Gardening in Puerto Rico- Part 1

Gardening in PR- a New Page in the Menu Bar

I’ve had the idea for this new Page and a series of posts for quite a while, but I wanted to be well into my gardening effort before I started posting about it.

That day has come!

I have so much content on the subject of ‘Gardening in Puerto Rico’, I almost turned it into it’s own Website, but for now, I’ll present what I have on me scurvy Blog.. Arrg!

Motivation

Our tropical environment begs to be explored.  Being able to mess around in the garden is a great escape from the day to day stuff.  Puerto Rico is a wonderful place to pursue gardening.  Many folks retire here from the mainland, for that very reason.  A chance to work a little garden plot of their own or grow some exotic flowers.  Or both!

I’m no exception.

It was part of the criteria for my ‘ideal retirement spot’.  Some place I could have a garden.  Because of the tropical climate, it’s possible to have a garden year round.

Part 1 of 3-  Introduction & Background

I need to make clear, I had done next to no gardening before moving to Puerto Rico.  I do not have a green thumb.  Get’n dirty… well that’s another matter.

So I’m in the middle of a huge learning curve.

It will take a few more years before I come close to figuring this stuff out.  Though some folks come here with the ambition to farm, mine is to simply have a ‘few’ trees producing fruits and nuts for our personal enjoyment… and maybe a veggie garden.

We have no farm critters other than our 3 dogs and 2 cats.  A lot of locals raise chickens.. you can hear them night and day.  If the cost of chicken climbs over $2.50 a pound, I might reconsider it.  Goats are also popular, but require more upkeep than I’m interested in.

But wait, there’s more- 

A Brand New Website Dedicated to Bamboo:

‘the Isle of Bamboo’

I’ve also spent the last 2 years collecting data on growing and building with bamboo.  It’s like nature’s ‘Erector Set’ and I love to build stuff.  There are so many things that can be made from it.  The new site is primarily focused on what I’m trying to do here in PR, but it will contain info on all aspects of bamboo and what is being done elsewhere.

Here’s a link- IsleOfBamboo.com

Much is written about the difficulty of growing bamboo from seed.  It can be done… I have the proof.

Past Growing Experiences

Living in Alaska limits what you can do outside.  Yes, I’ve had friends and family who regularly plant vegetable gardens in the Spring.  Alaska summers are very intense… 18-20 hours of daylight.  I’ve seen 85 pound pumpkins and 100 pound cabbages.

My brother has worked hard to get cold-tolerant grafted apples to grow at his place on the Kenai Peninsula.  Unfortunately, last winter, the wild rabbits had a field day and decimated most of them.  Years of hard work trashed.  To get a jump on the growing season, they keep their vegetable seed trays in the house, then transfer those to a greenhouse with raised beds.  It works good!

While living in Alaska, I always kept one large potted house plant, dragging it around from place to place.  My little bit of green.  I gave it away when I moved to PR.

Gearing Up

After visiting several gardens and nurseries, I decided I would take a stab at growing a few things.. how hard could it be?

That has mushroomed into an obsession as you will see.

Though I like flowers, my goal is to acquire as many varieties of fruit and nut bearing trees as we can accommodate.  That said, I’m on a serious budget so buying potted plants is not practical.

I’m working from seeds… lots of them.

Some I collected locally, others I scored off the Net.  In doing my research, I discovered that except for apples, pears and stone fruit like peaches, almost anything else can be grown here.

Because we are on the South side of the island, it’s quite dry.

Not as dry as Guanica, but not near as wet as the East end of the island or the Mountain region.  Winter is the Dry Season (mid December through mid March) so I must water potted plants and newly planted trees daily, until they can stand on their own.

Garden Ground Prep

Before I could plant anything, I had to clear off the tall grass.  That includes the extensive vines that trail along the ground and just under the surface.  This is hard work, especially for a guy pushing 60 with bad ankles and somewhat out of shape.  It’s taken most of 2 years to clear off and clean up 2 large areas for planting trees.

Keeping the Yerba Guinea grass knocked back is half the battle.

It typically grows to 6 feet.  An electric string trimmer will not cut the stuff.  I have a gas fired trimmer with a circular saw type blade to cut it off at ground level.  That works good as long as the trailing vines don’t get in the way, which they usually do.

Choices, Lots of Choices

In selecting trees to start from seed, I eliminated ‘most’ fruit and nut species that were hard to germinate or took more than 8 years to reach maturity.  I also scored a few unique tree seeds for fun.

Ever see Balsa Wood grow?

I’ve built a lot of models out of Balsa Wood over the years.  Great stuff.  Now I’ll see if I can grow a plane or a boat.  It will also make very soft charcoal too.

Wikipedia has been very helpful in my search for info.  Nor can I forget my pal Sadhu of Govardhan Gardens.  I’m not trying to replicate his effort.. but he knows his stuff and serves as inspiration.  Nor do I have ambitions of selling produce.  I simply want to cover some of our own needs.  More fresh fruit and veggies in the diet would be good… maybe freezing fruit for smoothies later.

Believe it or not, produce and fresh meat are expensive here.

During the off-season, we pay more for fresh veggies than I did in Alaska.  To simply grow some of our own, is my ultimate goal.

Make no mistake,

starting from seed means it will take several years before most will produce results.  The gardening effort will allow me to add in more posts, but without distracting from my regular coverage of island wide activities and festivals.

I will talk about my successes as well as my failures and what I’ve learned along the way.  Think of it as more insight into what it’s like to live on ‘the Isle of Paradise’.

Besides, you might want to retire and grow a garden some day.

A complete breakdown of what is growing on the property today, can be seen by clicking the ‘Gardening in PR’ button in the menu bar above.

As always, there are larger shots on Roberto’s Puerto Rico-
Facebook Page.