The Vegetable Garden, Part 1

The vegetable garden has been a struggle -- eight inches of solid clay, covered by rampant African star grass, and rain averaging over 20 inches a month, oh my! And we are bracing for the invasion of the gophers (it is only a matter of time before they discover the veggies) and winds in December and January are expected to be in excess of 70 mph, oh my, oh my, oh myyyy!!!

The vegetable garden has been on my mind since we arrived in July of 2009. It was, of course, just a concept at the time, and even though I couldn't wait to get started, it had to remain a concept for quite some time. First, we had to finish the construction of the house, then we had to deal with soil erosion, establish a lawn, landscape the entrance, build a sidewalk, and begin planting trees and shrubs. The vegetable garden always seemed to take last place.

It finally got underway in February 2010 when I marked off a 30 X 25-foot section of ground, and covered it with two layers of black plastic, weighted down with stones. I waited patiently for three months, and in May pulled back the plastic. Voila, the star grass was gone. My gardener and I spent two hours digging it up to remove any remaining star grass roots. The soil was hard, red clay. I trenched it to about a foot deep, buried fresh compost, and waited another month. During the trenching process I came across the original topsoil, about 8 inches down. What a pity! I then covered another section of grass and clay with black plastic, so the garden would eventually be 60 X 25 feet in size.

Red clay is about 8 inches deep.

In June I planted a row of sunflowers. I knew they would do well, even in the clay, and hopefully their roots would get down as far as the compost and old topsoil. Also, when they finished blooming I could dig them under to help build up the soil.

In July a started forming the first rows for planting, digging in compost, sand, rice hulls, topsoil, and lime. I didn't add nearly enough soil amendments, but I was anxious to get started. I only spaded up about the top four inches of soil (back in South Carolina I always went down at least a foot). I planted radishes, cilantro, corn, okra, beets, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peanuts. This was all experimental, of course, and my expectations were low. I wanted to see how different crops dealt with the soil and climate.

Garden at an early stage. Sunflowers on the right, corn on the left. Arbor in the background was for chayote, which got torn up by 70+ mph winds in December and January.

In August I pulled back the covering of plastic over the new section, only to discover that the plastic had not killed the star grass nearly as well as the first time.

Black plastic covering the new section.

Back in the original section, the sunflowers did extremely well. The peanuts did surprisingly well too, given the conditions. The corn started out well, but the stalks began to die one by one. I discovered they had a bad infestation of grubs. The okra and tomatoes fizzled. Being charitable, I'd say the other things did so-so.

Heavy rains began in mid-July and the garden became a swamp, even though it was on a slight slope. I dug a ditch around the edge and began creating raised beds. My first set of raised beds is complete and I have added a lot more soil amendments. My second round of plantings are doing much better than the first. These include corn, cilantro, lettuce, sweet peppers, okra, sweet potatoes, and mustard greens. I treated the corn for grubs and stalk borers, which seem to be a big problem here. We just harvested our first crop of mustard greens and they did just as well as in South Carolina. The second corn planting looks good and is tasseling.

Two weeks ago the gardener and his helper dug up the new section. I knew the top six-to-eight inches was solid clay, so I had them remove it. My helpers were a little dubious at first, but pretty soon they came to the dark topsoil underneath and began to get excited. Last week I finished the first of four raised beds in the new section and planted it in peanuts and radishes. The second raised bed is now complete and ready for planting. I have been looking for seed potatoes and flats of onions, but have yet to be able to locate any.

Raised beds -- mustard, sweet potatoes, & cilantro on the left, corn in the middle, one hot pepper plant on the right.

The raised beds are approximately six inches high (just high enough so they will not flood) and about 30 inches wide. Due to the heavy rains here, I have used wooden boards along the sides of the beds to reduce soil erosion. The boards are held in place by rebar cut to lengths of 16 inches and driven straight into the ground. For the high winds, expected to arrive in December, I have put up a wind barrier on the east side made out of wooden posts with corrugated metal siding. All of these materials -- boards, posts, and rebar -- were  left over from the house construction.

Removing the red clay from the new section.

For the gophers, I have gopher traps ready for use. I have tried the traps once before, without success. Gophers are wily creatures. It's going to be warfare, I am sure.

The new section is ready for raised beds.

I also constructed a three-foot high wire fence around the entire garden, to keep the dogs out. So, the garden is now dog-proof, flood-proof, and wind-proof. The gophers, I think, will be the ultimate challenge.

First crop of mustard greens (with some ñame in the foreground).

Happy gardening!

The Sun Comes Up Behind Irazu

Turrialba on left (with plume); Irazu on right, moments before sunrise.

