Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Finger Prints for Residency

I am one step closer to my residency in Costa Rica. Immigration informed my attorney that it was time to be fingerprinted at the San Jose Police Station. I made no photos, so here is a verbal report of Thursday, 3 December 2015:

4:30 AM – Up for shower, breakfast and walk to the bus station
6:15 AM – Bus to San Jose
7:45 AM – I exit bus at northeast corner of Parque Sabana, 4 blocks from lawyer
                  Appointment is at 8:30 AM, so second breakfast at Soda Tapia (famous!)
8:30 AM – Meet attorney Jose Pablo Carter at his office 150 meters east of Soda Tapia
9:00 AM – We arrive in his car at Police Station with maybe 15 people ahead of us
                  We complete paper work and then I do the musical chair thing like at bank
                  This was just one long row of chairs. As a person is served we all move up
                       the chair line until I was next to be served. About a 25 minute wait.
                  Maybe 15 minutes of a guy two-finger typing all my info in a computer
                  He glues the three photos made back in February to 3 different forms
                  Then gives me all my paperwork and sends me to the fingerprint girl
                  I learned later she was new. She did 3 fingers then new form, start over
                        because she did one of my fingers twice  🙂
                  Then she gave me two of the photo/thumb print cards to take to my attorney
                  He gave one back to her and explained to her where it went (Wow!) Learner!
10:30 AM – We drive away from police station and he says no one knows how much longer
                     I will have to wait, maybe 2 months. But we have made some progress!
10:45 AM – He is taking me to a taxi stand to go to bus station because he has a meeting.
                    Then he sees a taxi, flags him down and I move to the taxi headed for the
                    Parada de Autobus de TUASA – there are about a dozen bus stations depending
                           on where you are going. I go to Coca Cola Station for Atenas bus but I need
                           to go to Alajuela to pick up a package at Aerocasillas. So I go to the
                           Parada de TUASA for the next bus to Alajuela. 5 minute wait!

By noon I’m in Alajuela with my package ordered from Amazon of  a Hypoallergenic & Bedbug proof mattress cover and pillow covers which I have not found here. Then a quick quesadilla and I have only a 5 minute wait for bus to Atenas (Lucky? God’s will?). Near the bus station in Atenas is my primary hardware store where I find they have only 1 soaker hose left, so I get it and try Coope Hardware and they have none (I need 2). I call a taxi and tell him what I want and he takes me to a third hardware store (ferreteria) and they have one left. Great! I just bought all (both) the soaker hoses available in Atenas!  🙂

I go home and install them in two gardens and water the gardens. My front yard and trees had a sprinkler system installed yesterday by my gardeners at a really good price, about what I paid for the two soaker hoses! Now my yard, trees and gardens are ready for the dry season without me spending two hours every two days holding a hose to them. Bear in mind that it may not rain again here until May!

When finished, it was 5:30 and I suddenly remembered I had a 5:00 Spanish class! Oh well! I am exhausted and will catch up next week. 🙂

Today is Friday and I got more cash for Angel Tree expenses (trying 3 ATMs before one worked!), paid one Angel Tree bill, got groceries, and I’m staying at home the rest of today! Susan picks me up at 6:50 tomorrow morning for Angel Tree party preparation. She and I are in charge of moving 300 wrapped gifts from Su Espacio to the church salon. Other volunteers will help. Then a fast-moving party and I’m on bus back to Alajuela for a rent car. I like to get a car the day before needed to get used to the car and make sure everything works! 🙂 I’m excited about experiencing another new birding place starting Sunday!  Rancho Naturalista. My happy feet are busy feet!  🙂  And when the bone spur in my heel hurts, I take an anti-inflammatory Rx the doctor prescribed and do great! The heel cushion in a real shoe helps also!  🙂  Wear my sandals only around the house now.

        

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Magnificent Hummingbird Female

Magnificent Hummingbird Female
Though it could be a Female Ruby-throated – Female harder to identify
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Magnificent Hummingbird Female
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

This is right off my Terrace, which is what I’m calling my balcony now. I love this flower, which my gardener surprised me with, and the hummingbirds love it too! 

My Birds of Costa Rica Photo Gallery has all my hummingbird photos together in a sub-gallery.  
Did you know that a hummingbird eats about 60 time its weight each day? Of course he only weighs as much as a quarter (U.S. currency 25¢ piece)!   🙂

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Simple Pleasure 4: “Mi Patio”

Mi Patio is simply Spanish for “My Yard.” It is more than just my flower garden. Only 4 shots:

I do selective pruning to keep my garden art bird visible.
It is so full now that a major pruning will be needed by Dec. or Jan.

