AERIAL GARDEN MOSS AND AGAVE INSTALLATION

INQUISITIVE gardeners observe what they do constantly to find out ways to distance themselves from the herd,  repetition, usual and expected possibilities regarding any installation too often determined by silly nursery offerings.

Some time ago, I noticed moss and lichens growing in one of the recycled bricks used  as ground cover in a mostly agave enclave in me north garden.  If you look at nature as I do,  contradictions are evident. Agaves and moss require conditions perceived as antagonist or opposites,  wet, humid, shade vs dry, light.

That is when I searched about moss requirements and started spraying twice a day to help its growth.  Moss, along zamias,ferns and a couple more are rather primitive in their origins. A project worthy of research. Agavaceas, on the other hand, did not require much care.  

During my constant peregrination through the blogosphere, I have never found a  similar situation.  For this reason, I declare it, unique, in any continent, until further notice/proof.

The same goes for this aerial garden.  It is a concrete roof, in the east side,  where leaves from  Pterocarpus and a Mahogany tree fall, accumulate, get wet, decompose  in rain water accumulated in the clogged drains and drying, creating  black gold, humus, with a bonus, earth worms.

It started with the Taro in the picture. I just threw it, some time ago without any after thought. Later, as I watched it growing,  I  noticed the  beauty of  the leaves. The angle of observation is unusual. A beauty from below, a kind one can never see from  any normal garden.  That is when I decided to help nature providing, asparagus, Chrysothemis and Pandanus.

The rest is history. The south garden, continues to evolve after the death of the Passiflora edulis, which by the way, took some time and effort to remove.  I learned in the process, that some vines fade away abruptly without any other reason than having completed their life cycle. 

This aerial installation, falls into the guerrilla gardening department technically, since it is not in out property boundaries. Seeds of Cosmos sulphureous, Merremia aegyptia and Clitoria ternatea, were also part of the procedures. I will keep you posted on this regard in the future. 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, come to mind, however, your humble's servant will have to do: Cajanian Hanging Installation with time, until destroyed as usual.  Surely, until some debate regarding concepts hanging garden/green roof is determined and constituted.

that is that.

a pure gardening post to change the pace

thanks for dropping by

 e. 
R

antigonum cajan evening post: MOTIVATIONAL POST

antigonum cajan evening post: MOTIVATIONAL http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/la-fitness-blaine-minnesota-c412475.htmlPOST

MOTIVATIONAL POST

IT is not easy to watch television.  Most of the offer spin around the body: miracle pills to enlarge the pecker, to satisfy her needs all the time, some to avoid waking up at night too often to piss, or the prostrate. Pecker Department.

Hair transplants to make you look younger, showing your virility and confidence. Plastic surgery for similar results. 10 minute exercise routines to have some wash board abdominals, zumba, pills to lose 100 pounds of fat in six months or thirty days.


Have you called Jenny Craig today?  These examples will suffice to get the photo/picture.
Everyjuan is trying to sell something to the mostly feeble minded fools around us.


Not I. As I have stated before it is my way or the highway.  In the last six months, I lost 22 pounds with blood, sweat and no tears, since real macho men never cry.


I started using a treadmill, dumbbells and one of those Weider cable machines at home. In addition to long strolls around Santurce, streets, avenues and picturesque alleyways.

But, probably the most significant change was in food intake department. With me wife suggestion,  I decided to change the amounts or portions and carbohydrate intake also. 

Recently, I joined LIVfitness Club in El Condado. Check this link if you ever make that mistake:  http://youtu.be/2fsdaj9YNbE.
The brutal  shitty music noise level is astounding.


The manager, a negro with a Tarantino jaw, crooked bow legs, looks like some retard at you when questioned about where is it written that a gym should keep the music decibels as some crappy discotheque.  Same goes for the mixed breed membership director. They come from some Dixieland neck of the woods where cotton is not known, the wear dacron/rayon/polyester pants! On top, both bastards are not computer literate, ignoring five emails on this regard.


The chatty, loud,  crowd at the gym are mostly wimps, female and male, all doing stupid exercises with wires, using too much weight with the dumbbells and barbells, swinging their bodies unable to lift and move correctly no matter which muscle group they work out.

