GARDEN HAPPENINGS

IT HAS BEEN a wet month, but with the arrival of June, this will certainly change as usual. On the garden front, the grafted orchard, Lemon, Orange and Mangifera indica are doing quite well. These are recent arrivals on the wide collection and in the next
couple of months will provide refreshing fruits for the summer.

Six months ago, I used some fertilizer with a sandy rough texture recommended for such, however, even when following the instructions the results were not the best. One can tell, the benefits, when looking at the reactions days after the application. In this case there were lots of leaves falling, a sign of burning. For this reason I changed to Osmocote, a slow release fertilizer. The difference is evident.

Yesterday a new discovery made the day. I found in Miramar, a uppity neighborhood
a couple of mutilated Bauhinias in front of a condo. The size of the leaves, really small and the unusual, not shaped as an orchid, flower, called my attention. After some research, I found it. Bauhinia tomentosa is the new member in the family.

Along with the Passiflora oerstedii, new acquisitions making the collection wider
and more complete in terms of avoiding the common places contaminating the scenery in urban or rural surroundings.

On other fronts, the Ipomoea alba, Passiflora edulis, Bejuco de puerco,
Clitoria ternatea and Cavalinna maritima are doing great. These vines grow fast,and will provide shade, privacy, reducing noise in the process. I still have no explanation why gardeners avoid, do not know, use them in their installations, in Puerto Rico or other countries in which gardening has some relevance and meaning.

One thing I have noticed about ZEN gardening. Even when those installations
with gravel, rocks, water features offer an extraordinary feeling of peace and relaxation, the ones with vegetation, could become overwhelming. If you look with
care, a critical attitude, the amount of prunning required is exhausting.

I can not accept any situation regarding horticulture, that requires excessive time/energy to keep the garden in good shape. Another thing that deserves discussion is the appearance of being busy, artificial and overdone. It certainly does not look natural to have
every bush or tree pruned or trained to acquire weird unnatural shapes that seem
to be the rule in this style of gardening.

Back to the future. The intense rains have made some plants to grow so fast, that
others requiring more sun than available have been removed, placed in pots, for
recovery. Pereskia bleo, is one of those. The Murraya paniculatas, had to
be cleared around to allow more light considering the increase in shade for the reason mentioned. Now is time to go. Until next....