ON NATURE AND TEXT BOOKS

NOT long ago, while watching a documentary about Aldo Leopold, who changed forever the vision regarding forest management in USA, after proving through research how the elimination of predators, in this case, wolves, destroyed not only certain habitats for trees, but for  fauna depending on them for housing and or/food.

Shortly afterwards I thought of the huge amount of information, facts, nomenclature  one has to learn, with tests to approve to get a certificate here or a tittle there.  However, non conformists gardeners are constantly looking to find evidence to the contrary. 

Read the information about trees below.  It is true in almost any place on earth. In tropical latitudes, things are a little different.

If you need a reference book on tree maintenance this is the one

Pirone's Tree Maintenance

John R. Hartman

Thomas P. Pirone

Mary Ann Sall 

Oxford University Press

2000

page 50

Embedding themselves in the soil, the roots are able to hold the tree erect.  Trees tend to develop anchorage where it is most needed.  The tendency of isolated trees is to develop anchorage rather  equally all around, with perhaps a slightly stronger development on the side toward the prevailing strong winds.  The better protected a tree is from wind, the less it depends on secure anchorage and the fewer roots it seems to provide four such anchorage.

Soils in urban areas are usually different from rural soils.  Disturbances caused by human activities may result in a high degree of variability. Thus a tree planted at one site may be in a very different soil environment than one planted only a few yards away due, for example, to the presence of construction debris at one site and not another. Modification of the soil structure can lead to compaction and restricted aeration and water drainage. 


Probably the best way to improve the physical condition of the soil before trees are planted is to incorporate large amounts of organic matter. Such material not improves the structure of the soil but also increases its water holding and ion-exchange capacity.

The photos at left are significant.  One of the trees is about 20 years old growing in the concrete roof, while the young lad is about 3, in a metal drain.  I have seen more than one photo of  Ficus like monsters embracing abandoned structures in Maya temples and Anghor Wat, my favorite, for hundred of years ago.

What one never thinks about is that they all started as seeds, growing in cities, in what seems inhospitable surroundings.  Time proved everyjuan wrong. With Nature there is no text book. It does what she has at all times.                           

that is that

WITH DIVA IN THE GARDEN MEMORIES OF YESTERDAY TODAY TOMORROW

IT is 7AM.  One of those cool, humid, dark days in the tropics, a reminder of gone days with winter drizzle in Maine on an off.  Diva looks sad and sleepy, as she does every time it gets cloudy, with or without any rain.  Totally unhappy with the company of thunder and lightning.


Sits by my side as she always does while I write these lines.  Often napping or watching what goes on through the door screens, other times, I can listen to her cat like licking.  As time goes by, her age is showing, more and more;.  The stamina,  playful spirit in spurts at the most unexpected hours, slowly fading away.


I remember when we both were younger, living in Bayamon City. There there was a yard with grass, unlike ours now, mostly concrete.
In those days, my views on gardening, recently out from the NY Botanical were not what they are now. Buying plants in nurseries was
not and issue, as it is now.


One afternoon, (circa 2003) me wife and I went to buy some Bouganvilleas and Allamandas, that were planted in the front yard, by the stairs.  At the time she was two, with incredible amounts of energy,  in a constant playing mood.


Dogs, pretty much like cats, demand attention at will, and Diva was/is not the exception.  Like many gardeners, dogs enjoy digging holes for this or that reason, the smell of soil, the cool sensation while laying on it always present.


Often while I am doing garden chores, she will go get one of her toys in a basket, picking up her favorite at that particular time, bringing it to start a fetch session.  That day, since I was busy planting the above mentioned, she felt ignored.


Finished with the planting, I went upstairs to cool off and rest.  Time went by--not as slow as some pretend in movies depicting tropical scenes--two hours later, I hear me darling powerful laugh while I rested on the hammock, enjoying the intense blue isle sky.


She asked me to come and check our earlier work in the garden... it was gone.  Diva, had chewed them Bouganvilleas to pieces,  pulling them out.  The message was clear. When I feel like playing, lets play.


