March Weather Report -- Winds kick up, continued dry and sunny

Thunbergia grandiflora

The winds really picked up during the first half of the month, then died down a little for the remainder. A record wind of 44 miles per hour was posted on March 6, beating the previous high of 42 mph recorded in January. One of the windbreaks in the vegetable garden finally collapsed at the end of the month.

Sunny and mostly sunny skies continued from the previous two months. Rainfall came to only 2.2 inches, and all of it came on March 4, 5, & 6. As a result, I spent a considerably amount of time watering plants and grass. Despite the watering, the grass has turned yellow. The pond turned very green with algae and we had to run quite a bit of water into it in order to keep the water fresh.

Temperatures were virtually identical to the previous month: the average high was 77 degrees; the average low, 59.7.

The agapanthus normally bloom from December through June, but are refusing to put out blooms this year until they receive a little more rainfall. The asparagus, which are tall and scraggly, have taken a beating from the wind.

Happy gardening!

February Weather Report -- More sunny, windy, dry weather

Corn, with windbreak in background

February was pretty much a rerun of January, with slightly higher temperatures. In the middle of the month there was a 16-day stretch with no measurable rain, and 23 of its 29 days were rainless. It was breezy or windy every day of the month.

All of the rain came as spray or light rain mixed with wind from the east. Of the total of 1.5 inches of rain, .9 inches fell in one single day, Feb. 8.

The average high was 77.1 degrees; the average low -- 59.7. Trade winds coming down from the mountains kept temperatures moderate throughout, with the highest temperature of 82 degrees on February 19 and the lowest of 58 on various dates.

The two windbreaks in the vegetable garden continued to hold up, and we added a new section to protect a new section of corn plants. The humidity was low and the fruits and vegetables were completely disease free.

Happy gardening!

January Weather Report -- Break out the sunscreen

January was the sunniest, windiest, and driest month on record (since record-keeping began almost two years ago). Looking over my daily weather descriptions I see it was sunny or mostly sunny for 25 of January's 31 days. As for rain, we received a measly 1.3 inches. We also experienced the longest stretch of days with no measurable rainfall: 17 days (from Jan. 16 till Feb. 1). The trade winds blew almost constantly, and I recorded a record-breaking gust of 42 miles per hour on January 29. By mid-month cracks began to appear in our very clayey soil.

The ground cracked open.

Highs were slightly higher and lows slightly lower than in December: the average high was 74.9 degrees; the average low -- 58.8.

With all this sunny weather I've had to use lots of sunblock on my arms, face, and neck. I also wear a broad-brimmed straw hat.  The wind keeps the temperature and humidity down, so on windy days I can work outside with a long-sleeve shirt till mid-morning.

The good news is that many flowers (such as the hibiscus) put out most of their blooms during the dry season. Also, the lawn needs mowing less frequently.

I have spent a lot of time watering. Last year a friend offered to show me how to install a drip irrigation system, but I turned him down because my first two dry seasons here weren't really very dry at all. I am hand-watering now, and wishing I had that drip system.

The pond has also turned murky and bright green with algae. Once or twice a week I top it up with tap water and also occasionally let several hundred gallons flow out in order to clear the water some. I am working on a home-made biological filter and hope to install it soon.

The two windbreaks in the vegetable garden are functioning well (last January there were no windbreaks and the wind destroyed everything).

If one is willing to spend the time and money watering vegetables, the dry season is an excellent time to grow them.

Happy gardening!

The Greenhouse: part 2

When my handyman, don Alexis, built the greenhouse I knew it needed a long counter to put the plants on, but I didn't have the funds at the time to have him complete the job. There were some small shelves built into the wall, so I decided to make do with them.

Now that I've learned a lot more about growing plants in a greenhouse, and I have the funds, I had don Alexis build the counter. He did a nice job. It's made of steel tubing to which he welded heavy-duty wire. It's painted with rust-proof paint and is strong enough to hold a lot of weight.

I've started some tomato plants now, and plan to continue to fill up the long, 35-foot counter with plants.

Happy gardening!

2011 Weather in Review

Windbreaks constructed in December to protect the vegetable garden

RAINFALL
I am continually amazed by the amount of rainfall we receive here. The total for the year was 129.9 inches. The average annual rainfall recorded at a weather station only about three miles away is 90 inches. So we got 40 inches above the normal. WOW!

We are not experiencing either an El Niño nor a La Niña, so the rainfall and temperatures should be about average. The two factors that could conceivably account for the high rainfall are either yearly variability or very localized weather conditions. It could be a combination of both factors, but I'm guessing it's more the effects of the localized weather. Time will tell.

Monthly rainfall (in inches)
  January           6.8
  February         6.1
  March            3.7
  April              4.5
  May             18.1
  June             10.9
  July              15.5
  August           6.0
  September   11.1
  October       33.3
  November     7.7
  December      6.2

   TOTAL      129.9

The distribution of rainfall by month for 2011 seems about right. The dry season (or summer, as it is called here) usually begins in December and lasts through April. The rainy season (or winter, as it is called here) usually begins in May and lasts through November. The only month that did not fit this pattern this year was August.

