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!

Pecking Order

We love to watch the birds in our garden. They are totally different from the ones we had in our garden in South Carolina, with the one exception of the house wren. The house wren here, however, is a different subspecies, and sings more sweetly than the one on South Carolina.

After two years of observation we have learned a lot about the birds. One of the biggest differences is that many of the birds here are nectar and fruit eaters. In South Carolina we put out mostly seeds, and ocassionally some suet. We tried putting out fruit a couple of times, but only succeeded in attracting butterflies and wasps. Here in Costa Rica, 16 out of the 78 species we have on our property are fruit and/or nectar eaters. We have two platform feeders where we put plantains, and sometimes bananas or papayas.

There is a lot of competition among the birds for the fruit. Some bird species tolerate other species at the feeder; other species will chase off any other birds. Over time we have figured out the pecking order, i.e., which birds dominate other birds. The order seems to be determined by a combination of size, size and shape of bill, and personality.

Blue-crowned motmot

Ironically, at the top and bottom ends of the pecking order are the two largest birds. The blue-crowned motmot is the uncontested king of the feeder. When it lands there, all other birds make a beeline for the bushes, where they remain until the motmot has had its fill and eventually lumbers off with a full belly. Although motmots are fairly sedentary birds and seemingly nonaggressive, they have long, vicious-looking bills, and will sometimes peck at other birds that try to land on the feeding platform. Motmots sometimes stay at the feeder for a half hour or more, resting between feeding sessions. If this goes on long enough, the birds in the bushes become wrestless and the clay-colored thrushes in particular begin to buzz the feeder, being careful to stay just out of pecking distance.

Near the bottom of the pecking order are the red-billed pigeons, which weigh almost twice as much as the motmots (the pigeons weigh 230 grams; the motmots, 120 grams). The pigeons have very small bills in relation to their size, and a very passive personality. They wait on top of our poro tree and watch the feeder till the morning feeding frenzy is over. Then they descend en masse on the feeder.

Male Hoffmann's Woodpecker (photo courtesy of R. Hays Cummins)

After the motmot comes the Hoffman's woodpecker. It is a medium-sized bird, but has a long, sharp and powerful bill. It is willing to share the feeding platform with other birds, but if challenged (which is usually by a thrush) will quickly drive the other bird off. It is kind of like Teddy Roosevelt -- it walks softly, but carries a big stick.

Next come the clay-colored thrushes (until recently called clay-colored robins) and the Baltimore orioles. There are lots of thrushes and they are around the feeder all day bullying the other birds to no end. The orioles are aggressive when they are here, which is only part of the year. They chase off most other birds, but seem to delight in squaring off with the thrushes. The thrushes usually stand their ground at first, but the orioles generally win out in the end.

Great Kiskadee

Great kiskadees come next in the pecking order and also fight a lot with the thrushes. Black-headed saltators follow. If at the feeder singly, they cannot stand up to a thrush, so what they do a few times a day is they come in as a family of four to six birds and take over the feeder. Not even a motmot can stand up to a mob like that.

The kiskadees and black-headed saltators are followed in the pecking order by a motly crew of grayish saltators, flame-colored tanagers, summer tanagers, and ocassionally hepatic tanagers. At times they will squabble among themselves, but they are basically non-aggressive birds.

Summer Tanager

Below these are blue-gray tanagers and Tennessee warblers. These birds almost always come in pairs. The blue-gray tanager seems to be a friendly bird and is generally not bothered by the other birds, with the exception of the thrushes. The Tennessee warblers just started showing up this year. They will land on the feeder when any other type of bird is feeding, with the exception of the motmots, and dart in to to peck at the plantain, and then quickly back out again.

We also have three species of hummingbirds, but they do not eat fruit, only nectar, so do not come to the platform feeder.

Happy gardening!

The Greenhouse

We have a greenhouse. It's a little different from most greenhouses. It happened because of two unfortunate circumstances. Here's how it came about.

Our guesthouse is built on a slope, with the front on the downhill side and the back on the uphill side. Instead of building the front a little above ground level (which we would have done, and which would have resulted in the back being AT ground level) the builder put the front at ground level, which resulted in the back of the house ending up about three feet below ground level. Then he extended a patio about 15 feet out from the back and built an eight-foot high retaining wall. So when you look out of the rear windows of the guesthouse you are looking at a wall. All this was done without our knowledge, and when we discovered what he'd done, it was too late to change it. So we had this little patio behind the guesthouse that we just hated.

