my garden on Rota 9

Welcome, welcome to my garden! There have been many changes in the garden this month.

As you can see in the picture, the long row of 16 Hawaiian Tomatoes is gone. How embarrassing to find out the time to plant tomatoes on Rota is January, after the rainy season. No wonder none of the tomato plants pollinated. Got 2 tomatoes (weren't even ripe) after all that effort, no crop. Hopefully this time around, we're going to see some juicy Hawaiian Tomatoes.

Here's my Eggplant #1. Not sure how it's survived these past two months, but it's pumping out the eggplants. This eggplant is called "Long Purple," especially suited for tropical climates. Have already harvested 5 eggplant fruit, and it has 4 still in the making.

Have two other eggplants new to the garden. Both, as Eggplant #1, were started from seeds.

 

This eggplant is about one month old. Found a quicker way to get Eggplant seedlings - cloning. Cut off the top of a main stem, stuck it into some potting soil, and it's growing (much faster than starting from a seed).

A local farmer-friend assured me that now is the time to plant tomatoes. Fortunately,  6 Hawaiian #2 Tomato seedlings were ready to plant in the garden. Wished I had more, but only 10 germinated, and four have already died.

So, there are now 4 very young Hawaiian #2 Tomato seedlings in the garden. Should be 5 but one didn't make it. And, two, of the same kind of tomatoes are in 5-gallon containers under the carport.  Was very pleased to discover that tomatoes are even easier to clone than eggplants. Next post, hope to share my "tomato cloning" experience.

Had a nightmare with the kang kong, in the form of grasshoppers. The kang kong grew very beautifully, harvested many times, and enjoyed cooking and eating it often. After a short time with quite a few grasshoppers, all the kang kong was totally ravaged, and not eatable. 

What to do? What to do? 

A friend came by to visit one day, specifically to harvest some of my beautiful kang kong, but every leaf looked like Swiss cheese - no harvest.

Don't want that to happen again, so I removed every trace of kang kong in that grow area - right down to the bare soil. All the kang kong is gone, along with all the grasshoppers and their eggs. Three days later kang kong seedlings are popping up all over the place (no need to germinate any seeds).

Also added two more small grow sites for kang kong, one in the backyard and one right across from the main kang kong grow area.

Got some Taiwan cucumber seeds from a friend. Cucumbers seedlings don't like to be transplanted so had to be super gentle with the seedlings. The garden now has 9 young cucumber seedlings, three per mound.

Had to build mounds, then plant the three cucumber seedlings at the top of each mound. Then, cover the mound, and the dirt under each seedling, with dried grass (it keeps mud from splashing up to the plant, when it rains, which is how most plant diseases are spread). I added three stakes to each cuccumber mound, As it grows, each cucumber seedling will start to climb up the stake. Once the cucumber seedlings start climbing, a trellis will be built. Planning to just use tang-en tang-en poles (will cut down with machete in the jungle) and some cheap twine. It's going to be lots of fun with the cucumbers climbing all over the place.

The banana tree in my frontyard is getting ready to produce a bunch of bananas. To prep for that, had to remove all it's dead leaves, and heap loads of good soil around it's base.

The plan to have a small forest of sweet papaya trees in my backyard is slowly coming together.

Ate a papaya from the only sweet one in my back yard a few months ago. It was delicious and very sweet. After eating it, took as many seeds as I could, air dried them (not sun dried), and successfully germinated four. Planted the papaya seedlings right near their mother tree. They are already about three feet tall (in just a month). Hope to germinate more seeds to increase the sweet papaya trees in the backyard.

 

The lemon basil and sweet basil are thriving. Already harvested the leaves twice. Bundled up the stalks of leaves, and dried them in my kitchen. Haven't had the time to take the leaves and grind them into flakes or powder with a morter and pestle. Instead, I just grab as many dry leaves as I want, and throw them directly into whatever I'm cooking. Great flavor. 