TEMPERATURES
It felt warmer this year, and the data bears this out. Comparing the last five months of 2010 (when I began keeping data) with the last five of 2011, every month was warmer in 2011, one month even seven degrees warmer, farenheit.

Temperatures by month
                  Ave. high  Ave. low
  January          77.6      60.5
  February       76.6      58.1
  March           78.2      58.1
  April             78.7      60.3
  May              78.0      62.1
  June              78.0      63.1
  July               78.3      63.5
  August          80.0      64.3
  September    79.6      63.8
  October        75.4      63.1
  November     77.2      61.3
  December     74.4      59.7

WIND, HUMIDITY, AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE
I do not yet have the instruments to measure humidity or barometric pressure. During the dry season, the trade winds are blowing over the top of the Cordillera Central. We are located just a few miles from the top of this mountain range, on the leeward side. These cross-mountain winds keep the temperatures moderate, and the humidity down for much of the year.

For wind velocity, I have a hand-held anemometer. As this is the first really windy place I have lived, I've been interesting in measuring the maximum wind velocity. The windy season corresponds roughly with the dry season, and the trade winds are the dominating force. The winds generally begin in November, a month before the dry season begins, and blow until March, ending a month before the wet season begins, in May.
The maximum recorded wind gust was 34 miles per hour, which occurred in February.

Happy gardening!

December Weather Report -- sunny, windy, and cool

December was sunny, windy, and cool. The trade winds blew almost constantly from the east-northeast, the maximum gust reaching 25 miles per hour. I don't keep statistics on sunshine, but it was the sunniest month I can remember since arriving here in July 2009. Despite the sunshine, spray-rain lashed us frequently, creating rainbows in the west in the mornings and in the east during the afternoons.

Rainfall came to 6.2 inches. We had 19 days with no measurable rainfall. The sun and high winds dessicated the soil rapidly and I had to water the vegetable garden many times. I put up a windbreak on the east side of the vegetable garden at the beginning of the month and added a second one in the middle of the garden on Christmas eve. A two-year-old cypress tree snapped off in the wind and I had to stake several small trees.

A blue-gray tanager that crashed into one of our windows. After nursing it back to health, we released it.

The average high was 74.4 degrees, the lowest this year, and down 2.2 degrees from November. The average low was 59.7, a little cooler than normal here.

Happy gardening!

Calla Lilies

One of the flowers I'd been looking forward to growing in Costa Rica were calla lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica). I knew very little about them, other than the fact that they grew in the tropics in areas with relative cool temperatures. Upon arriving we received a few bulbs from relatives and we stuck them in the ground in various places, none of which had very good soil. They didn't do well.

My wife said they liked damp soil, so a year ago we put some in a pot with good soil, and placed it in our new fish pond. The bulbs were just an inch or two above water level. They didn't do well either. Probably too much water.

I looked up calla lilies in two tropical gardening books that I'd recently acquired. GARDENING IN THE CARIBBEAN did not even mention calla lilies. I found this puzzling at first, but now realize that it logically would not include them because it only covers plants that grow in hot and/or warm climates. GARDENING IN THE TROPICS treated them only very briefly, and stated, ". . . best grown in plenty of light, but not in direct sunlight." When I told my wife this, she said, "Well, the book is wrong because in Costa Rica they are grown in direct sunlight."

I eventually looked up calla lilies on the internet and discovered information that verified my wife's take on sunlight. They do like direct sunlight.

Okay, so about this time we needed to create a series of catchment basins for the
water that ran out of our fish pond during heavy rains. Lots of water (but not too much), plenty of good soil, and direct sunlight -- maybe I could make a catchment basin that would be the perfect spot for calla lilies. So, I dug up an area just downhill from the exit pipe from the fish pond, worked in some sand and lots and lots of compost, and created two gutters exiting from the new basin so that excess water would run out. Next I took the pot of callas from the pond, divided the bulbs, and planted them in the new basin.

Within a couple of weeks we noticed that the plants were putting out dark green stems
and leaves that were much thicker and healthier than they were when they were in the pond. Within a six weeks we had our first blooms, and they have continued to thrive, multiply, and put out masses of blooms for four months now.

In October we got 33 inches of rain, and it seemed to rain almost the entire month, nonstop. At times the calla bulbs were under two to three inches of water for up to five or six hours at a time. But the excess water ran off and the rest soaked in. The callas just love their new environment. I have continued to add compost (and compost tea when they are dry). They, and we, couldn't be happier.

I've noticed that our callas only grow to be about 15 inches tall. The cut calla lilies that I see in the market are about two feet tall. They are grown at higher elevations than our lot. So, I assume that it is the cooler weather that they thrive on.

Happy gardening!