Next, when I began gardening I quickly became aware that some of the plants (like tomatoes) did not like the cool, wet, windy weather. So, in essence, as they say, we took lemons and made lemonade -- we had our handyman build a transparent roof over the patio. Voila! we had a greenhouse, a place to put plants that were sensitive to wind and rain.

Rainwater storage tank

One unique design feature --  we designed it so we could collect the rainwater that ran into the roof-gutter and channel it into a 110 gallon tank with a spigot at the bottom. We use this water for the plants in the greenhouse. We also use the water to ferment compost tea. Being natural rainwater, with no chlorination, it is perfect for this purpose. After nine months of watering the plants, we have never run out of water from the tank.

I started tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and a few other things in the greenhouse. Never having had a greenhouse, and never even having thought about having one, I was faced with a learning curve.The greenhouse was going to be the silver bullet to end all my problems, I thought. But, alas, things went downhill from the start -- everything became sick.

It just so happened that the beginning stages of the greenhouse corresponded with a month of damp, cloudy, foggy weather. Not good.

The tomatoes got blossom-end rot, early blight, late blight, and powdery mildew. Although the peppers got powdery mildew, they did produce some peppers, but they were small and sickly looking. Cucumbers were planted in pots that were too small, and they got powdery mildew, produced a few cucumbers, which quickly became infested with tiny green worms that bored into the fruit, and then they just pooped out altogether. The eggplants got everything that the tomatoes got, but in spades. I started some celery plants (which really didn't need to be in the greenhouse) and they were small and puny looking.

Gradually I began to discover my mistakes and have taken corrective actions. Things are doing much better now.

The first lesson learned was that most plants in the nightshade family -- tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers -- not only don't like a lot of rain, they generally don't like high humidity either. Ed Burnhardt of The New Dawn Center  taught me this. "Grow these things in the dry season, when the humidity is down," he told me. The dry season is upon us now, so time to start those tomatoes.

The second lesson was also taught to me by Ed -- tomatoes (and many other plants) will benefit from Epsom salts (and some lime) if grown in the wet topics. This is because the high rainfall leaches magnesium out of the soil. Magnesium plays a role in strengthening plant cell walls, allowing the plant to take in the nutrients it needs. It also aids in seed germination, photosynthesis, and in the formation of fruits and seeds. I had begun to use Epsom salts in the outdoor garden, but figured, I had given the plants in the greenhouse such good soil, they really didn't need Epsom salts. But then Art Sulenski, a gardener from the San Ramon area, mentioned in a post on the internet that he had used Epsom salts in his greenhouse. So I tried it. Within a week the plants had perked up and the tomatoes and eggplants were setting fruit for the first time.

The next big revelation was the importance of trays under pots. I had never grown anything in a pot before, so didn't understand the importance of having the pot sit on a tray or saucer. Over the years my wife had had potted plants indoors, and they always sat on saucers in order to protect the floor or furniture they sat on from water that might run out the bottom of the pots. I had also learned from her that African violets needed saucers, and when watering them, they should always be watered in the saucer, never from the top. But, I figured, I wasn't growing the plants indoors, and I wasn't growing African violets, so trays weren't necessary. The idea of trays came when I noticed that tiny ants were building colonies in many of the pots. I posted a message on the crgardening group about how to prevent ants in pots. The answer came back -- trays full of water under the pots. When I did this, the plants began to perk up almost immediately, especially the celery, which had been languishing (it is a plant that likes damp conditions). So, trays not only help control ants, but also keep the plants moister. Another benefit is that this reduces the frequency with which they need to be watered.

The other two minor lessons learned were to make sure the pots are large enough, and to prune off diseased and sickly-looking foliage.

Now that I have learned these basic greenhouse 101 lessons, I look forward to growing healthier plants.

Happy gardening!

November Weather Report -- Sunny weather returns

Pascuita (Euphorbia leuococephala) which begins blooming at the end of November, and is a sign that Christmas will soon be here.

 The rains stopped on the first day of November. The next morning the sun emerged after an absence of almost a month. Local radio stations began receiving calls from listeners reporting a strange round, yellow object in the sky (how quickly we forget what the sun looks like!).

