Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Kitchen Window Jungle

What I see when standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window.
My home, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

There are prettier spots in my garden, but this is how it is at this spot this week. It is all constantly changing and further to the right is the prettiest now with a lot of Red Gingers blooming. 

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Rainy Season Garden

Rain Makes the Garden Grow! Thicker & More Lush!
Note that I replaced my Lantanas flowering border with red caladiums which will get fuller soon.
The other taller plants shaded the Lantanas and they require sun to thrive and bloom. New color in the shade!
The Maraca or Shampoo Ginger plant
has multiplied and grown very tall with
several blooms.
Heliconia
Across from the door I added a row of 20 of the small Heliconias with
little bright red & orange flowers that will bloom constantly
year-around when they mature. They help the “tropical look.”
One of the little Helconia up close,
like adding little jewels to my garden!

I’m always trying to improve my garden and during the rainy season is the time for new plants as the rain helps them to take root and thrive. Life in the tropics just keeps getting better!  🙂

¡PURA VIDA!

More flower photos in my FLORA & FORESTS GALLERY which is still under construction. 

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Exotic Flowers Hiding in My Garden

In the back corner of my garden beyond the big Heliconias and
behind these Red Gingers are some tall green, leafy plants, not flower-like.

If you get close, you see they kind of
look like tall, leafy stalks, similar to corn,
but that is not a corn cob in the back!
It is the flower!

If I stand on the hill above my garden and look down 1 of 4 is peaking out.

This is one full-grown Maraca or Shampoo Ginger Flower

Another Maraca or Shampoo Ginger

And a Baby Maraca or Shampoo Ginger

In my pre-move travels all over Central America I saw these unique tropical flower and always thought they were the most unique. Thanks to my gardeners and especially Alfredo, I now have a plant that has grown well and spread in my garden. I can now walk out my back door and see them, well, with a little searching!  🙂  They are somewhat rare and not available in all the Veveros (plant nurseries), but my good gardener Alfredo found one in his uncle’s yard for me! Be nice to your gardener and he will be nice to you!  🙂

I’m just starting my garden photo gallery but it has quite a few photos already!

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Old Man’s Joy: Having Gardeners!

A team of 6 young men come every two weeks to cut grass, edge beds,
weed, and trim shrubs, flowers or trees as needed. That’s Cristian above.
6 guys swooping over my yard in an hour. Neat! And at just $50!

 

They save my back and other potential aches and pains as well as time,
and they do it fast and very well. I am fortunate! And they are my friends!
This is Alfredo above.

 

My back garden is still the centerpiece, but the whole yard is a garden!
I love living here among the tropical plants with doors/windows always open!

I’m just starting my garden photo gallery but it has quite a few photos already!

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Dina Yellow Butterfly +

Dina Yellow butterfly
My garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
On my “Once de Abril” flower

Dina Yellow butterfly
My garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
On my “Once de Abril” flower
Unknown Insect, similar to a Green Orchid Bee except for red tail
Caught accidentally while photographing the above Dina Yellow
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Here’s a Dina Yellow seen in my garden last year:
http://costaricadecisionprocess.blogspot.com/2015/05/leuce-yellow-butterfly.html

I know, I’m starting to repeat butterflies and even some birds, but hopefully the next few days will be fresh photos as I travel again. John Rasbury is here from TN and just bought a house here in Atenas to rent out as part of his income when he comes back later to retire somewhere in Costa Rica. The next four days we will be in Guanacaste (northwest corner of Costa Rica) where he will look at possible other rent houses in Tamarindo and Flamingo Beach. I’m tagging along and then we will be tourists and do a birding float trip in Palo Verde National Park on a river. Hoping for some new birds in a part of the country I have not been yet.