This has been a different winter for us, feeling less like a tourist and more ‘normal’ living.
The first house that we stayed in had some lovely shrubs and bushes. I particularly liked the red ginger plant. There was also a pretty pink variegated hibiscus, plus a bunch more. We thought as we were going to be in Pedasi for five months there would be plenty of time to experiment. And according to YouTube it should not be that difficult.
After four months we planted the ‘fruits of our labour”. Don’t believe everything you read/watch.
We started with soil, pots and Daryl digging up three small ginger plants,
Anybody who knows me, knows that I have a perfect brown thumb.
We were still getting rain in November, everything looked so lush.
Four months later the ginger is planted in our garden…it’s a small one. The three original plants have now morphed into 10 or 12.
Most of the tall parts died, but new shoots came up through the soil. The ginger was our most prolific grower, think it might easily take over.
Below is the momma plant, what we hope ours will look like in the future. Of course there is the small item of not being around to water for about six months. Thankfully, here it will be wet season for a part of that time.
We dug up and planted a bird of paradise (I think) and a few days later this pretty little leaf showed up. In a short while it dried up and disappeared. A few weeks later one tiny little green shoot came up and it has just kept on growing.
Who would have known hibiscus would have been the most difficult to grow. We watched so many different videos and tried two different methods. Truthfully, if we want them in the future, it will be a whole lot easier to go buy them.
We planted shaved hibiscus sticks in soil and put branches in water. Either way, we read, in two weeks the plants should be established. That was a pipe dream! Thankfully a couple survived
We started out with dark pink hibiscus cuttings, tried rooting in water and planting the ‘sticks’ in soil. Nada
Then we tried yellow hibiscus and watched them whither and die.
Next we went for red, apparently that colour is supposed to be the easiest to root and grow.
Well, we have something in our little plot, I guess we just have to wait and see what we have actually ended up with.
Pineapples are cheap, juicy and sweet. Daryl found a YouTube video on how to root. So he cleaned two tops and stuck them in water. Eventually they did root and were planted.
It has taken a long time, one is doing well, the other not so much. We were at friends house a couple of nights ago and they have a pineapple patch in their garden. Apparently, all you really need to do is stick the cut off top in the dirt and it will grow. Although it will take about two years to get fruit.
The avacados we have been eating here are long neck, they taste and look different from the hass we generally get at home. Daryl put a pit in water to root, it did, but took a very long time, probably 6 weeks to 2 months. But once it was put in a pot you could practically watch it grow. it has now been transplanted in our newly created flower bed.
On the left is a cutting from a maracuyá, or passion fruit, vine. This house has a vine growing along a fence that produces quite well. We have taken several cuttings and tried to root in water (that’s what YouTube said to do) and they have all died. This time we took a cutting and planted it. A week later and it still looks healthy. On the right is the loofah plant that we were able to root. We tried a dozen or more seeds and only one sprouted. That too is a vine that grows along a fence.
We have closed in all four sides to shelter our little plants from the intense sun and the wind. Two more weeks of watering and they are on their own for a long time!
It will be interesting to see what our little flower bed looks like in November.
Cheers
Ruth
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