The rest of November was sunny or partly sunny, with measurable rainfall every two or three days -- just about perfect for the garden. Clear skies brought warmer days and cooler nights, with highs around 77 and lows around 61. Winds picked up from the east (the trade winds) and we experienced gentle breezes or light winds most of the time. Total rainfall came to 7.7 inches. Rainfall for the year now stands at 124 inches.

I spent much of the month getting the vegetable garden ready for planting.

This was the third November we have experienced in Costa Rica. Although considered part of the rainy season, I have found November to be an overall pleasant month -- rains are diminishing while sunshine is increasing; humidity is dropping while winds are increasing, and changing direction from the west to the east. This is healthier for the plants, and also reduces mold and mildew in the house, so is healthier for the gardener as well.

Happy gardening!

Tree Tomatoes, revisited

In the blog entry for October 18 I mentioned how well tree tomatoes did here, but also some of their drawbacks:

  1. Hard to peel
  2. Not much pulp
  3. Seeds as hard as beebees

We have since learned more about the tree tomato, and that it really doesn't have any drawbacks at all. In fact, I'm now eating a couple of fresh tree tomatoes ever day and it has become one of my favorite fruits. In an attempt to describe its flavor, I'd say it's a little like a cross between a tomato and a persimmon. But please don't hold me to that, as it's been a very long time since I tasted a persimmon.

What we discovered was that we weren't letting the fruit ripen enough before eating it. One day I found one of its fruit that had fallen on the ground. I took it inside and put it in our fruit bowl. After three or four days I sliced it in two, scooped out the pulp and ate it. The skin was not nearly so tough, the seeds had become soft, and there was plenty of pulp.

I like the tree tomato so much now, the first thing I do in the morning is I go out and check the ground around the tree to see if any fruit have fallen.

Happy gardening!

October Weather Report

The rainfall for the last several months has been a little below normal. Well, the month of October made up for the slack. We got a whopping 33.3 inches. This beats the previous high rainfall mark set in August of 2010 (27.2 inches) by 6.1 inches.Total rainfall for the year stands at 116 inches. That's a lot.

The rainy, foggy, cloudy weather also brought cooler temperatures. The average high dropped from 79 in September to 75, while the average low stayed the same -- 63. The thermometer never reached 80 degrees during the month, the first time this has happened this year.

The important question is: how did all of this rain affect gardening? As for ornamentals, they weathered the rain pretty well, but I had to delay weeding for the most part, in order to avoid walking in the garden and compacting the soil.

Mowing the lawn was problematic because the grass grew so fast, and it was wet (and the soil soggy) almost continuously. I'd say, on the average we got rain about 14 hours a day, and it was cloudy all the rest of the time, with occasional periods of brightening, but no actual blue sky or sunshine. It was during these times of brightening that I would dash out with the lawnmower to cut the grass. The grass was so thick, I set the blades higher, and had to stop every minute or so to turn the mower over and clean out the clogged grass clippings.

The water garden (i.e., pond) was also a problem. We designed it so that a lot of water runoff from the driveway and the roofs flows through the pond. The rains kept the pond water crystal clear for the entire month. However, I'm still fine tuning our rather complex system of water runoff, and after a heavy rain near the end of September, one of my neighbors who lives "downstream" complained about the excessive water runoff from our property. So, I had my gardener and his helper dig a rather large catchment basin downhill from the pond. It seems to be working pretty well, and can handle all of the runnoff up to about two inches of rain a day. However, it then takes this water five to six days to completely evaporate away, or seep out.
Because we were getting more than an inch of rain a day, on the average, there were several times when it overflowed. However, the runoff is much reduced now and we received no further complaints from our neighbor.

The vegetable garden was also a problem, despite the fact that I have raised beds. I had planted carrots and beets, and because they were so small when the rains came, they got beaten to a pulp, but many of the plants survived and are beginning to show some progress now that sunshine has returned. Many of the lettuce and cabbage heads rotted. Beets and onions also took a beating, but are doing well now. Leeks had been growing for about two months when the rains came. They faired well, and we just harvested a nice leek crop. I'd say the one vegetable that came through with flying colors were the carrots, which had been planted about six weeks before the heavy rains came. They just loved all that water. However, my wife says the ones harvested lost much of their flavor.

Happy gardening!