Noise and stupidity follow me no matter what I do. With my earplugs, reducing the racket 32 decibels, one can feel the vibration from the woofer/bass in the equipment.  


Even with these obstacles I have been able to work out efficiently, biceps, triceps, deltoids and forearms every other day. 


The results are evident. Definition is showing, two inches around my waist gone, stamina is far from my sixty of age.


Mind you I made no resolutions as most people say.  I made the decision and followed through.


In brief: handsome, healthy, horticultural wizard and humble, being all I can be. Did I miss anything?


   

 

ON WEEDS AND MIGRANTS

THIS  post has been aging for quite some time.  I was once one of them migrants in the US Army, 6 in the south and 16 months in Deutschland plus half me life, 6 decades, in  the north east of  USA.

Puerto Rico is a USA territory  and the inhabitants citizens of that country.  Please keep that in mind while reading. Our migration to America the Beautiful is not illegal, even if we are treated as any other illegal Spanish speaker migrant in some contexts and situations, the transition is somejuat easier.

Migration in Europe has its characteristics, peculiarities making it somejuat different than the flow from Mexico to USA, but the same in most.  If you do a little research, you will find that almost one third of USA was once Mexico.  In essence, Mexicans without documents are illegals on what  used to be their own country, like apartheid was once a rule, that needs no elaboration.

My stance on illegal migrants is simple.  If they look 'for a better future' for their families,  a job and getting it, even if working for peanuts, keep their families at home. Get your job, money and go back. Do not bring spouse, children, mother, father, cousins, nephews and everyjuan else to the country tolerating your presence. and  That should be a rule in  any country, from my  perspective.

Puerto Rico has been invaded twice in the last 60 years, with some interesting results. Cubans were mostly white, educated, entrepreneurs, while Dominicans are black, not educated nor creating jobs, as the first did at one time.  The majority of the first group left town to la SAUESERA in 
Florida, while the others will remain, causing known problems in  housing, education, crime, integration just like any other uninvited guests imposing their presence upon you.

NOW that I have warmed up, lets take vegetation.  Look for  similarities between weeds and migrants, stretch that imagination. The problems they both create are evident.  I hope it is not just my perception or imagination. At any rate, dissents are welcome.

Organisms 'in the wrong place' are a familiar challenge in  the modern world.  Beings of all kinds move from one culture to another, creating problems of adjustment on both sides, and sometimes new opportunities, too.  Weeds are part of this great company of outsiders, who appear where they are not always welcome.  It would be wrong to make glib comparisons between our attitudes towards displaced plants and displaced humans, or to assume, for instance, that an entirely justified concern about invasive plants stems from a kind of botanical xenophobia.  Weeds cause trouble in a quite objective sense, and our reactions to and treatment of them are often entirely rational.  Nevertheless, the shape of our cultural response to them is familiar.  The archetypal weed is the mistrusted intruder.

It takes up space and resources that by rights belong to the indigenous inhabitants. Its vulgarity makes it the vegetable equivalent of the 'the great unwashed'.  Its frequently alien origins  and almost always alien ways test the limits of our tolerance. Do we show forbearance and try to accommodate it?  Or  strive to stop it migrating from its original wild home into our cultivated enclaves?  The familiar conundrums of multiculturalism echo in weed ecology too.

to be continued 

taken from

Richard Mabey

WEEDS 

pages

17-18

Harper Collins Publishers 

2000 

Any comment is welcome....show some criteria pretty please with sugar on top... 

PRO BONO PRUNING SHOW

During  the last five years I have visited more blogs than I could remember, only 3 or 4 are worthy of merit, gardening wise.

I have never seen any articles on pruning, or mutilation and consequences, as if the practice is just digging and planting.

At any rate, disaster struck home in the first picture. Lucy's imported labor from the west island, machete yielding destroyed the grapevine, a cotton bush, and Albizia leaving all the cut matter on  top of the vegetation. I had to go pruners in hand to save a little of the rest. 

On the next photo, a mutilated Bauhinia hangs it there. The problem, as with the Bouganvillea following, is that once the scaffolding/architecture of any tree/bush is destroyed not even God can do anything. Destroying trees this way is known  as topping.

