completely after a drenching, other wise fungus, viruses, bacterias will have a cozy home to procreate and ruin your effort.

That is that.