Garden Update

Here is a picture of the garden I took today. I am done excavating for the time being, though am thinking about expanding the garden area. For now I will concentrate on planting the area I’ve already developed.

Since I last reported I’ve planted garlic, onions, another planting of lettuce, and a variety of larger tomatoes. The lettuce is doing famously, in fact I ate the first picking on my burritos this evening. The Roma type tomatoes and watermelon have withstood an attack of American Serpentine Leaf Miners which are the larva of small flies which lay their eggs within the leaves. The larva then wander through the leaves feeding on the chlorophyll and other elements, leaving a serpentine white trail. I read that ants are one of the leaf miner’s many predators so assume the ants took care of them.

The Roma tomato plants have recovered nicely and are just about large enough to be moved from their containers to the garden. A couple of the watermelon plants have become so large that they have lain over and are producing tendrils. Some of the cantaloupe plants have succumbed for some reason so I have replanted. Others are doing well and putting on lots of new growth.

Some of the garlic I planted last week has emerged and the seeds of the larger tomato variety have sprouted in their nursery.

Armando, my 88 year old Cuban American neighbor, continues to bring me coffee grounds from the shop he frequents; and which, upon his advice, I visited a couple days ago to buy some decent coffee. In fact, it is very, very good coffee. I bought espresso beans ground as fine as the grinder can produce.

I have also purchased a small trash can with a tight lid into which Joel and Armando are now depositing their kitchen wastes for the compost pile. Speaking of the compost pile, it is ready for turning so yesterday I walked the few blocks to the local hardware store and though the proprietor did not have a pitch fork in stock he promised me he would have it for me Monday morning. The proprietor, an older gentleman, was “muy amble”, as they say here, and was very talkative and inquisitive. We enjoyed a nice chat until another customer arrived and required his attention.

One of the things I really like about Merida is that there are small specialty shops in each neighborhood, which together provide almost anything one needs or wants. There is the Walmart, Chedraui, Office Depot, Costco, and I suppose other big boxes; but the neighborhood stores remain. Perhaps because most, I assume, folks don’t have cars. I am very much enjoying the fact I can walk, generally a short distance, to buy whatever I need.