After clearing out all the kang kong, had to bag it up, and dispose of it at the Rota dump. Purchased a small bike trailer online through Walmart. The trailer is just big enough to carry all my trash from two weeks. The island trash dump is only four miles away - a scenic bike ride along the west coast of Rota. After two months of hauling my own trash to the dump, the bike trailer has already paid for itself, and I got some good exercise bike riding.

Really hope you enjoyed the post. Until next time. Take care.

my garden on Rota 8

Welcome to my home garden on the beautiful Pacific tropical island of Rota, in the Marinas. It's rainy season, so plenty of growth in the garden. So glad we never worry about frost or cold temperatures here. The temperature here, year round, is the same with only a few degrees variation.

This past month, many good developments in the garden, primarily, with the papaya trees, Hawaiian tomatoes, eggplants, hibiscus, basil, cucumbers, and kang kong.

Let's get started with the sweet papaya tree in the back yard. You might be thinking, "Sweet? I thought all papayas are sweet." That's what I thought the first year in the Marianas. Papaya trees are everywhere here, grow just about anywhere, and thrive even under the worst conditions. Thing is, most of the papaya trees on the Mariana Islands are wild or jungle papaya, their fruit is not sweet at all, and they're good to block the wind, or provide shade only. They grow just about anywhere. Papaya tree seedlings can be pulled up out of the ground and transplanted easily,  They are super robust. The one in my backyard is not a jungle papaya; the fruit is very sweet. The flesh of the fruit inside is a bright reddish orange, with many black seeds, about 2-3 mm in size. Papaya is especially  good for the human digestive system. Have a problem using the bathroom? Eat a papaya and make sure you have plenty of toilet paper. Living in Taiwan 10 years, drank a lot of fresh papaya smoothies - favorite of all was a lemon-papaya smoothy (so healthy).

Collected all the seeds from the last papaya I ate from the tree in the backyard. Air dried them, germinated some, and succeeded in getting four healthy papaya tree seedlings. Took the seedlings, after they had matured a little, and planted them very close to the mother tree. Its not a sure thing that all four seedlings are female - that's why Hawaiian farmers plant papayas three at a time. Once it's determined which ones are female, the rest are destroyed. So, if all four of the new seedlings turn out to be female trees, wouldn't that be cool? The probability of at least one of the four seedlings being a female is extremely high.

The sweet basil, under the rainwater spout, has already grown to about three feet tall. It's very likely they will be harvested in the next couple of weeks. The stalks will be cut, bundled, and air dried. It will be nice to have dried basil sprinkles for cooking and eating.

The lemon basil is completely at home now and already starting to produce seeds. It will probably also get harvested soon.

Looking through a big jar of seeds the other day, found a packet of old cucumber seeds. Bought the packet of seeds at the local hardware store at a discount for 10 cents. The expiry date on the seed packet was already overdue two years. The other day, when coming across the old seeds, I remember the attempt at germinating the seeds a year ago failed. So, growing cucumbers was no longer a consideration. But, the other night, when I saw the cucumber seed packet, I just got something like a gut feeling, like, "plant all the cucumber seeds." Grabbed the seeds, the pick axe, and made a good grow bed for the future cucumbers, right beside the Hawaiian tomatoes. Didn't even bother to germinate  the seeds first, just planted them directly into the ground. Every day, early in the morning, I like to look to see if anything "cucumber looking" has popped up out of the ground yet. Cucumbers will be loads of fun, especially in the building of another treliss.

Have to admit, eggplant has not been an easy veggy to grow. In the past year, have lost track of how many seeds were attempted at germination with no results. Planted two eggplants at the last place I lived - that was 10 months ago. Once a week, I go back to those two eggplants to harvest. Both are almost 5 foot tall and have been pumping out the eggplants, non-stop, for several months. Those two plants inspired me to not give up growing eggplant. For the past three months I have germinated about 30-40 eggplant seeds, with no success (not even one). Finally, got one good seedling. Then a couple weeks later, four more eggplant seedlings popped out of the soil. Lost one of the seedlings the other day, and now have only 4 healthy seedlings.  