Second Year of Gardening -- Fruit Trees

TREE TOMATO
The award for our best fruit tree has to go, so far, to the tomate de palo, or tree tomato. We initially planted two of them, and later a third. One was planted on a site with good soil and drainage. It did very well, but was unfortunately chewed down by a gopher, who went into a fit of rage after we disturbed one of his tunnels. The one planted in the location with poor soil and drainage has done pretty well, regardless. The third one, is by far the best. It was planted in a location where we had a truck-load of topsoil dumped, and later a load of compost.

Tree tomatoes are fast growing (and, we assume, short-lived) and begin producing fruit within a year. The leaves and fruit look more like egg plant, and so I like to call it an egg tree. The fruit is produced in clusters, and each fruit is about the size of a hen's egg, and orange, when ripe. We had heard the fruit can be used to make jam or chutney, which my wife did, but after her first attempt she reported they were very hard to peel, and there was very little meat in the fruit. The seeds have to be removed because they are very hard and could break a tooth. So, they are a lot of work for little results.

CAS
The only fruit tree we have not had a problem with is the cas, a relative of the guava. It is a slow grower, but looks good so far. We have high hopes for it.

AVOCADO
Avocados have been a problem. We planted a Hass avocado. It was a large one, complete with avocados, and we paid good money for it. It became sick from the high rainfall and the heavy soil. So, I eventually tore it out, dug a much larger hole, complete with drainage ditches, gave it a lot of really good soil, and planted a new Hass avocado. It's not looking good either. Later an expert told me that Hass is good for cool weather, but not for high rainfall, and that it will probably never do well in our location. Since then I have planted a third avocado tree, a Simpson. I've been told it can handle our wet conditions. It looks good so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

BANANAS & PLANTAINS
We planted a plantain tree as soon as we arrived. It was doing extremely well. Then the gophers discovered it and ate the roots. Gophers just looove plantain and banana roots. Later we planted a banana tree in a location where there are no gophers. It is looking good so far.

FIG
We planted a fig tree in a bad location -- lots of heavy soil and rocks. We have improved the soil, but the tree is not looking good.

ORANGES
Oranges do well around here.  We planted three -- two criollos and a Washington.
One was planted in an area of very good soil, and it is looking good and has actually produced three oranges. Another one was planted in an area of poor soil, but we worked hard on improving the soil and creating good drainage. It is doing well, but has produced no oranges yet. The third one was planted in an area of extremely bad soil, and even though we did a lot to improve the soil and the drainage,
it is doing just so-so.

GRAPEFRUIT
We planted one grapefruit tree. It was not doing well, and showed signs of calcium-magnesium deficiency. We finally gave it some Epsom salts (which is high in magnesium), and it seems to have turned the corner.
It has put out a new flush of healthy-looking leaves.

LEMON
We planted our lemon tree in an area that was too low and wet. We have since relocated it and it is looking a little better now.

MANGO
Mangoes like hot weather, and generally do not do well at our elevation. We purchased one mango tree which is supposed to do well at high elevations and cool temperatures. It was kind of an experiment (like everything else). At times it has seemed to struggle, and at other times it seems to do just fine. The jury is still out.

JOCOTE
We planted one Jocote tree. It seems to be doing just fine. However, since planting it we learned that our location is just a little too cool for them, and although it looks good, the locals tell us that it will probably not produce any fruit.

Happy gardening!

September Weather Report

The warm, sunny weather that began in July has continued on into September. Rainfall almost doubled the amount received in August -- 6 inches -- to 11.1 inches for the month. Despite the rain, we got lots of sunshine.

Total rainfall for the year stands at 72.7 inches.

To the right is a photo I took of a great egret sitting on the top of our poró tree. He comes to catch fish in our pond from time to time.We have only seen him a couple of times, but even when we don't see him, we know when he has visited because when I go out in the morning to feed the fish, they are hiding on the bottom of the pond and refuse to come up for food.

Happy gardening!

2nd Year of Gardening -- Ornamentals

We've had some great successes with ornamentals.

First place has to go to the agapanthus. Being one of my favorite flowers, I planted a long curved row in front of the house along the side of the driveway. They are in full sun, and seem to like the location. They receive high winds, which they handle with ease. I give them compost two or three times a year and keep them weeded, and that's it. They've rewarded us with huge blooms from late November till late July. WOW! -- couldn't ask for more.

After the agapanthus come the lengua de vaca (or, cow's tonque, in English; tibouchina semidecandra) which we have growing outside our front wall, and various other places on the property. We love the large heavily veined leaves (from which it gets its name in Spanish), which have a deep chartreuse color and which contrast beautifully with the purple-lavender flowers. It seems to transplant easily and needs little care.