As they age, Boxers and Dobermans are prone to eye and heart diseases, that eventually cause death.  A  mix of these, Diva, is showing symptoms with a loud coughing at different times. Has lost weight and the childish desire to play drastically decreased.  Today, we will take her to the veterinarian to see what could be done to ease the transition.


I, meanwhile, wonder what will life will be like without her constant company, night and day, including shared naps in the hot season.  Her presence will be missed, during the almost daily sweeping and collection of leaves in every cardinal point for compost.   Occasional planting, pruning and trimming.


Diva enjoys other garden related mischievous activities as well, such as jumping, barking and chasing away stray cats passing by,  flies, Anolis lizards, Spindalis and pigeons that visit our premises daily at different times, except on Maine like mornings like this.  As many dogs, her dislike for the mailman, (unfriendly pain in the ass, unlike yours truly), is intense. She can feel the bastard, four houses up the street!

It is going to be difficult. The time left to live, experiences and adventures  shared during the last ten years. Happy memories and otherwise. Those who have departed, those who will... my own.

UPDATES...

THE veterinarian diagnosed a heart murmur and eye cataracts. The improvement showed 3 hours later. With the medication Diva will live normally within the possibilities. The cough was gone..in 3 hours.

that is that.

DELLA M'ARCY TESTARROSA INTERVIEW WITH ANTIGONUM CAJAN

oEDITORS NOTE

Miss Testarrosa is one of those gardening characters

with a galaxy of tittles, tons of words/inquiries about the
practice, with light weight gardening to show.

ANTIGONUM CAJAN DECLARES


Some time ago I sent a couple of links to the British islander mentioned above,
 with her blessings soon after.  Only one thing was unusual and irritating, she demanded that I
translated Mr. Hernandez review in Spain(http://www.guiaverde.com/blog/destacadas/jardin-tropical-en-puerto-rico).
 
What she does for a living in her blog, is to inquire at will
about gardening, garden design, photography,
history to name a few, in her blog.  Therefore, she should
have inquired as she does with everyjuan else,
unless she cerebrates I have nothing transcending to say regarding our subject matter.
Well, Della M'arcy you are mistaken.  A pity, your condescending attitude
let that chance flee, your narrow template climate gardening views and exposition.

THE INTERVIEW THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

Della M'arcy:   What made you interested in gardening?

Antigonum Cajan:  I could say that having some relatives on the

maternal side of the family who were farmers, being exposed to their ways in my childhood and a cigar maker on the paternal, or genetically if I may,

is part of the reason.  I said agriculture, not gardening.  Any person who practices and studies gardening, horticulture, will never lose sight from that fact, one came before the other.

Besides, I have always propagated, since I was 19, collecting on an off for the last thirty years. Gardening,  was innate, without any pondering. In my case, similar to what whities usually write about darkies athletic abilities, a natural.

DM:   Why gardening?

AC:  If I have had  discipline and patience, I could have been a percussionist, painter,  basketball or billiards player.  But there is a trick, all those activities require the presence of the other, to be in contact with other people.  As a young misanthropist, with definite social skills difficulties there was not a chance, except painting. Gardening and painting have that requirement, one could become a perfectionist, covering the whole, without the need of a team, the other.  These two activities,  have other quality, composition, a gardener  or  painter without a deep

understanding of composition, becomes just one more Joe the Plumber/Six Pack or village idiot. Take your pick.

However, there is a vocation side of any activity.  When one chooses,

it is not important if other people recognize how well or poorly one performs, since the motivation comes from, may I say, a spiritual urge within, a mission, angry energy beyond the profiteering end.

Finally, there is the environment, the flora and fauna context, in my situation, urban concrete/asphalt. That determines my focus, even in this absolute sterile society with a. constant noise soundtrack. Through gardening, other creatures participate, collaborate and benefit. 

DM:   and then?  How did you become a gardener?  