Here's the biggest of the four. From the get go, something was munching on it's leaves at night - sprayed the leaves with soap water, and the munching on my eggplant has stopped. This eggplant has been growing very fast, and is way ahead of the other three seedlings by three weeks to a month. The Thai basil is gone now, and this sole eggplant took its grow area.

Took the remaining eggplant seedlings and care for them at the kitchen windowsill. Really don't want to lose anymore eggplant seedlings.  When they get much bigger and stronger, I'll plant them in the garden (in about 2-3 weeks).

 

The kang kong has exceeded all expectations. It truly is an extremely prolific veggy. Already lost count how many times the kang kong has been harvested. Kang kong has already replaced my love for spinach. Here on Rota, we don't see much spinach in the stores, because it has to be imported, which also means, it's expensive. Kang kong on the other hand, tastes more delicious, and now, is always available, fresh, from right outside my front door. Was considering possibly exspanding the kang kong grow area one more time, albeit, the kang kong grows so fast, and keeps spreading, there's really no need for a larger grow area at the moment.

 

Keep it simple with the kang kong, stir fry it on high heat, with minced garlic, salad oil, and a little sea salt. Stir fry about 3 minutes only, drizzle a little sesame oil on the kang kong, and eat (if you have it, add a few drops of oyster sauce before serving). Kang kong is also good in instant noodles. The flowers, leaves, buds, and stalks all taste very delicious. 

Three months ago, when I first moved into this house, noticed an old dead bush in the front yard. It was black, covered with mold, and had ants all over it. Many times thought of taking the machette and wacking it down. Instead, just kept watering it, week after week. Surprise, surprise, a hisbiscus plant busted out of the ground - so green and beautiful. The ants continued to swarm it, so they got the soap water spray (major anticide). Very anxious to see the first hibiscus flower and even more anxious to see what color the flowers will be.

 The three chili-pepper plants have fully recovered from damage caused from swarms of flying insects. All three are pumping out peppers. Not even sure about the taste of these peppers. Time to taste one.

 

There are other things in this garden to check out, such as the banana trees and the madarine orange tree, but this time, we'll finish up by taking a look at the Hawaiian tomatoes. All 16 tomato plants have been growing well - the tallest tomato plant is at least 5 feet tall. Putting 3 stakes around each individual plant, helped in guiding their fast growth. A treliss was slapped together with tang-en tang-en poles (from the jungle). It's almost like a big cage to contain the rapid growth of the tomato branches. Just in the past few weeks, all the plants started flowering, but very few bees or butterflies could ever be seen in or around the tomato grow area. Sixteen flowering tomato plants, and only one small tomato. A friend told me to get a q-tip and pollinate every tomato flower. Every other day, I have a routine to check for any new flowers, and to pollinate them. Only been doing this a few days, so I'm a little anxious to see more fruit.

 

Hoping to start making dried tomatoes - had many delicious dishes in Southern California with dried tomatoes. The one dish that stands out more than any other is an appetizer my daughter and I often ordered - dried tomatoes with fresh mozarella cheese and balsamic vinegar.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to my home garden on the Island of Rota, truly a Pacific island paradise. If you want to share this blog site with friends and family, please do. If you happen to visit Rota, then "Welcome, welcome!" Come by and visit - would love to cook you some delicious kang kong, or share some fresh Hawaiian tomatoes with you.  

Take care.

my garden on Rota 7

Glad you could take time to make a quick visit to this new home garden on the island of Rota in the Mariana Islands. Already a month has flown by since the last post. With all the rain, the weeds and grass seem to grow much faster than the veggies in the garden. 

Let's get started with the sweet basil. It was a good idea to plant the sweet basil right under the rainwater spout - a good idea if it was the dry season. Entirely too much water for the sweet basil seedlings. Somehow, they're growing really well despite the almost daily drowning of gallons of rainwater. Maybe the leaf-browning on many plants is a result of over watering. After harvest, sweet basil will get a new grow area, without all the water.

The tangerine tree in the front yard was mis-identified - oops! It's actually a mandarine orange tree. Lots of friends and neighbors loaded up on bags and bags of sweet mandarin oranges. Only a few remain in the highest branches. With so many sweet little mandarin oranges just literally outside my kitchen door, had to experiment and develope some yummy dishes - Chamarro Cake with Mandarin Orange Cream Sauce,  Mandarin Orange Pork Belly with Green Beans, and my fav, crepes with Mandarin Orange Cream Sauce.

