28 days later

Ok, so it wasn't exactly apocalyptic, but 28 days is a long time to leave your garden, especially in a tropical climate. I felt a bit like Sleeping Beauty after that 100 yr stint when vines grew all up her castle....isn't that what happened?
All in all, i was pleasantly surprised. Having learned the hard way twice before, this Non-Sleeping, or rather Sleep-Deprived Up at Crack of Dawn Farmer Beauty was not going to siesta while the Voracious Vegetation Dragon devoured her garden. I was super diligent about leaving this time. A garden requires mucho preparation before abandonment: extra weeding, heavy mulching, pruning, etc. I even wrote out a numbered list for our caretaker to ensure that nothing would be overlooked.

Joyfully, this was the first time i didn't cry upon returning to my garden!
As usual, ayote squash sprawled like suburbia over garden paths, oregano plants, even the compost pile.

Humongous chayote was dripping off the vine: i filled this basket in seconds!

The chicken coop is shrouded in a weedy fortress!

Exciting surprises awaited me as well:

After 8 months, my gandul (pigeon pea) finally bloomed, and pods developed--

Aren't they gorgeous?!

For whatever reason, I've had a heck of a time getting cucumbers to survive, despite the cozy, shaded mounds and artful climbing fences I've constructed. However, I leave the farm for 3 weeks and a mysterious, hearty cucumber plant shoots up in an unfertilized rocky strip of soil along the concrete wall.it's already FRUITING!

Probably the most dramatic of all, the much-anticipated LUFFAS! these suckers are already an easy 12 inches long, the vine over 10 ft!!

Countdown to all-natural scrub-a-dub!

Los animales are a whole other post...stay tuned.

To everything, turn, turn

In gardening world, there's little time to cry and mourn over fallen crops. because new life is always springing up! i was pleased as punch just yesterday to note the fantastic blooms on my gandul (perhaps you know it as pigeon pea). i planted several rows of the round chickpea-esque seeds way back in November, knowing that despite a long growing period (average of 8 months 'til harvest), they were prolific producers.

Gandul, Pigeon Pea, Cajanus cajan

Celebrated in permaculture circles for its multi-purposes--cover crop, animal fodder, living fence, nitrogen-fixer, on and on--gandul is a legume commonly grown and chowed in India. The seeds can be harvested green and eaten like peas, or allowed to dry in the pod. Out of the 12 or so gandul i planted, only 2 or 3 are flowering right now, which is still a happy surprise as only 5 months have passed since planting. and by the way i have given these guys no attention, no water, no fertilizer, nada. Low Maintenance certainly being another reason they are a permaculture favorite.

A brand spanking new crop has sprouted, tiny and elegant and full of potential--can you guess?

this little beauty will grow up to yield ears and ears of sweet corn! yahooooo!

And now that i've got your wheels turning, may i present the true MYSTERY seedlings, in hopes that you may be able to help identify these poor jane does of the plant kingdom:

My gardening habits mimic my unorthodox kitchen habits, wherein i mix various recipes, never measure anything, and tend to create smallish messes all about me. In my fervor to germinate every fruta nueva that i try (and through the inadvertent encouragement of one Richard W. Langer in his The After-Dinner Gardening Book), i have been dropping seeds into plastic bags and Coke bottles left and right. Our backyard has transformed into the science lab of my agricultural experimentos, save one vital science-experimenty detail: labeling?
I hypothesize, ahem, that these seedlings could be 1) the jocotes i am so enamoured with, 2) a tasty fruit called manzana de agua that is not really an apple, or..... 3)something i forgot i planted.
DOES ANYONE RECOGNIZE THESE PLANTS?

A final flower featured in my garden right now, one deserving mucho respect for its pest-detering properties, not to mention its beauty: Marigold, Calendula officinalis

Supposedly one of the easiest and "most rewarding" flowers from which to save seed, i did just that for the very first time ever.


I studied up first, of course. then carefully dissected two dried French Sparky marigolds, to my delight discovering a wealth of wispy light seeds, ¡que bonita!

A time to reap, a time to sow.