Tag: gardening

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Six on Saturday

One of the other blogs I’ve encountered because of their “like” of mine was “The Compulsive Gardener” who copied another blog’s “Six on Saturday” garden blogging phenomena with her own “Six on Saturday–A Flurry of Flowers.” If you want to learn more, go to the originator’s blog: The Propagator. Or to his 6 on Sat collection and Participant Guide. I don’t plan to do this every Saturday, but thought it would be fun to do it at least one time to help propagate the idea! 🙂 And ohhh, is it hard to limit myself to just 6! 🙂 But here is 6 of my favorite from My Garden Gallery:

1. Triqui-Traque or Flamevine Closeup

Triqui-Traque or Flamevine

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Evening Gardening

While I was out for dinner between 5 & 6 at Parrillada Androvetto Atenas for my weekly steak at the the place in Atenas with the best meats in my opinion, my gardener Cristian came to do the little job I had requested and then sent me a WhatsApp cellphone photo of his work since I was not there. Ahhhh! The joys of being “Retired in Costa Rica!”

red.anthurium.flowers-450x540On the back side of my house the tile sidewalk continues alongside a concrete retainer wall with a narrow flower bed totally in the shade. Much of what was there had died out and I asked for a re-planting, just some interesting green plants that grow in the shade (sombra). The first photo below is the one Cristian sent me and the second one I took from the other direction after I got home about 6:15 when it is dark here. (Both sunrise and sunset year-around here is between 5:15 and 6:15, meaning 12 hour days and 12 hour nights year-around.) I did have my garden lights on which helped with the photo.  🙂 And he not only put a variety of green and colored leaves but also included two flowers, two Anthuriums! Now the one bare spot I had to see when I walk through my garden is again beautiful and will “fill out” or “fill in” as the plants grow. Another beautiful rainy season in Costa Rica!   🙂

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The photo Cristian sent me of his plantings

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My photo from other direction in the dark with lights on.

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities in the world.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

¡Pura Vida!

 

P.S.

I recently discovered on our limited Costa Rica Netflix a fun BBC gardening show call “Big Dreams Small Spaces” with the famous English gardener Monty Don helping people turn ugly little yards into beautiful gardens of their dreams. A fun diversion! Check it out!   🙂

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Saturday at Hogar de Vida

We scraped trees in preparation for painting the bottoms.
Hogar de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Team members sharing stories.over morning coffee.
Hogar de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Sorry, but we are not allowed to share photos of the children on the internet for security reasons.

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A Walk In the Garden!

Step into my main garden from the driveway or back door of house.
Surrounded by the trees and other flowers of neighbors.
You know you are in a tropical place!

Out my backdoor you are greeted by a pottery bird garden-art by Anthony.
Anthony Jeroski will soon be moving into the house across the driveway since
Don & Lynda just moved back to the states. Anthony & I have plans for
a garden-art bird nest made of wood & wire that will feature a glass egg
made by my Nashville friend Kevin Hunter. I think you will like it Kevin!

Here a garden is really your whole yard and terrace and that is true for me.
With watering during the dry season, my “front yard” jungle has grown,
especially the Cecropia or Guarumo tree, many palms & flowers on a slope.

One is a Nance Tree which by July will have little yellow fruits I can eat! 

Bougainvillea is blooming on my terrace and down below on the slope.
There was not one here when I came and I consider it the quintessential
tropical flower I got used to in Florida and The Gambia. I have two now! 

Once de Abril Planta or 11th of April Plant is what my gardener calls it.
It is becoming very tall and full shrub, adding to my privacy screen and
it blooms year around with seasonal yellow berries that birds eat quickly.
It is one of my favorite plants and was a surprise gift from my gardener.
The 11th of April is Juan Santamaria Day, our only war hero.
He was the drummer boy who stopped the American Walker from taking
over Costa Rica as his personal slave state.
DO YOU SEE THE BEE ON THE FLOWER?
Click image for larger view.

The largest of my 4 Heliconia plants.

The brightest of my Heliconia plants.

The smallest of my Heliconia plants.
And the most prolific of the 4 Heliconia plants.
It greets you at the driveway next to the Plumbago.
Red Ginger is all over my garden & prolific.

Lantanas are my border and called multiple things here. Grow fast!
I have to cut them back regularly or they become shrubs!
That is something like a Florida White Butterfly here today.

A type of Petunia that blooms abundantly every morning, then by
mid-afternoon the blooms have all dropped to the ground.
More the next morning! Year-around. 

Flame Vine in English or Triquitraque in Spanish which
literally means “firecracker” in Spanish
Flame Vine or Triquitraque
Plumbago is beautiful and my most prolific bloomer. My background plant.
But it grows so fast I have to cut it back every few months, losing some color.
But it blooms year-around and especially on the new growth after trimming.

“Crown of Thorns” is what Lynda called it.
I bought at Don & Lynda’s Moving Sale.

Aloe Vera – I’m always ready for burn! 🙂

Sorry I made so many photos this morning! And that is not all of my garden! 🙂  I love it!

And this is very near the end of the dry season, meaning we have had no rain since November. I water most everything every two days. It is work but worth it! I even have green grass which is rare here this time of year. And it has been especially hot this summer or dry season. So my garden has been a lot of work! That is what it takes to have a piece of paradise! As Rudyard Kipling says . . .

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.” 
― Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse

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Layering My Private Jungle

Year-around blooming flowers for my terrace rocking chair view.
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!