Friday, June 27, 2008

Garden Wonders




I love gardening. I hope to someday have a real, huge, out of control, too much produce for my family to eat, kind of garden. Until that fine day, I make do with growing what I can in containers. The strawberries amaze me at how they are so desperate to spread. My plants have rooted themselves in the gravel and managed to produce some fruit! Edwin, a really poor boy from the school who machete's our grass for us, has asked me if he can have the strawberries when we leave :) They're quite expensive to buy in the market so that makes me happy knowing he will get to enjoy them when we're gone.

In the front of our house we have a small flowerbed where I planted some sweetpeas. I adore sweetpeas, their aroma is like nothing else. They are growing nicely but I am afraid they may not bloom before we leave! I sure hope they do. In amongst the sweetpeas a vine started to grow that I did not plant. I asked the guys who work at a greenhouse next to us if they knew what it was and they said it was "sandia" (watermelon). These same greenhouse workers like to lounge on the edge of my flowerbeds eating their snacks which have included: Surprise! Watermelon. So they must have spit out some seeds into the dirt and voila - my very own melon patch, sort of. There are a lot of little yellow blossoms on the vines so I've asked my neighbor Ruth to send me a photo if they ever grow some little melons. We don't live in the hot part of Gutemala where melons are grown, but it would be neat to see if some did grow.

4 comments:

Geraldo Maia said...

Hola dear Amber,
It is a great pleasure to be visiting your blog. So well cared. I liked the image at the head of your blog that looks like a statue. Very beautiful.
Desiring to you and family my best wishes and a nice weekend.
From Brazil:
Geraldo

Anonymous said...

I love my gardens too and I have lots of space, but so far living here, the biggest crop we have is rhubarb and I don't do enough with it. I hope this year I have a much bigger crop than previous years and with the spring so nice and wet, it looks like I am off to a good start. Perhaps you can find your way out here this summer to see our place and the animals. No baby animals, but some of them are cute anyway.

Anonymous said...

I too share your passion for growing things! I am horrible at it, but in this country, luckily, you can be horrible and stuff still grows. I am hoping to have a nice little garden this year. My main goal is to grow enough rocket (an amazing little leaf that tastes AMAZING) that I can eat it for every meal!! :)

Flor McNab de Valiente said...

Hola Amber Saludos!!!
le cuento que a mi tambien me gustan los jardiines y sueƱo con tener uno muy lindo en mi nueva casa!!! es algo que siempre me ha gustado...y la verdad es que quiero tener muchas rosas exoticas espero...porque ahora mis flores las arruinan los gatos callejeros..