Garden of Life

When we got our house the garden was not very grown up. Since the builders had just finished building the house the plants had been put in the ground. We returned to the house six months later and what a difference. That amount of growth would have taken 3 years here in the Pacific Northwest to show the same amount. We landscaped our house here with lots of plants and although some did well others were not that much bigger when we sold it 4 years later. It will be interesting what it will look like again on the next trip down.

We will be buying the small lot next to us for added buffer so when all is done we will have about 2000 sq meters of property. Landscaping in the tropics is a bit different especially since this is part of an old cacao finca. Unfortunately most of the trees have the fungus that affects the fruit causing it to turn black and rot and not ripen to its bright yellow color. I would be nice to be able to harvest some and make our own chocolate, there are place around that do and it is really the best.

Before we left I put an avocado seed in the ground so I will be interested to see if that took. We also have a few banana plants growing. The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy and are often mistaken for trees, but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem that grows 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 24.9 ft) tall, growing from a corm. Each pseudostem can produce a single bunch of bananas. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies. It will be nice to be able to harvest our own bananas.



The Montezuma oropendola is a fascinating bird. We had a flock of about 20 brids show up one evening feeding on the bananas across from us. This large bright yellow tailed bird (18-20 inches) builds pendulous nests, which cluster in colonies of sometimes 140 or more! The most bizarre feature is Montezuma's unforgettable song, of wheezing, gurgling and popping sounds. The male, seen in front of the female, will execute a complete somersault around a branch while simultaneously singing this medley of sounds.


Nests of the Montezuma oropendola

So it really is a garden of life