Welcome, welcome to my garden on Rota. Glad you stopped by to visit. Let's get started with some of the flowers.
The hibiscus started blooming. Drumroll, please - Not purple!
March 14, 2021, 7:23 am
Same flower: March 14, 2021, 12:49 pm
Really love these flowers. The blossoms form on the tips of these long blades of grass. They popped up in the front yard in random places. Decided to protect them and help their propagation. Hope to find out their name some day.
Lemon grass, just planted, from cuttings a friend gave me. It's used a lot in Thai cuisine, but here on Rota, it's stuffed inside roasted pigs (like stuffing in a turkey), to give extra flavor. Hoping to experiment and learn how to cook with it. Most homes that have gardens on Rota, all have lemon grass.
Lemon Grass
Sorry, don't know the name of this wild flower. Got some Florida wild flower seeds, and this flower or weed, must have snuck into the pack of seeds. It's huge - almost 5 feet tall. That pink thing, hanging down, is a huge tassle, almost like a giant pink dreadlock.
Getting a little excited to see the 1st bunch of bananas ripen. Not sure how much longer before tasting their sweetness. Good thing the forked-stick is working well to keep the entire banana tree from falling over. That bunch of bananas has got to be pretty heavy.
First eggplant planted. It's been pumping out fruit for 8 months. Have harvested as many as 10-12 eggplants at one time. Already lost count of the number of fruit harvested.
Now have six eggplants in the garden, five are producing fruit, and one, just got planted this week. Three of them are clones of the best eggplant in the garden. The eggplants have been the most rewarding of all, for the least amount of effort.
This is the one that produces the most eggplants - that's why I got clones from it. As long as I water it twice a day, eggplants keep pumpin' out super fast - flavor's good, too. Haven't had any need for bug spray - only Rota mountain spring water, good soil, simple plant food, and cow poop (whenever I can get it).
Planted this week. It already has one flower.
The green onions are coming along quite nicely.
The cucumbers have exceeded all expectations. Have harvested a lot already, most of which, are pickling in large jars in the fridge. Don't know how to make pickles, nor do I have all the spices and equipment needed to make good ones. Do have many glass jars (even 1-gallon glass jars). Using all the leftover pickle juice, adding my own spices, like garlic and cayenne pepper, to pickle newly harvested cucumbers (delicious).
The only bad thing about growing cucumbers (in my opinion) - they need lots of attention, and loads of water, like, drenched twice a day, or it's dry up and die super fast.
The tomatoes are beginning to make the garden look like a war zone, or something. There are now 26 tomato plants in the garden - at least three different strains: Hawaiian, Roma, and cherry tomatoes. Mother nature came through - loads and loads of green tomatoes are on the vine ripening. Had to sneak a taste - cooked fried green tomatoes (yummy), and have also made some delicious salsa.
This week, set up a small grow area and planted six Roma tomato plants. Roma tomatoes can grow without a trelis.
Here are some cayenne pepper seedlings. Perhaps in another week or two, they will be planted.
Since FSU, about 35 years ago, have wanted to grow some cayenne peppers again, from seed to harvest. Made a good attempt when first arriving on Rota two years ago, and again last year - have yet to grow them exactly as before. There's just something special about the flavor of fresh cayenne peppers along with Chinese dumplings, or just about any Asian cuisine.
That does it for this time. Thanks again for popping by and checking out this garden, right below Wedding Cake Mountain, on the Pacific Island of Rota, in Micronesia.
Peace.