Looking forward to next year, when the tree bears fruit again.

The tomato seeds from University of Hawaii germinated so well, that more seedlings than expected were on hand. Started out thinking five tomato plants should be more than enough, then ended up extending the grow area, and planting an additional six seedlings. To date, there are 16 Hawaiian tomato plants, all doing quite well. Half of them have already started to flower. All 16 plants each have three stakes, to keep them growing up, not down on the ground. 

Since childhood, we were always taught to pinch off the "suckers" on a tomato plant, to increase its yield. With this bunch, decided to not pinch off the suckers, and let them grow. Although the suckers become branches with only leaves, and no branches, their leaves gather sunlight for the whole plant. 

 

The water spinach, or kang kong (what we call it here), is so easy and fun to grow. Started out with just five or six seedlings (grown from seeds I got from the states), planted them, and they took off like Jack and the Beanstalk. Had a couple of small harvests. Just cut off the long branches with all their leaves, fry them on high heat with a little salad oil and minced garlic, and drizzle just a little oyster sauce on top. So delicious - in my mind, it beats out fresh spinach, no problem. Spinach is hard to get here on Rota, but now I've got loads of kang kong - got to have my green veggies. Kang kong is undeterminant, meaning it just grows and grows, with no definite harvest time or vegetative period. Kang kong only needs water and sunlight, that's it. In this part of the world, many people grow kang kong in 5-gallon plastic buckets, with no soil, 12 months a year.

Love to eat kang kong so much, I expanded the kang kong grow area substantially. The garden now has about 16 kang kong plants.

 

There is one papaya tree in the backyard that's putting out sweet fruit. Ate one last month - was quite impressed with its sweetness,  color, and texture. Dried and saved about 100 seeds. Four of the seeds germinated - four good seedlings now. Hoping to plant them next to the same papaya tree they came from. 

Most payapa trees on Rota are wild, jungle papaya. They're edible but not sweet at all.

The three hot pepper plants, from a good friend, are doing really well. Peppers are aleady coming out. Still not sure what kind of chili-peppers these are. Very definitely they aren't cayenne pepper, or Rota pepper - guessing they are probably jalepeno (yum).

For the last update - the white flowers from my apartment last year are thriving.

Thanks again for visiting. Hope you enjoyed it.

my garden on Rota 6

Welcome to this blog sight. It's been about one month since the last Rota Gardens post. Finally the dry season is over, and the rainy season is here. Things are growing like crazy now - weeds and all the veggies that went into the ground in the past few weeks.

First let's do an update of what was planted in the "Rota Gardens 5" post - sweet basil. Here's the sweet basil in the grow area in my backyard, right under the water faucet. The smell is really nice. Munching on a few fresh leaves, early in the morning, makes for a good natural breath freshner. These sweet basil are off to a good start, but they still have a long way to go. As the first veggies planted since moving in, the new garden is off to a great start.

Found some old Thai basil seeds, dug out a small little spot, and sprinkled out all the seeds. So far, only have 5 or 6 seedlings popping up. Hoping to get many more.

A friend gave me some tomato seeds from the University of Hawaii - especially suited for Pacific tropical islands. About 20 germinated into some good looking seedlings - quite robust with strong main stems. Roots can grow right off the main stem, so I planted them deep, right up to their lowest leaves. Typically tomatoes aren't really suited for tropical climates, except for cherry and Roma tomatoes. These Hawaiian tomatoes are bigger than Roma. Anyway, got most of the stakes in place. Also have a few more seedlings to add to the 10 already. Will put them in the ground as soon as I get more soil.

