Welcome, welcome, welcome!
My garden has gradually increased in size. At last count, there are 19 Hawaiian tomato plants, 17 Taiwan cucumber vines, and five Eggplants (long skinny, purple kind). Aside from those, also have oregano, basil, a local spinach, water spinach (aka, kangkong), sweet papaya, lemon grass, local chili peppers, and banana.
The Taiwan cucumbers have been great fun to grow. If they don't get watered early in the morning and right after sunset, they dry up super fast and die.
Been harvesting the cucumbers almost two weeks now, and tossing them into glass jars, and pickling them.
The cucumbers grow super fast, and they love to climb for more sunshine. Asked my local friends what kind of trelis is commonly used here, on the Island of Rota. The easiest for me has been a "tee-pee" type trelis. It's been working well. Instead of going to hardware store to buy materials to build a trelis for each cucumber plant, went into the jungle with a good machette, and cut down tang-en tang-en (a plant endemic to Rota, good to use for poles).
The four sweet papaya trees, in the back yard, are coming along very well. They are still young, so we still don't know which of the four new trees are female.
Was having doubts about the Hawaiian tomato seeds - no longer. A small hive of bees moved to my area. Plus, many honey bees have also been visiting from the jungle. There are some butterflies from time to time, but the bees are often around.
To help the tomato pollination process, every day, around 3 o'clock, when the sun is usually at its brightest, I tap the main stem (quickly and strongly, for one minute) of each tomato plant with a stick. Surprisingly, it actually works. One day, when there was almost no breeze at all, started tapping the first tomato plant - a small cloud of pollen poofs out from the plant.
So, the tomato plants that are flowering, all have tomatoes. Of all the 19 tomato plants in the garden, two of them are out-performing the rest - 21+ tomatoes on the same plant at the same time.
Love to walk in the garden, early in the morning, and count how many tomatoes are on the vine, soon to be harvested.
This is Eggplant #1, already about 8 months old, just keeps pumping out eggplant.
Here's Eggplant #2, also from the same pack of seeds as #1, but for some reason, its fruit are all darker purple, and much tastier. For that reason, started cloning the #2 plant. Now have 5 mature Purple Long Skinny Eggplants, two of which are clones of #2 (cloning is very easy with this species of eggplant).
This is the banana tree that is making a new bunch of bananas. The weight of a new bunch of bananas, can easily cause the entire banana tree to fall over. So, you have to get a strong forked-stick (from the jungle) and prop up the banana tree to suppot the new bunch of bananas. Perhaps in another two or three weeks, fresh banana bread will be baking in the oven.
A friend gave me some oregano, green onion, and local soinach cuttings. Planted them close to the kitchen window.
Never realized how beautiful oregano leaves are in their natural state.
Only starting with 4 green-onion plants. Hoping, with time, the green onions will multiply on their own.
This local spinach is still a mystery to me. It might turn out even yummier than kangkong. Regardless, the more green leafy veggies, the better.
February and March 2021 at my garden on the island of Rota, in the Marianas, is a time of continual harvesting - all the cucumber, eggplant, and tomato plants are mature and bearing fruit.
A little overwhelmed with all the help from friends and fellow Rota gardeners - very grateful for them and to them.
Behind the scenes, God continues to bless the garden - wanted to be sure to acknowledge that.
Hope you enjoyed the post. Thanks for visiting. You're always welcome.