Tied for third place are angel's trumpet and fuschia boliviana. We have three colors of angel's trumpets (brugmansia): white, watermelon pink, and yellow-orange. They seem to like our locale and, since all parts of the plant are toxic, are said to repel gophers. We obtained the fuschia at the Trogon Lodge, way up on the side of the Cerro de la Muerte, at 7,000 ft. elevation. We have three in different locations and they are all doing well. They seem to like both full sun and partial shade.

Next come Ruellia brittoniana, or Mexican petunias. We think the green leaves with reddish purple veins and the purple flowers complement each other beautifully. The plants grow to about four feet tall and bloom year round. They thrive on averge soil. The outer shoots tend to recline against the soil and take root. Thus, the plants become "creepers." I found one reference on the internet to these flowers being exotic invasives in Florida. However, it is not clear from the post that the plants in question are the exact same species or not. There are many different kinds of ruellias.

The last one I will mention here is colocasia esculenta, or black magic elephant ear, or purple taro. Their deep purple, almost black, leaves provide a nice contrast to the greenery in the garden. They are average-to-slow spreaders, so only have to be divided once or twice a year. They like rich, moist soil and full-to-part sun.

Happy gardening!

August Weather Report

Bronzed Cowbird

August was unseasonably warm and dry. Total rainfall came to six inches, only a little more than half the average of 10.5 for the month. It began dry, and rains picked up gradually as the month wore on. Total rainfall for the year stands at 71.6 inches.

The average daily high was 80 degrees, the highest since we began recording data. The average daily low was 64 degrees, almost five degrees above the monthly average.

Winds were generally light from the east.

These conditions were apparently perfect for growing grass, as we spent a lot of time mowing the lawn.

Happy gardening!

Second Year of Gardening -- A Joy

It's been about two years since we began gardening. The first year we were pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps, and it was a backbreaking effort. There was so much to do, and we had so far to go. Now we can see the results of two years of hard work, and it is truly rewarding.  Flowers, vines, trees, vegetables -- we are blessed. Maybe next year we will be able to pick our first orange.

GRASS
Much of the second year was spent on two onerous tasks -- redoing what we did wrong the first year, and putting down grass. Both of these things minimized the time we had to spend on what we love the best -- growing flowers and vegetables -- but they had to be done. I know grass is frequently pooh-poohed in gardening circles, but we wanted to create a backdrop for our beautiful plants, and we wanted to preserve our spectacular view. Expansive lawns do have their place.

Two kinds of grass were planted, using two different methods. We started by planting native pasture grass -- called jenjibrillo -- put down as rectangles of sod. We'd had good luck with a local sod merchant and had him put down a second batch for us. This time, unfortunately, it did not turn out as well as the first. Within a month or so it was taken over by white clover. Also, over time the first batch devoloped kikuyo grass, which must have come with the jenjibrillo grass in the first place. It is an invasive exotic species. The best thing about the jenjibrillo is that it thrives on average soil. The worst thing is that it grows quickly during the wet season and has to be mowed every week.

After our unfortunate experience with the native grass, we switched to St. Augustine. Some of it was planted as sod, some as runners. I purchased the sod from EPA, a Venezuelan-owned chain similar to Lowe's or Home Depot back in the States. It cost about $2 a square meter (about 10 square feet). I installed it myself.
One large area I had planted in St. Augustine runners in order to save money. The total cost for runners for about 400 square feet came to only $5. It took the runners about five months to spread and cover the surface and, unfortunately, there was considerable soil erosion due to the slope. If I had to do it again, I think I would have bought sod, even though it is much more expensive. The St. Augustine does not look as lush as the native pasture grass. I think it requires more topsoil. So far I have only had to cut it twice.

Happy Gardening!

The Weather -- 1st Year of Data Collection

I began recording daily weather information on June 20, 2010. Now that I've completed one year of data collection, I can report two big surprises:
  (1) it is much rainier than I'd expected
  (2) it is much windier than I'd expected.

As for annual rainfall, I was originally expecting something in the vicinity of 80-90 inches. This was based on the data provided by the Aranjuez station in downtown San Jose, only seven miles away. Average rainfall there is 70 inches. Our property is 1,300 feet higher, in the central volcanic range, and I reasoned that we'd receive an extra 10-20 inches. Then I discovered weather data from the station in Barva, only two and a half miles away, and only about 400 feet lower elevation than here. The average annual rainfall in Barva is 90 inches. What I recorded in the first year was a whopping 145 inches.