In my 1st garden on Rota, the kangkong (water spinach) was quite a success. With that in mind, attempting to follow the same idea - plant where all the rainwater drains out, at the lowest spot on the property. It's working here - 5 mature kankkong are thriving, and one seedling was added last week. Hoping to add another 4 or 5 in the next couple of weeks. Love to snip off the top best branches for my instant noodles. So yummy, healthy,  easy to grow, and kangkong are extremely prolific. Some states have banned kangkong as a foreign invasive species - not here. Kangkong love water, and do especially well in swampy environments.

 

It's interesting to take on new challenges from time to time - Chinese cabbage is just that. Know nothing about this veggie except that I love to eat it. So, doing my best with the Chinese cabbage, but honestly don't have a clue. Any advice or pointers would be appreciated.

Don't expect much from the Chinese cabbage I planted. Was browsing around on the internet - the post discouraged any transplanting of seedlings directly into a new grow area (like my garden) for various reasons (all of which read to be fairly sound or scientifically reasonable). The seeds were from Taiwan, so I just ignored the post and went forward, as if everything's going to be OK.  

Thanks for visiting my new Rota garden, on this tropical island paradise of Rota in the Mariana Islands. Until later - jerry 😎

my garden on Rota 5

Welcome back. It's been a long time since the last post (moved again and Covid 19). Enjoyed the last garden at the calamansi orchard. Got to learn much about caring for banana trees and prunning calamansi trees. Everything learned there will be used for all my future gardens on this Pacific paradise island of Rota.

Still helping out at the calamansi orchard, but decided to move. Unexpectedly, ended up with a really nice house right on the Pacific side of the island. Love to be situated at the foot of Wedding Cake Mountain, on the Sasanhaya Bay. Every morning from my bedroom window  I can see the sun coming up over Mt. Sabana.

Past couple months, been scoping out the best places around the house to plant veggies. Have somewhat of a gardening plan for the next six months to a year. In addition to veggies, I also have to care for 4 banana trees, 1 tangerine tree, 2 lemon trees, 1 papaya tree, 1 Bangladesh mango tree, and various flowers.

Lets take a brief inventory of the trees I've inherited, starting with the banana trees.

 

Both of these banana trees are for "eating" (not for "cooking").

Obviously much younger than the first two,  these young banana trees almost didn't make it. Moving in two months ago I noticed two dead banana trees - watered them regurarly, and these new trees popped up. 

The neighbors and I love this tree. The tangerines are all so sweet and there are so many ready to pick. Been using the tangerines for yummy sauces and juice.

My favorite tree - papaya. Not a wild/jungle papaya, this one is very sweet.

Not counting the coconut trees, this is another tree in the backyard along with the papaya tree. Some people here call it Bangladesh mango.

So far, you have seen the trees at my new house. All of them need care - prunning, watering, and harvesting. The rainy season has just begun in the Marianas, so no need to water the trees for at least until January.

Now lets look at what's been going into the ground.

Planted three hot pepper plants this week (a good friend gave them to me). Really not sure what kind of pepper plants they are - for sure, they're not cayenne. Will find out in about a month when they start producing fruit.

Planted sweet basil right below the back water faucet. Sweet basil loves to get lots of water. So, with hardly preping the soil, sprinkled the seeds around (from dead dried mature basil plants). Only three days, many basil have already sprouted. Hoping to collect loads and loads of sweet basil leaves, dry them in the sun, then crush them into powder for seasoning. Freshly picked sweet basil leaves taste great in a hot cup of tea or in pasta dishes, as well as instant noodles. In a pinch, chewing fresh basil leaves work well as a breath freshener.

Several kind friends have given me seeds, soil, plants, super good soil, and lots of useful advice - very grateful to all of them. With a little help from my friends, hoping to have a productive home garden with lots of fruit and veggies to share. Here are all the seedlings that will go into the ground in a week or two.

kankong (water spinach), Chinese cabbage, and Roma tomatoes

This July 2020 marks my 5th year anniversary of living in the Marianas (3 1/2 years on Saipan  and 1 1/2 years on Rota). Very thankful to God for bringing me to this beautiful place and look forward to good times with my friends and in my gardens on Rota.

Unrelated to gardening, here's the most recent moonrise, from my backyard. That's the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks for visiting this blog. Hope you enjoyed it. 😎