charliedoggett.net
Both my gardens and ones I visit
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| Year-around blooming flowers for my terrace rocking chair view. |
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| And behind my terrace planters are three layers of plants in my yard and another in the neighbor’s. Soon we will be separated by a jungle! 🙂 One of the round pots I moved from inside because of a lack of sun there. The other had ornamental grass which I will replace with something green. Like my garden, the yard and terrace are always a work in progress! And my poinsettias are still blooming to the right at terrace entrance! |
I did what I thought was pretty radical pruning of the overgrown giant Porter Weeds and some of the Overgrown Red Ginger. But my “TuttiFruti,” which had been my most colorful plant, was apparently dying. So the gardeners cut it to the ground which I would have had trouble doing, though we had been pruning it some. They also sprayed for a leaf-eating insect. If it does not come back healthy, we will pull it and plant something different on my border. But we will probably have nothing blooming along the border when Reagan visits in just 4 weeks. Sorry Reagan! Though plants fool you here and some grow really fast!
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| The colorful border (inset photo) was dying, maybe insects for which he sprayed, but it is cut to ground now, hoping for a beautiful renewal or revival. If not, I’ll get a different border. But waiting is hard! 🙂 |
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| Even without the border and the heavy pruning, the garden looks okay. The Red Ginger and Purple Petunias will always bloom, even when cut. And also the Plumbago, though it blooms on new growth, so cutting it back diminishes blooms briefly. And though not seen above, I am getting new blooms on my Heliconias as seen in below photos. |
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| The tall plant in the back of garden photo above is where this large Heliconia sports 4 blooms right now! This is the biggest of the four. |
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| This smaller Heliconia by my kitchen window also has several blooms. The other plants like it have red and orange blooms but are dormant now. |
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| I cut back the two big Porterweeds the hummingbirds love, BUT I still have one smaller plant blooming and attracting hummers! Though the hummingbirds are mainly in the Yellow Bell Trees now. And very few butterflies are around this time of year. May-July was the most butterflies last year. |
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| The TriqueTraque or Orange Trumpet Vine has not done well, but now that I started feeding it fertilizer I’m seeing it grow a little and getting a few flowers, so there is still hope that it will cover that big massive concrete wall in time! That’s my goal! |
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| The Maraca blooms at the base of a very tall plant. |
Also once my Planta Maraca or Shampoo Ginger gets established, I expect to regularly have more blooms, which is more exotic to me than the heliconias! And every time we trim the Blumbago it shoots out new growth with lots of blooms, so everything will have its ups and downs but as I wanted, something is blooming year-aroung, all the time! And it is fun to watch it change, though I have learned (what I really already knew), that maintaining a garden this big and a yard with lots of flowers is a lot of work, even with a hired gardener a couple of times a month! And for any reader living here, my most constant and prolific bloomers have been the Red Ginger and Purple Petunias. And I still don’t have all the Spanish names for these flowers and that sometimes that changes depending on who I talk to or which website I check! 🙂
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 Though it could be a Female Ruby-throated – Female harder to identify Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| 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!
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| 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. |
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| Coming in from the driveway. |
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| Front yard from my terrace. |
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| 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! 🙂
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| 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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| Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird, one of my regulars, every day! Click image for larger or closer view. |
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| 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 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. |
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| The Maraca or Shampoo Ginger has 5 new stems growing fast, but lost the 1 flower. |
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| The Triquetraque or Mexican Trumpet Vine is finally blooming but not covering the wall yet. Hoping for more. |
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| The extra large Heliconia plant lost its big flowers and now has 1 new one growing with more expected soon. |
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| This Costa Rica Petunia blooms profusely every morning with blooms dropping off in the afternoon. Interesting! |
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| One of the many Red Ginger blooms |
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| The favorite flower of the hummingbirds and butterflies for which I haven’t been give a name yet. Same one below, different color. |
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| Fewer butterflies now after the June-July swarm. |
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| 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. |
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| One of the small Heliconias |
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| 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! |
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| 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. |
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| 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! |
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| 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 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 dripping off a Guarumo leaf. |
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| Wet Palmetto leaf in my garden. |
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| Wet Heliconia leaves in my garden. Camera doesn’t show rain, just wet! |
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| 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! |
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| 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. 🙂 |
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| Strangler Fig Tree by the road in front yard. |
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| Palm Tree behind my Guarumo Tree in side yard which is my front yard, balcony |
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| 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! |
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| 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! |
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| 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! |
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| 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