There has been some interest in topics like this in the past:
Blooming in the garden today :)
Greenhouse for the winter
So I figured I would share a little bit of my own story, next in the series if you will.
I live in Wisconsin, which is a truly beautiful state - we have all four seasons and there is no doubt what season you are in. Even winter is beautiful, and you can't have spring without winter:
(Magnolia Tree from my backyard)
Even so, winters are long, and a lot of Wisconsinites will go to warmer climates for the worst of the winter when they retire. With this in mind, about 8 years ago we started looking for a vacation home that would ultimately serve as our winter escape. And we settled on Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is pretty incredible - it is truly tropical - flowers year round, coconuts, fruits with crazy names. One of the first things we did was gather up some coconuts. And if you are wondering how long it takes to open a coconut with a screwdriver, its about 45 minutes. But it gave me a reason to go and buy a machete. I even ended up making a little coco table so I wouldn't have to chop into the dirt:
laugh all you want, but I GM'd carpentry on this. Even learned masonry:
I guess UO is a reflection of real life after all.
Eventually we found a number of tropical fruits that my wife remembered from her childhood. And when you are done eating the fruit, you are left with the seed. So we planted them. And they grew. And before we knew it, we had a small fruit farm growing in pots on my roof (most roofs here are flat, and mine you can walk out onto directly - its like a second patio) and in our small backyard.
Some tropical fruits will fruit under these conditions: limes, guava, passion fruit (parcha), soursop (guanabana), gac. But most won't. So a few years ago we had the opportunity to buy a vacant lot in an undeveloped part of the resort. The lot was perfect, on one side of a small valley, occasionally with a small stream at the bottom. It was also overgrown with grass that was about 12 feet tall and as thick as your thumb. But we started clearing it a bit at a time and planting some of the larger fruit trees (jackfruit, durian, mango, mangostene, longan, lychee, tamarind, abiu, bakupari, and a variety of citrus.)
Clearing a path to plant something. The dead grass in the middle of the picture comes up to my shoulder.
Durian tree. Mangostene tree.
The durian tree is about 8 months old and 3 feet tall. The mangostene tree is about 8 inches tall and 4 years old. It's an incredibly slow growing tree. Pretty sure I planted this one for the eventual grandchildren. The fencing around the trees is because of the iguanas - they can and do eat young trees down to nothing. The orange flags are so I can find them if the grass overgrows them.
So we have been slowly separating the plants, keeping what will grow in planters and pots and my small backyard at the condo, and moving the real trees to the lot. We even turned the roof into a garden patio of sorts:
Roof orchids. Unfinished yet, we plan to do some tile and plant the remaining garden boxes, but its coming along.
All told, we have more than 30 types of fruit trees so far, as well as a variety of roots (ginger, turmeric, gulanga) and herbs. We have already even managed to get some fruit - bannanas, soursop, gac, mango, pomegranate, acerola, sweetsop, papaya, starfruit, avacado. And the remaining trees have been growing, so check back in a few years.
Anyway, that's a little bit of my adventure. Thanks for reading!
Blooming in the garden today :)
Greenhouse for the winter
So I figured I would share a little bit of my own story, next in the series if you will.
I live in Wisconsin, which is a truly beautiful state - we have all four seasons and there is no doubt what season you are in. Even winter is beautiful, and you can't have spring without winter:
(Magnolia Tree from my backyard)
Even so, winters are long, and a lot of Wisconsinites will go to warmer climates for the worst of the winter when they retire. With this in mind, about 8 years ago we started looking for a vacation home that would ultimately serve as our winter escape. And we settled on Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is pretty incredible - it is truly tropical - flowers year round, coconuts, fruits with crazy names. One of the first things we did was gather up some coconuts. And if you are wondering how long it takes to open a coconut with a screwdriver, its about 45 minutes. But it gave me a reason to go and buy a machete. I even ended up making a little coco table so I wouldn't have to chop into the dirt:
laugh all you want, but I GM'd carpentry on this. Even learned masonry:
I guess UO is a reflection of real life after all.
Eventually we found a number of tropical fruits that my wife remembered from her childhood. And when you are done eating the fruit, you are left with the seed. So we planted them. And they grew. And before we knew it, we had a small fruit farm growing in pots on my roof (most roofs here are flat, and mine you can walk out onto directly - its like a second patio) and in our small backyard.
Some tropical fruits will fruit under these conditions: limes, guava, passion fruit (parcha), soursop (guanabana), gac. But most won't. So a few years ago we had the opportunity to buy a vacant lot in an undeveloped part of the resort. The lot was perfect, on one side of a small valley, occasionally with a small stream at the bottom. It was also overgrown with grass that was about 12 feet tall and as thick as your thumb. But we started clearing it a bit at a time and planting some of the larger fruit trees (jackfruit, durian, mango, mangostene, longan, lychee, tamarind, abiu, bakupari, and a variety of citrus.)
Clearing a path to plant something. The dead grass in the middle of the picture comes up to my shoulder.
Durian tree. Mangostene tree.
The durian tree is about 8 months old and 3 feet tall. The mangostene tree is about 8 inches tall and 4 years old. It's an incredibly slow growing tree. Pretty sure I planted this one for the eventual grandchildren. The fencing around the trees is because of the iguanas - they can and do eat young trees down to nothing. The orange flags are so I can find them if the grass overgrows them.
So we have been slowly separating the plants, keeping what will grow in planters and pots and my small backyard at the condo, and moving the real trees to the lot. We even turned the roof into a garden patio of sorts:
Roof orchids. Unfinished yet, we plan to do some tile and plant the remaining garden boxes, but its coming along.
All told, we have more than 30 types of fruit trees so far, as well as a variety of roots (ginger, turmeric, gulanga) and herbs. We have already even managed to get some fruit - bannanas, soursop, gac, mango, pomegranate, acerola, sweetsop, papaya, starfruit, avacado. And the remaining trees have been growing, so check back in a few years.
Anyway, that's a little bit of my adventure. Thanks for reading!