my garden on Rota 2

Hello again. Hope you enjoyed the last post. With this post, would like to show you, mostly, all the trees - one tangerine, quite a few lemon, one kaffir lime, and loads of papaya (my fav).

To get a better perspective, here's  the big picture of the front garden - one long cement planter (calling it the "front main planter"), and two smaller cement planters for trees.

As you can see in the picture, the main planter is right above the title and date of the photo. The smaller two planters are on the far left, and a single papaya tree is on the far right.

Seriously ravaged by caterpillars, the lemon tree in this front garden had already been pronounced dead.  I mean, it was practically only dead branches, with a few leaves here and there. No wonder there are so many beautiful butterflies flittering around. So, what the heck, prune, prune, prune, cut, cut, cut. Besides, the lemon tree branches are so cool. They are like nature's barbed wire. Used all the branches as part of a fence on the main planter, to keep the dogs out. The crown of thorns Jesus wore, must have been lemon tree branches.

Concerned that I had cut back too much. Actually, a day or two after taking this photo, that one tall green branch got cut off as well. Used an old hacksaw blade to cut, and later discovered the cuts should have been made at a 45 degree angle, and bees wax should have been applied to prevent intrusion of mold or plant diseases. One more important thing - lemon trees should only be pruned at certain times of the year. Hey, this is my garden, we only have two seasons here - rainy and not so rainy. The temperature is the same every day, 365 days a year, at about 82 degrees F, with only a variation of 2 or 3 degrees at any time during the year.

Was a little worried the cutting was taken too far. But, it totally bounced back to life with all kinds of new and healthy growth. Learned some important lessons with this tree as related to all the citrus trees in the garden - cut off any diseased leaves and branches any time. Also, relocate all caterpillars hanging out on the citrus trees to other locations in the jungle. One last thing - cut off all leaves, at their base, that have been 25-75% eaten. Ideally, when I go to check their leaves for caterpillars, I should only see whole green leaves.

The next tree in the front garden is the tangerine tree, in the planter next to the lemon tree you just read about. When it came under my care, although it was quite healthy, it had grown into a wierd looking gangly plant with green leaves. Sorry, didn't take a picture when it was in it's wierdness. Same worries as the prunning of the lemon tree - whatever, cut, cut, cut,  prune, prune, prune. Look closely at the photo and you can see the stumps of the very large branches that all got wacked off.

Again, like the lemon tree, the results turned out quite beautiful. Now both the tangerine tree and the lemon tree in the front garden are back in the game. No more large lines of ants marching up and down their long dead branches - new growth, new leaves, so pleasing to look at.

To some, the papaya trees are even more interesting. They are everywhere on this lovely tropical island. They grow incredibly fast, almost anywhere. Started loving papaya a long time ago, as a missionary in Taiwan. When I couldn't get a freshly made mango smoothie, I'd order a papaya lemon smoothy. Always did the trick on a really hot day. Now, as a senior citizen (on Rota, we are called man amko), not only does papaya taste yummy, it does wonders for the old digestive system. Here's the papaya tree that gave the inspiration to start getting serious about cultivating my own. It was growing in a cement crack right next to my back door. Transplanted it to a place near the front main planter where it could get full sunlight and plenty of rain. Also put a small wire fence around it, to insure it's survival from the bush cutters.

A dog or dogs took two big dumps near the tree. Quite grateful for the stinky suggestions, I put them both at the base of the tree, at different times, and covered them with dirt to keep the flies away. Unreal - Papaya tree # 1 has been growing like gangbusters.

Living and learning - papaya tree # 1 is growing super fast, but it's not a sure thing any fruit will come of it. Learned that there are always 3 kinds of papayas - female, male, and hermaphrodite. Papaya farmers in Hawaii always plant 3 papaya seeds together, which means they will have a 97% chance of getting fruit. Obviously, the female papaya will only bear fruit if pollinated, while the hermaphrodite papaya is self-pollinating. Albeit, under certain circumstances, a hermaphrodite papaya tree has been known to morph into a female or male tree. For this reason, in my front and back gardens, papaya tree # 1 is the only one solitude, by itself - all the others are in groups of three or more. Very soon, we should be able to know if papaya tree # 1 is male, female, or hermaphrodite. If it's not posted in the near future, please ask me, and I'll tell you.