camera

Well folks, it seems my camera decided to kick the bucket.  So today is just a text update.

Got rainbow corn growing, kale, peanuts, onion, potato, stevia, garlic, nasturtium, strawberries, and just planted a lot of hollyhock today.

Eating fresh bananas, loquats, and greens from the garden.

Had a few cold days so my Cuban oregano got "burnt" a good bit but it should bounce back in a few weeks. Cuban Oregano is a fairly cold sensitive plant. It doesn't even have to get to freezing for it to show damage.

This looks to be the first year that I'll get mulberries from 4 or 5 of my trees and the one older tree is loaded with green berries... more than I have ever seen on it before. I'm especially happy that my dwarf mulberry trees look like they will be producing for the first time this year.

I have a lot of banana tree's that are fruiting right now also so I should be set on bananas for a few months, by next year I should have enough banana tree's to produce all the banana's I eat so store banana's will be mostly a thing of the past for me.

This may also be the first year for one of my mango tree's to produce.

In other news, spring is nearly here! This looks to be a great year for gardening. I plan to teach a few garden classes this spring.

"The garden tour" A informational tour of the garden that will leave you with general knowledge of a lot of hardy plants as well as a LOT of plant starts.

Cost - $25
Time - About 2 hours.
You get - Knowledge and plant starts that will make the price well worth it.
Skill level - "I don't have a green thumb" to advanced gardeners.

Plant perspectives -
This class is for everyone. You likely will never view gardening or plants quite the same way again after taking this class. Practical hands on training.  This class presents many alternative uses of plants from a "first human" approach to understanding plants.

Cost - $50
Time - 4 to 5 hours
You get - Knowledge and skills, plant crafts, and starts.
Skill level - "I don't have a green thumb" to advanced.
This is a hands on class so wear something you don't mind getting dirty... just in case.

Just leave a comment if you would like more information about class times and to find out how to sign up.




                                            Word of wisdom for the day.
                       Use those around you as mirrors to see where you need to grow.

spring

This is this busy season so sorry for not posting as often. Good chance I won't be able to post again till after the 14th cause I got a lot goin on.
Have a great week or 2 everyone.

Making a pond

With an island! One of the traveling folk that stayed here helped me a good bit on this recently. Another friend from Nicaragua also helped me on this pond. I asked her to name it for me so she named it "Lago de Nicaragua" which is fitting because it's right next to "little Costa Rica" 

The pictures don't really do it justice. 

This is a pile of dirt. 

di

It's a good idea to dig to see what your growing in.

It's some crazy art like sunrises and the sea

Not to knock the big sites like the Rocky mountains, Smokey mountains, the Grand Canyon but look at the dirt! haha. I know it's different but the beauty of the earth is all over the place. I enjoy looking at nature even if it's just a leaf. 

Building another hugal mound. 

Art is everywhere

Banana tree make great shadows. 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Take cold showers. It causes the blood to rush into your internal organs and then back out to your skin when your done. This flushes your internal organs and skin. Also the mindset required to step into a cold shower willingly is a good one to become familiar with. 

vid of the day 

Mini post

Mulch! It looks like I'll be getting a truck full a week.  Check out a vid called "back to eden" for more information about mulch gardening. 

callaloo! This is a small plant now but these get over 7 ft tall. To the right is dragon fruit. Callaloo is a plant that I grew for a good 6 months before I knew what it was. It's a great green cooked but you could eat it raw. Sometimes I have visitors that tell me what I have been growing. Sure I could look up plants and I do sometimes but I'm taking a first person approach to gardening. The first person approach is where I learn from God and the plant about the plant as if I were the first human. The first humans didn't know the names or how to use them.. They didn't know all the technical mumbo jumbo. They learned from the plant instead of a book. I've learned about plants in this way and then looked them up only to find that I had learned things that were not in the books. First hand direct information vs second hand information. Both forms of information have their place, that's just what I'm doing.  Some people I know can even hold a plant they have never seen before in their hand and tell you what it's good for. 

My cat Tarzan, king of my little jungle. He's got quite the personality and can climb nearly anything. I'll try and get a better picture of him when he's not on the move. 

Word of wisdom: 

Teaching is not the filling of a pail, it's the lighting of a fire.

before and after

This is a picture around the time when I started this project. I wish I had more but I didn't have much camera access back then. 

This is the exact same view taken today. 

