my garden on Rota 4

It's been quite some time since the "my garden on Rota 3" post. Haven't left the island of Rota - still gardening. The front and back garden at my apartment proved to be a springboard for much greater gardening opportunities.

Moved to another location on the island of Rota, to care for about 300 calamansi trees, and various other fruit trees. Also as a participant at the Rota Man Amko Center, helping out in our vegetable garden keeps my hands in the dirt.

About 300 Calamansi Trees

Rota Man Amko Center, Rota, Sinapalu, CNMI, USA

Here are two varities of tomatoes, our head gardener let me plant, at the Man Amko Center - cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes. Only these two varieties of tomato grow well on tropical Pacific islands.

Cherry Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Here are the eggplants I germinated at my former apartment, a couple of months ago. I remember the eggplant seedlings were so fragile. Now both plants are fully matured and, more than three feet tall, healthy, and pumping out the eggplants.

Decided to plant two cayenne pepper plants at my new place. After a couple of months, one plant died, and the other one has been thriving. Look carefully at the picture (enlarge the image) and you'll see three or four long green cayenne peppers. Can't wait for them to turn red.

At the Man Amko Center, the head gardener gave me a bunch of sweet basil seeds from plants that had died and dried up. Took the seeds, preped a small plot at my new location
and just threw them onto the dirt (didn't germinate or plant the seeds). In a very short time, there's a large patch of fragrant sweet basil plants - gardening at its easiest.

Man Amko Center Aquaponics System: We now have our own aquaponics system at the Man Amko Center. In short, about 50 live talapia fish provide all the nutrients to grow vegetables in four different grow beds. Right now, we are only growing Chinese cabbage. The coolest thing - no dirt, soil, or fertilizer, only water and special ceramic beads.

The agriculturalist who designed and set up the system, from time to time, is training us how to maintain the system, and get better yields. It's very likely if we have really good harvests, aside from feeding us at the Man Amko Center, we might be able to sell excess crops to generate money for our center.

 

Very sorry there's no follow-up on the front and back gardens at the apartment where I used to live. The calamansi trees, kangkong, cayenne peppers, and lemon basil all did very well. Only the green onions failed.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Welcome to keep visiting and check on things growing in my different gardens on Rota, a beautiful tropical island in the Marianas.

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