Coming in from the driveway.

Front yard from my terrace.

Terrace view of the Guarumo (Cecropia) Tree which has really grown! 

My yard is truly a constant “simple pleasure” that I enjoy all the time I’m at home. Living in the country or in a forest, next to a national park was always a temptation to be in true wildness all the time, but it would require a 4WD vehicle in most cases, be further from healthcare when needed, and shopping which I could handle the easiest, and further from people, especially those who speak English which I also would like in some ways when my Spanish is better, BUT . . . I think this is the best of both worlds and I am in a small country town. I just need this particular simple pleasure of a garden yard to have nature around me. And a very comfortable house!  🙂

And there is always cut flowers for inside!
🙂

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.~Luther Burbank

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Garden Regulars

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird, one of my regulars, every day!
Click image for larger or closer view.
Banded Peacock Butterfly, another regular and about the only
butterfly still around much with a few Julia left and brown Skippers
June-July was the big butterfly time but hoping for another season

NOT WRITING AS MUCH
I could blame it on being busy with Angel Tree and two Spanish classes, and all the regular housekeeping, shopping and I’m working on the continuation of my photo biographies and have started photographing scrapbooks so I can get rid of these boxes! But I also am slowing down and just not in to writing on blog every night like I did for months. We’ll see what happens, but I think I am in a period of writing just every few days for awhile. 

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The Maturing Garden

The garden is a full jungle now, needing pruning every month.
This means the Tuti Fruti Verbenas border get most of their blooms cut off and thus not as many flowers on them now.
While the Heliconias and Gingers are getting very large. Gingers constantly bloom, Heliconias are in down period.

The Maraca or Shampoo Ginger has 5 new
stems growing fast, but lost the 1 flower. 

The Triquetraque or Mexican Trumpet
Vine is finally blooming but not covering
the wall yet. Hoping for more.

The extra large Heliconia plant lost its big flowers and now has 1
new one growing with more expected soon. 

This Costa Rica Petunia blooms profusely every morning with blooms
dropping off in the afternoon. Interesting!

One of the many Red Ginger blooms

The favorite flower of the hummingbirds and butterflies
for which I haven’t been give a name yet. Same one below, different color.

Fewer butterflies now after the June-July swarm.

The Blue Plumbago continues to bloom mucho as the background hedge.
It now gets trimmed only on the front side, so only losing some flowers. 

One of the small Heliconias 

My gardener calls it Once Junio planta, 11th of June Plant,
a nice extra gift plant he brought for my front yard. Has yellow berries too!

The ground-cover I got sprigs of from the apartments has spread well
around my small palms in the front yard. Nice bright blooms in morning
which simply close in the afternoon. No name for it yet. 

The Pilea ground-cover in my main garden has complete coverage now.
I think it is much better than mulch and the lizards like it. Hope not snakes!

Another Heliconia opening up.
They too bloom year around.

And to see what garden looked like on the first day planted, just click the link for May 1 post!

And see a free preview of my little book in Spanish about the garden  Mi Pura Vida Naturaleza Jardín

“God made a beauteous garden
With lovely flowers strown,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said “To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowers tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end.”

“God’s Garden”
― Robert Frost

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Unidentified Butterfly

Unidentified Butterfly
In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
I’m seeing fewer now. June & July are the peak months for butterflies here.

If you know the identity, please leave a comment below. Thanks!  -Charlie

And my Spanish post today: Verbos Tallo Cambio

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RAIN in the Garden!

Has the “Rainy Season” really started now? Afternoon rain for 2 days in a row! 🙂

Rain dripping off a Guarumo leaf.

Wet Palmetto leaf in my garden.

Wet Heliconia leaves in my garden. Camera doesn’t show rain, just wet!
My miniature rainforest in the rain; habitat of birds, butterflies, frogs, & lizards.
But you can’t see the rain in the photo.  🙂   Believe me. It is raining!
Babies!
My pride and joy, rare Maraca Plant (Shampoo Ginger), has 4 new sprouts!
Snapped this as rain stopped and I finished post. See ground cover filling in?
My garden is one of the best things about this house and done from scratch!
With a rare plant to boot! It came from being nice to the gardeners.  🙂

“Open up, heavens, and rain.
    Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
    sprout right living.
    I, God, generate all this.”
Isaiah 45:8
The Message


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I Love My Trees!

Strangler Fig Tree by the road in front yard.