This is the hidden aloe flower. I'm still learning about aloe and found this during my self education. Seems that just when I know all the uses of this plant I find another. This "flower" is probably best used to make the ladies happy.

Found this little guy while gardening.

I think it's a baby rat snake but it could be a baby black racer. 

Last year I found 3 eggs while gardening and put them in a bucket to see what would hatch out of them. I ended up with 3 little snakes that looked like this. They were released on my property as yet another means of pest control. My cat however tends to like to kill snakes... 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you live this good things happen.

random day

The beach! It was a little chilly that day but good times anyhow. 

Found this little guy. FL is full of critters. 

Yum yum

Fresh garden greens and eggs. A+ double + good

Some starfruit and orange. My neighbor has a starfruit tree that's full of them. 

Lettuce burrito 

Good memories

I may not celebrate xmas but I do enjoy a good xmas tree fire.

So this did scorch a banana tree or 2 but still good times. I'd say the fire went a good 10 ft high at least.

And last but not least,  pigeon peas! Great all around plant. Helps the soil when you cut it back. Helps your face when you want some awesome Jamaican food.  This is a high yield plant and a great addition to gardens. Provides just enough shade to prevent your tender garden plants from wilting too much in the sun. I have so much FOOD! I have a rule in my house - If your the least bit hungry eat whatever you find in the fridge or around. Even if it's the last one. I don't plan meals and I'm just happy to see all this food getting used before it goes bad. I can only eat so much. Often when I tell this rule to people who visit they don't seem to take me serious. I guess our society has taught us that food is expensive or hard to come by or something. I'm not really sure but it is a bit annoying when my friends ask me if they can have this or that after I tell them the rule. EAT! haha don't ask, just eat your fill. This is a house rule. Let the mainstream, fearful, and stingy worry about having enough food. I got other problems. 

Word of wisdom for the day:

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ~Christ.

Found in Matthew 6. 

I gotta say, I've tested this passage (see context) and find it to be true. I've lost count of the number of times I didn't know where my next meal was coming from. If you only knew a tenth of the stories. 

vid of the day

MLKJ DAY Bryophyllum pinnatum hot air balloon

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'"

My county and many others reply, shutting down the bus for the day as well as other public services. What a way to celebrate. I'm sure Jr would be proud knowing that the countless people who use public transit across the USA will not be able to today in many places. Closed libraries will insure that education slows on this day. Yes Martin Luther King Jr would be proud of how we honor him. 

On to gardening! 

This is a plant that I didn't know the name of till today. Someone said it was called "tree of life" but that's a nickname and one not typically associated with this plant. It's real names:  Bryophyllum Pinnatum, Air Plant, Life Plant, Miracle Leaf, Cathedral Bells, Katakataka, and Goethe Plant.   Common nicknames: Leaf of life, and wonder of the world. It has other names also. I think the flowers look like little air balloons, you will see why a few pics down.

Although this plant has many medicinal uses be careful with how you use it. It can cause cardiac poisoning according to wiki. This doesn't mean people shouldn't use it. Many medicinal plants have what some consider to be "negative" qualities. I find that most medicinal plants simply have built in safeguards to prevent over consumption. 

"Bryophyllum pinnatum leaf 60% methanolic extract was found to inhibit the growth of five out of eight bacteria used, at a concentration of 25 mg/ml." ~ Sciencedirect.com

Inside the flower

Inside the flower I found this. Keeping in mind the thought of air balloons I thought that this looked a little like the burner found in a hot air balloon... and then I opened the "burner".

and found purple "fire" haha nerd moment. 

 Bryophyllum pinnatum leaf is used by some as a topical for joint pain. The leaf is heated in the oven till it wilts and then wrapped around a painful joint such as a knee. I normally wrap it with an ace bandage and leave it on while I'm sleeping. I don't know why it works for that but everyone I've met who has tried it claims it does. This plant has many other uses that can be found with a quick web search.

                                                                     Word of wisdom:
 "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ MLK Jr.  

As always donations are appreciated and help to speed up the project.
Needs: Mulch - the mulch is free at the dump but transporting it is not. The higher quality mulch is about $200 a dump truck full. (I could use 3 dump truck fulls at least.
Tools - I use them till they break and sometimes fix them and keep using them. Currently I'm down to my last good machete $10 to $14. I have one shovel but could use an extra.
I could also use a pitch fork and a good flashlight.