The new growth will develop in odd angles, all ways too long, bending eventually. You could spend the rest of your life literally  trying to keep it tidy. The solution  for most fools, make a topiary, ugly as hell and keep on trucking. 

The Pithellobium dulce on Fernandez Juncos Ave. is ACajan's territory, where I have planted quite a few things. Is the former San Carlos Hospital. Not much to add except that pedestrians will keep their eyes and skin safe.


The lemon tree is one of my favorites in the whole area. The owner a not so friendly fellow who bought recently the property was disconcerted when I offered to prune the underside for free. 


Gilberto, the resident owner of the first mentioned mutilated trees did not.  And was gracious the next day when I saw him.


When I do what I do I do not expect recognition or to fraternize with anyone, but showing some gratitude is stimulating, even if in a couple of months all work done is once again destroyed.

that is that

PIMPED PAVEMENT ANTHOLOGY POST

UNLIKE Mr. Appleseed, that nursery legend in USA, I decided to introduce many species that will survive without any or little maintenance and/or irrigation, in my guerrilla activities in the parking area of this abandoned former hospital.  The trick is to plant after intense rainy  days.

Pimped pavement is another expression for guerrilla gardening, not of me liking, but  useful at this time.  One of the regular readers, David, requested some pictures. I decided to oblige since it was coming anyway. 

INVENTORY 

For the hell of it, the photos are not identified, the acute reader will have to match the information below or research if interested.  

Alternatera brasiliana 
 Intense dark purple bush. found in Paseo del Bosque a condo where we used to live.

Pereskia bleo

Small bush with typical orange flowers found in many succulents.  The multiple thorns grow in groups around the stem, making it the most difficult to care for in the collection.  For that same reason, perfect,   if you are looking for protection around your property. 

Cosmos sulphureous

One of my signature favorites.  The original seeds
came from Orocovis, some town in the neck of the woods. Self seeding and tolerant to everything.

Mirabilis siciliana

One of two varieties in my collection.  Arrived from a trip to Aibonito, a similar town as the above. The reddish flowers create some contrast with the mostly green foliage with a fragrance bonus, after 3PM. 

Mesquite

This species is related to those growing in Mexico and USA.  From seeds collected in Guanica, my favorite town, in the south of PR,USA a region with thirty inches of average rain a year.  These small trees do not grow in the north, as far as I know, It could be one of a few or the only one. I have another in the north garden.  There is nothing growing at a slower pace in the whole.

Ruellia brittoniana 

The dwarf variety is from our backyard.  Not available anymore since this one in particular propagates itself by seeding.  Most plants sold in  nurseries today do not.

Pandanus utilis

Featured previously as the lone survivor in one of my earlier posts about San Carlos, found in the first video link of the list.  It is perhaps the one with more pedigree age wise since the original was taken from a mature tree growing in the sands of  Isla Verde in Carolina City moons ago.  What I usually do, is to keep them until they reach two or tree feet in diameter and start again with a little one. It grows like an agavacea form for many years until the trunk develops, becoming an odd looking tree.

Clitorea ternatea 

Another of my favorite vines, comes from  an abandoned house in my street...Has been seen in  other spaces in Santurce, where I reside.

Commelina elegans and

Antigonum leptopus

The first appears in one of the photos at left, but not the second. These two were in situ, along other species of trees, weeds and wild flowers DK for your humble servant. 

It would be great if other people could collaborate with nature here or there  with the understanding that pimping pavements do not last  like Macchu Pichu. It is clear on me mind that anyjuan at anytime will come and destroy all this I have shared with you.
  

Cannavalia maritima

Discovered behind Sixto Escobar Stadium, not too far from the Atlantic, a vine, from seeds.  Excellent for erosion control in dunes/beach/shores or for the beauty and not too sweet fragrance, a favorite of black beetles.  
It is the one in the links for the videos below blanketing  the asphalt.     

That is that..

If interested check these 
links in youtube for a whole
historical view in two years time..
 

http://youtu.be/ZUrUhOYEe_A

http://youtu.be/Wkoi6hSu2DQ

http://youtu.be/mrV1KMA1CIo

http://youtu.be/govA08GdmWw