AC:  Bella, darling, this interview is  getting like a beating the dead horse contest.  But here it is.  I became a gardener, propagating and planting, in that order.  Four decades later, I decided to get professional training in the New York Botanical Garden. I received a Commercial Horticulture Landscape Management Certificate in 2002.

Now, I was not only a gardener, I had credentials, always looking to develop, a restless urge to expand my views on horticulture, in my opinion, a much wider concept. To kick butt in Puerto Rico and elsewhere is also stimulating.  Lately, much less important.

In USA the infatuation with turf/lawns was evident during that period. Herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers and irrigation, trimmers, lawnmowers, blowers, soil/water/air/ pollution and noise was overwhelming. I did not realize it then. Later, I understood my blunt/abrasive animosity to lawns/turf and/or people who practice gardening with all the above evils, ignorant fools with/without blogs.

DM:    The name of your blog is very evocative-- tell me how this came about.

AC:   I have had other evocative blogs: Anglospano Review, endemismotrasnochado, upinthebreadfruittree.  With the infinite amount of gardening blogs with Gardening variables as a tittle, it could not have been any other way. The first two are my coinage, the last one,  surges from a tittle of a tune made popular by Rafael Cortijo, a musical/cultural icon.  Them blogs were finished by a hacker. 

My evening post is a tribute to the Saturday Evening Post.  Magazines a reading pleasure, now, most are dead and buried, thanks to the web, the cost of paper and lack of advertisements.  Readership?  That will require research. 

FINAL WORDS FROM YOUR HOST 

I have had some adventures  collecting, guerrilla gardening,

concrete roof gardening, the seemingly ignored practice of gardening with vines for fragrance, shade, privacy and security. Compost and compost tea, home made insecticides, garden design with eco-region flora/fauna in focus, the destructive influence of nurseries in creativity, propagating skills among people. In addition,  creative horticultural criticism and perhaps more pertinent, becoming an authority, at least on my mind, regarding the foolish garden plant selection, installation and maintenance polluting practices prevailing in Puerto Rico and  USA.  You are invited to research and find any other source regarding all that is mentioned here about gardening, horticulture and agriculture for the last

twenty years.  Please do not forget the masters,  include those landscape architects, paradigms of narrow minds without salvation here.

The issues above deserved an interview, or
a couple of questions, you beach!.

that is that.. almost

Let the record show I have encountered

olympic supremacist views in garden rant.com.

Having spent half my existence in the belly of the

beast, racism and prejudice are fine with me.

But condescending behavior, I can/will not tolerate

We, those living below the Equator, can also

ponder, discern, experiment, be inquisitive about research and set trends, imaginary or
real.  It is not

your monopoly, within gardening theory and praxis, or  any other
subject, you name it.


Thanks Della for the inspiration.
Without you it would not
have been the same.

SERGIO RICO VELASCO SOLID RAIN FOR ALL

 TWO weeks ago I herd on Radio Nederlands, an interview with Mr. Rico Velasco and his truly revolutionary concept of solid rain.  Polymers are nothing new, the children of the Mayans were found to play with rubber balls in the 1500's*.   However this type, is, thank to its costs and lasting period, between 8/10 years.

Wondering why such cost efficient product, accessible,  already in production, sold and distributed in different third world countries, is  not in main stream news either printed, in tv networks or those  useless networks as Facebook, a Harvard degree is not necessary.

Imagine what is going on the minds of Monsanto with transgenic seeds and the monster construction companies into golf courses, commercial and residential pastures with lawns...with their costly, wasteful irrigation systems...A cost efficient water system or competition!

The conclusion is not good. This product will surely find plenty of obstacles and attacks, with a difficult time to find a niche among powerful countries with monopolies on this or that field of agriculture or ornamentals. 

On the other hand, those people/countries with cyclical drought seasons will have an option to cultivate on eroded and dry soil.