Irazú Volcano looms on the horizon fifteen miles east of us. Next to it, and set seven miles farther back, is Turrialba Volcano. At 11,000 feet elevation, Irazú is one of the biggest landmarks in the country. When driving in the Meseta Central, if I am lost and I see Irazú ahead of me, at least I know I am headed east. I have used its location many a time to help me find my way around.

Day length varies dramatically with the seasons in the temperate zone; in the tropics it only varies by a few minutes. This is something I knew when I moved here. I also thought another difference was that, whereas the track of the sun across the sky changed dramatically in the temperate zone, in the tropics it stayed virtually the same. Boy was I wrong. When we arrived, the sun was rising just to the north of Turrialba. Soon we noticed it rising just to the south of it, then behind Irazú, finally to the south of Irazú.

This change of the sun track affects gardening, as we quickly learned. We planted some shade-loving plants in the shade of our avocado tree. But as the sun moved, we found them in the sun. Oops! The position of the sun can be an important detail when gardening in the tropics.

So, actually, the sun doesn't always come up behind Irazú --only in November, December and January.

Happy gardening!

Peanuts

Peanut plants just prior to harvest

After 41 years I have been happily reacquainted with peanuts, growing them, that is. My first gardening experience was in the school garden in La Cuesta, a village in southern Costa Rica. Somehow I got a hold of some peanut seeds, we planted them, and as I recall, they came out pretty well. I'm not sure why I never grew them again, until now.

This last May my best friend, Louis, brought me various packets of vegetable seeds he had purchased at Griff's Feed & Seed in Pendleton, South Carolina. Among them were some Valencia peanuts. I was dubious about the peanuts, and I told Louis: (1) I didn't think it was warm enough at our elevation for peanuts, (2) peanuts needed a sandy soil, and my soil had way too much clay in it, and (3) if I planted them then, they would mature during the peak of the rainy season, which might cause the peanuts to either rot or to sprout before I could harvest them. Louis was persistent in his encouragement for me to plant them, and I knew that every time he Skyped me on the internet he would ask me about them. So, more to shut him up than for any other reason, I planted about 10 seeds in my fledgling vegetable garden.

Peanut harvest

I got 100% germination, and, to my surprise, the plants looked fairly good, but seemed to be struggling somewhat in the clay soil. Then I started my raised beds with improved soil. The peanuts were now about two months old, and were in the way of my future raised-bed garden. So I dug them up and moved them to the raised beds. They went into shock, but the heavy rains kept them alive, and with the new soil, they seemed to actually improve. Late in the season it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, or thereabouts, and I was worried about the peanuts rotting in the soil, and then suddenly, at 123 days the rains stopped. Valencia peanuts are not supposed to be harvested for 140 days, but the dry spell continued and I knew this would probably be my only opportunity to harvest them. I pulled up one plant, and checked the peanuts. They seemed to be in good shape, and the seeds were nice and plump. So, I pulled up the remaining few plants and am now drying them. I plan to roast them next week. Valencias are used more for boiling than roasting, but I prefer roasted peanuts, so that's what I plan to do with them. I have been keeping Louis appraised of the progress, and he seems to be delighted. Next year I'll ask him to bring a roasting variety.

Happy gardening!

September Weather Report -- Distastrous Rains

Rains continued apace in September. Low pressure zones (including Hurricane Matthew) crossing the Caribbean from east to west pulled moist air in off the Pacific Ocean, dumping tons of rain across Central America and Mexico. Rivers flooded, bridges washed out, and roads collapsed. The road next to our favorite watering hole in Concepción (Bar La Guaria) collapsed on the last day of the month, closing the bar (temporarily, we hope) and very nearly swallowing it up.

Enormous hole next to Bar La Guaria

Very little gardening took place at our home due to the soggy conditions. It was even a challenge to find a couple of hours of sun in order to cut the grass. Trees and shrubs are doing as well as expected, given the conditions. If it weren't for the drainage ditches dug at the beginning of August, many things would not have survived. Corn, radishes, peppers, and mustard are doing well in the raised beds in the vegetable garden. Almost all of the vegetable seeds planted in flats failed to germinate. Tomato plants are not looking good.

Total rainfall was 26.7 inches, half an inch less than August. Cumulative rainfall since we began measuring it in mid-June comes to 70 inches! The highest daily total for the month was 4.7 inches on Sept. 28. There was measurable rainfall on 28 of the 30 days.The first half of the month was quite nice, with generally sunny mornings and rain in the afternoon or evening. The sun was rarely seen during the second half of the month.

Normal rainfall in our area is 10.5 inches in August and 16.5 in September, so you can see, we are way above the average. Last year we had an El Niño, which brought warmer, drier weather. This year we are having a La Niña, which makes for cooler, wetter weather.  As for the future, October is generally the rainiest month of the year.

Stay tuned, and . . . happy gardening!