My guess is that this higher-than-expected rainfall is due to two factors:
  (1) during this period we were experiencing a niña, which brought about 50% higher than normal rainfall
  (2) we are located near the Zurqui pass, which allows wet, stormy trade winds through the mountains from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.

As for the winds, I didn't acquire a wind gauge until November 2010. It is a handheld device, so I only take readings when we are experiencing high winds. The high wind recorded to date is 34 miles per hour. 2009 was much windier than 2010. I'm guessing we had winds up to at least 50 mph. I wasn't expecting winds this high, as I'd been visiting my wife's family near downtown San Rafael (2.5 miles away) for the last 40 years, and knew what to expect, I thought. Again, I think the fact that we are located close to the Zurqui pass is the main contributing factor to these high winds.

The high rainfall and high winds have been two of the four complicating factors to gardening here (the other two factors are the clayey soil and the invasion of African star grass). The rain, combined with the clay, tend to waterlog the soil and cause fungal infections in root systems. This requires the use of either raised beds or drainage ditches to channel the water away from the plants. Many of the plants cannot withstand the high winds, so they have to be planted on the leeward side of walls and fences.

Happy gardening!

July Weather Report

Nun Orchid

Rainfall increased significantly, from 10.9 inches in June, to 15.5 inches in July. Despite the increase, we received more sun, and no fog. There were two dry spells: six-days early in the month, and 10-days toward the end. The first dry spell was accompanied by moderate northeast trade winds. The rest of the month was calm.

The increased sun was beneficial for the tomato plants growing in the greenhouse. We now have a fairly extensive system of drainage ditches around shrubs and trees. As a result, they seem to be handling the rainy conditions much better this year.

Temperatures stayed the same as June, with the average high of 78 degrees and the low of 63. The high for the month was 82 (on July 5); the low, 60 (on July 14).

Happy gardening!

Grubs, revisited

Grubs dug up from a 5X5 foot section of the vegetable garden

In May I posted a message about grubs and how, with an application of a special kind of nematode, I had eradicated them. Well, as it turns out, that assessment was a little premature. You see, with the life-cycle of local beetles and grubs, the beetles are out and about in April and May. This means that there are little or no grubs in the ground at this time of year. So, even if I hadn't applied any nematodes to the soil, there wouldn't be any grubs in the soil at that time of year. In June I began to find lots of grubs in the ground. There are some large areas with no grubs, and other areas with lots of grubs. So, apparently, the nematode application has had some effect, but the effect has not been uniform. Overall, I think there are fewer grubs in the soil now, after applying the nematodes. So, the situation overall has improved.

Happy gardening!

June Weather Report

June was generally rainy, cloudy, and foggy. We usually had a couple of hours of sun in the morning. However, the veranillo de San Juan (Little Summer (or dry spell) of Saint John) arrived early in the month, bringing us a week of dry, sunny weather. The veranillo generally makes its appearance around Saint John the Baptist's saints day, which is June 24. This year it arrived on June 7 and lasted for eight days. It was a welcome relief.

Total rainfall came to 10.9 inches, down 7 inches from May.

Warm weather has continued, with the average high of 78 degrees and the low of 63.

Happy gardening!

May Weather Report

View from my balcony of the afternoon fog

The rainy season has arrived. That's kind of an understatement. Whereas rainfall for March totalled, 4.5 inches, in May it rose to 18.1 inches. With the rain came cloudy weather and high humidity, and the winds have died down to almost nothing. Fog frequently rolls in in the late afternoon.

The amount of rain caught me by surprise, and has kept me busy clearing out the drainage ditches around trees and shrubs. The grass has to mowed more frequently. Some erosion has occurred where I cleared and planted St. Augustine grass runners. The grass is spreading quickly now and hopefully will fill in during the next several weeks.

Warm weather has continued, with the average high of 78 degrees and the low of 62. We hope June will be a little dryer.

Happy gardening!