 

Palm Tree behind my Guarumo Tree
in side yard which is my front yard, balcony

 

Guarumo Tree leaf, up close. This is a type of cecropia tree.
Leaves are the favorite food of sloths, and the seeds of Keel-billed Toucans!
Mine has to get a lot larger for animals though!

 

Yellow Bell Tree is the name I choose from many it is called.
My front yard will be beautiful with 4 of them come February-March!
Ylang-Ylang Tree, is known for its wonderful
smell or aroma! Mine is new, but hope for the
aroma before a year is up! A source of perfumes!

 

Unknown Tree (for now) I see out my kitchen window.

Want to improve your health? Go Live Near Trees says an article in The Washington Post.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.
~Hermann Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte


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More Garden Additions

Yesterday (Saturday) I took a taxi to La Garita to visit Vivero Central, my favorite plant nursery (largest in the country). Just walking through the place motivates you to work on your garden!

Kevin Hunter at Vivero Central in March, making a photo of course!

My new garden art is on a tree stump with a hole in a root near bottom that just needed a plant

coming out of it! Pequeño (small) of course! This is what I came up with:
Garrobo en español, like a small stateside philodendron or caladium.
Kind of snuggled into a crack of the tree base, like it would in the jungle!
I was afraid a vine might get out of control or take over the garden.

You just barely notice it at base of tree stump,
but I like the use of that hole for a plant and
think it makes the garden more interesting.
Its an ongoing, creative process that is fun!
And notice how my ground-cover has spread!
It is pilea depressa or helxine soleirolii – wonderful!
Next photo is up close of it:

pilea depressa or helxine soleirolii ground-cover in my main garden

I also got this small planter for my patio/balcony with a red flower that blooms
year-around! Plus it attracts colibri (hummingbirds)! Didn’t get the name of it.
You also see the crotons around one of my front yard palms and barely the
ground cover I added there. Next photo of it:
I haven’t even tried to get the name of this flowering ground-cover – love it!
Got a few cuttings from the apartment manager and it now covers the ground
around three different trees in my front yard. The crotons were already there.

The aloe vera was getting too big for the narrow bed it was in,
so it got a new home of its own in this pot at the end of walk by palma roja
(red palm) and you can see I added some free coleus around the palm.
Not sure that’s a good match, we’ll see. May move it. Had to plant it somewhere.
This pot might later go on the balcony/patio, my medicine cabinet for burns! 🙂
And it had two babies, so I have plenty of aloe around.

I also added two ferns in two bare spots which is another texture this tropical garden needed. And I got a new ceramic pot for my dining room plant which was in a plastic pot. Accomplished at lot!

And if you have wondered about the concrete wall behind my new garden, well, my house is built into the side of a hill. It is a retainer wall above which is the landlord’s driveway on one side (below photo) and a neighbor on the other side (above photo). I have planted Triquetraque or Mexican Flame Vine at top of the wall which will soon cascade down with beautiful orange flowers and cover the ugly concrete. I’m trying to be patient while it grows!  🙂   Photo below (22-July-2015 growth):

Triquitraque or Mexican Flame Vine will someday cover my back wall.
The advantage of being the first one in a new house is I get to help design it!

One of my “regular” taxistas (taxi drivers) is Nelson. He is learning English and helps me with my Spanish and I help him with his English. This is his second time to take me to La Garita and he is patient waiting on me shopping. In fact he walks around with me and seems to enjoy it. I pay him above the going rate for this trip to make it fair for an hour and half+ of his time. And I now have a favorite helper at Vivero Central named Francisco (who gave me the coleus). He is so good at helping me and does pretty fair English and puts up with my Spanish, so more good local friends/helpers. And a tip will assure good service next time. Its my second time with Francisco and he has already remembered me! La Garita is halfway between Atenas and Alajuela and is the plant nursery “capital” of Costa Rica, 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) east of Atenas through the mountains and over the Rio Grande. 

It is always exciting to open the door and go out 
into the garden for the first time on any day.
– Marion Cran
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Newly Hatched Banded Peacock Butterfly

Earlier I featured a mature Banded Peacock with most shots of top of wings. This is a younger, maybe newly hatched, with more yellowish wing bands and more brown background color than the more mature one. In my garden of course!  🙂

 

Immature Banded Peacock butterfly
In my Roca Verde Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Immature Banded Peacock butterfly
In my Roca Verde Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica


“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”  ~Hans Christian Andersen

And don’t forget that I have a Costa Rica Butterflies PHOTO GALLERY.