February Weather Report

Dry and wet air masses battled across the landscape for yet another month. Despite many dry, sunny days, the dry season so far is stacking up to be very wet -- 6.8 inches of rain in January, and 6.1 inches in February. We normally get less than an inch each month. Many farmers in Costa Rica have not been able to plant due to the damp conditions.

The heaviest rainfall came on Feb. 9 -- two inches. The highest winds were on Feb. 2 -- 34 mph. High temperatures were generally in the mid-70s. The lowest temperature was on Feb. 22 -- 56 degrees.

Baltimore orioles are still hanging out in our poró tree. Eastern meadowlarks and bob whites have arrived for the "dry" season.

Our roses are just loving the weather.

 Happy gardening!

Pesticides

* * * NEWS FLASH * * *
Environmental activists have held demonstrations in Costa Rica to protest the country’s usage of 51.2kg of pesticides per hectare of cropland, website Elpais.cr reported.

The data comes from the World Resources Institute and puts the country’s usage well ahead of the second-highest user Colombia (16.7kg) and the third-highest user the Netherlands (9.4kg).

The story cited reports from Costa Rica’s Regional Institute for Toxic Substance Studies (IRET), showing the use of agrochemicals in the country has risen without increases in agricultural land, with pesticide import growth of 340% between 1977 and 2006.

The ‘Stop Spraying’ campaign was launched in various parts of the country with the aim to raise awareness of the issue, pushing for farmers to use best practices in preparing soil, sewage and waste with fewer chemical inputs, El Pais reported.

The story reported melons are the major crop in Costa Rica that use pesticides, followed by ornamental plants, tomatoes, potatoes, pineapples and sugarcane.
* * * END OF STORY * * *

This is one more reason to grow your own fruits and vegetables.

Happy gardening!

Carrots

Our dear friend Nancy Nelson holding up some of the first harvest.

This Valentine's Day, instead of sending a chocolate, we're sending you a carrot.

As reported in earlier blog entries, we've been trying out various vegetables to see which ones work best in our location. I'm happy to report that we've had success with carrots. Other cool-weather crops seem to be doing well too.

At the beginning of November I planted three short rows of carrots. In the area to be planted I worked in extra rice hulls and sand in order to loosen the soil and make it easier for the carrot roots to grow. The seeds are very fine, so after working the soil I made three very shallow rows, sprinkling the seeds on the surface and then sprinkling fine soil on top, pressing it down firmly. They sprouted in a week. I thinned them at three weeks and again at five weeks so that the plants were about three inches apart. We began harvesting carrots at the beginning of February.

The variety we planted are Chantenay. Chantenays are heirloom carrots, originally from the Chantenay region of France. They are shorter and plumper than most carrots, but tend to be sweeter and juicier. They were first mentioned in gardening literature in the 1850s. In the mid-20th Century they fell out of favor with farmers in the U.S. because they are more susceptible to damage when harvested mechanically. They have come back in favor with organic farmers in recent years.

We think ours are delicious and we're delighted they do well here.

Happy gardening!

The Pond, Part 2

Excitement is brewing in the pond. After feeding the fish yesterday afternoon, we spent some time studying the pond closely, and to our great surprise, we discovered several baby fish. They are all less than an inch long. Five was the count yesterday. Maria went back and counted carefully today and came up with nine. We are sure they're either koi or goldfish, but will have to wait until they're bigger to know which kind they are.

We began stalking the pond with plants and fish on November 12. Things have progressed quite a bit since then. The koi are about three times a big as they were at the beginning, and between koi, goldfish, and swordtails, there are about 25 fish now (plus the nine babies). We're pretty sure some kind of heron or egret went after the fish one time, because one morning when we went out to feed the fish, they were in hiding, and didn't come out for almost a week. For a while we thought we'd lost our big white koi (aka Moby Dick), but he eventually came out of his hiding place.

We haven't seen the frog for a couple of months now, but hear him croaking occasionally. He likes to sing while the waterfall is flowing.

During the heavy rains and high winds in December, the water became crystal clear. It is now green with algae, but we keep the waterfall running much of the time to keep the water oxygenated.

Our two types of water lilies seem to be multiplying, but the leaves are still fairly small. Two weeks ago we planted water lily seeds. No sign of any sprouts yet. The water hyacinth have sent up a couple of blooms.

Water hyacinth: newer plants in upper left and lower right; older plants in middle and right middle.

We do have one mystery. We purchased about six clumps of water hyacinth in November. They have multiplied rapidly, and we now have 25 to 30 clumps. But they seem a paler color of green than they should be, and the new leaves are only about one-fourth the size of the original ones. Recently a friend brought us some more water hyacinth from the lowlands, and the leaves are gigantic, and dark green. So, what could be the problem? A search on the internet suggests nutrient deficiency. Maybe that could be solved with more fish. Another possibility could be the cool temperatures here. However, we are only three or four hundred feet higher than the location of where we bought them. I think, it may be the wind. The plants we bought were in a protected location. Even though we have constructed an eight-foot wall to protect the pond, it still gets raked by gusts of wind. By the end of March the winds should die down and it will be relatively calm for the next six months or so. Perhaps then we will get bigger leaves on the hyacinth. We shall see.

Newer plant from lowlands is in middle, and stretches from one end of the photo to the other

Happy gardening!