The Pond, Part 3

When we began to build a pond, we thought we had quite a bit of experience with ponds already. The main difference between our old pond back in South Carolina and our new one here in Costa Rica was principally size -- the new one is almost 50 times bigger than the old one. As much water evaporates daily from our new pond as the total volume of the old pond. We've discovered this was an oversimplification. We grew water lilies, but they were hardy water lilies, not tropical ones. We had koi, but they eventually were eaten by predators. So, we didn't know what would happen over the long haul. We had frogs, but they were different species than the ones here. When we put all of these differences into a dynamic, interacting system of plants and animals, we found we were constantly facing new situations and new challenges.

Water harvesting seems to be working well. It is too complex a system to explain it all here, but  in essence, our 1,100-gallon storage tank works as a reserve for the pond. In the dry season, we collect as much as we can in the tank, and then pump it into the pond as needed. This last dry season was actually pretty wet, and we only had to add city water to the pond about twice a month. In the rainy season we get too much rain -- the overflow could cause errosion problems downstream. So, as soon as the reserve tank fills up, we pump it into the pond. Thus, when the next rain comes, it doesn't overlow into the pond until the reserve tank is full again. This gives us a cushion.

We have four kinds of fish -- koi, goldfish, swordtails, and angelfish. Someone warned us that the angelfish were very territorial and would go after the other fish. This may be true for aquariums, but it has apparently not happened in the pond. The koi have grown by leaps and bounds. A couple of them are now about 10 inches long. They are very colorful and we love to watch them.

The swordtails give live birth, and have been prolific. We started with about a dozen, and now have somewhere between one hundred and two hundred. The koi lay eggs. We're guessing that many of the eggs get eaten by other fish. We now have at least eight baby koi, measuring from one to three inches long. We haven't seen any baby angelfish or goldfish yet.

Me, with the first water lily

Our original water lily began to pine away and eventually died. This was very upsetting to us. We'd never had a water lily die on us before. We're not sure what the problem was. About three weeks ago I had a chance to get another water lily. I was at a gathering of gardeners at the Biesanz Woodworks in the nearby city of Escazu and Barry Biesanz offered me one of his beautiful white lilies from his pond. He even had wading boots for me. They came all the way up to my armpits. I thought it was a bit of overkill, but it turned out I really needed them. It was difficult to see in the murky pond water and I ended up taking Barry's largest and most beautiful plant. It was unintentional. I promised myself I was really going to take care of this one.  I planted it the next morning in a pot that was almost twice as big as the one I'd used before, and I gave it some really good soil and organic fertilizer. I also put some extra heavy stones on top of the soil, to be sure the koi didn't bother the roots.

The amphibian population has changed. The frogs we had captured and brought to the pond stopped croaking months ago. We haven't seem them either, but our handyman said he saw one last week. One evening in early April we began hearing what sounded like a large bullfrog croaking. I suspected it might be a cane toad, so I looked up the call on the internet, and sure enough, that's what it was. We learned that cane toads are poisonous, and can be lethal to a dog if it should bite the toad. Fortunately, the toads seem to be staying near the pond, which is fenced off.  About ten days after we heard the first toad, he was joined by another one, and then another, and then another, until we had at least six toads. They've been serenading us every evening for two months now, and we just love it. Most of them have left in the last couple of days, so mating season seems to be coming to an end.

Cane toads mating

Okay, now we have the cane toads and the water lilies in the same pond. Sound like a good combination? Yes? Think again. The cane toads had lots of choices about where to lay their eggs, but they all chose the one big water lily. One morning we found the water lily floating on the surface. Gadzooks!!! What was going on? We pulled the water lily out of the water and discovered that the leaf stems were completely covered with about a three-inch layer of frog eggs. We figure that the jelly mass was so buoyant that it pulled the plant right out of its pot. We sprayed the eggs off with a high-powered hose, re-potted the lily, and are praying that it recovers from this catastrophe.

Many of the toad eggs had hatched before were able to remove them from the pond. Suddenly we had thousands of tadpoles. We don't know how many, maybe 10,000? We read in the literature that the tadpoles are, like their parents, toxic.So, we've been skimming them out of the pond. Each day the number decreases and we think we're down to only several hundred tadpoles at this point.

As reported in the last pond post, the water hyacinth are much smaller than they should be. I have created a separate section in the pond for them, so that the koi can't eat their roots. Unfortunately the koi have learned to jump the barrier, and seem to love to do it. So, my next project is to make it taller.

So, you can see the pond has been quite a challenge for us. Fish and amphibians are doing fine. Plants have been problematic. If the water lilies survive and prosper, we will be overjoyed.

Happy gardening!