If you practice gardening or agriculture, check the information. It is useful and pragmatic. Here some links.

that is that

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/297894/20120213/amazing-solid-rain-hydrates-crops-water-gel.htm

      http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-09/22/content_16514929.htm

     http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2012/01/120120_lluvia_solida_sequia_mexico_an.shtml

*History of Polymers

FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST DANM YOU LIVfitnessclub Condado

   THE lord works in mysterious ways..Unlike ultimate fighters/warriors, I can not beat or kick the defenseless adversary on  the ground.  All this torture to me ears with 200 decibels, has ended with the cancellation of me membership, with one of me posts as the reason.

It shows the aptitude and business savy of the owners/manager. Do not keep the volume at a reasonable level, no, get rid of the elderly using one of his posts as the reason, while keeping the fire exits locked to avoid anyjuan from entering free to the premises. Believe it or not.

This is the final email sent to the not so bright, intelligent or reasonable manager, native of some southern neck of the woods..    

	Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 6:44 PM
l
Dear Mr. X, Thanks for taking 90 seconds, to respond. When a customer request respect, and his/her emails are not responded as business protocol and  professionalism demands, it shows on your part, very little or no understanding of the law, health issues as hearing loss with unnecessary musical decibels for both,  customers paying a membership and your staff. My requests to keep a healthy volume while I trained, even with ear plugs,  were mocked and ignored, arbitrarily, more than once, increased after my requests. Following business,  logic,  any cancellation of my contract, within the law, requires not only a written notification. Asking me to call you, futile, since talking to you and Mark Gross was pretty much the same as talking to a wall. Since your club is run by the blind and unsophisticated, leading the blind, I have nothing to add. If I have offended you, I  declare that at sixty of age, I never saw such amateurish management practices in half my life in the USA or Puerto Rico.  Your club is the first establishment, where the customer with criteria, is not always right. The law, elementary school logic demanded a written statement. I did not become a member by  telephone, I signed a contract, in person. You have the right to cancel, is not the issue. All of you came here expecting to create a night club or a disco in a gym? Not to get into what in the USA will be a violation of fire department codes without any control of CAPACITY and on top with ALL the fire exits, LOCKED. Lets hope there is not a fire on your premises...The law suits will leave you and every one else without socks. Finally,  congratulations for yesterdays showmanship.  Tell the big headed, inner city middle aged from the Bronx; that his cocky acting was very amusing... Do what you have to do, send the written cancellation. That is that. Cordially your humble servant

ROOF TOP GARDEN UPDATES

SOME may think  my assertiveness is a little extreme. Yet,  I do not sleep well, even less, on any laurels. Willing to share discoveries that make 'original' gardening views in terms of my own practice and experiments, out dated. At least in the historical sense.

 My planting a few chosen ones on the roof top after observing the growth of the Allocasia, taking advantage of  humus formation and water accumulation,  seems to be a really old practice.  In brief, improving the soil with organic matter as you will see in this excerpt about not much talk about, The Hebrides. 

Never heard of them?  Go search. I think they are somewhat  more interesting in topo/geography, than those lately in the news, The Falklands, and if you are from Argentina...Malvinas*.. 


As a tropical islander, I have a tendency to appreciate those isles without similar climate more. Since they are so different, their vegetation geo/topography  seem challenging to study, observe. Many
tropical islands become a destiny for tourism/prostitution, both/one or the other.  Travel guides show they all look alike, sand/palms/beaches/ocean with people doing the same stupid activities..Take cruiser trips for example.  One is in a huge trap to eat, walk like a zombie, eat again, sleep and eat.

A final observation. The native islanders no matter if black/white/ Asian, migrate to the continents 'for the better future', from which their tourism comes from.  Their islands of origin becoming a vacation destination for both; natives and foreigners..

Sorry for the island editorial.

 Back to the studio.

From 

National Geographic

January 2010

The Edge of the World

pages 76-77 

"There are some places so wild, it seems, that

even the sturdiest humans cannot always endure their challenges.

St. Kilda, a tiny cluster of islands and sea stacks perched

in the North Atlantic 40 miles west of North Ulst, was occupied for more than 4,000 years.  A small community once huddled around

around the curve of Village Bay on Hirta, the largest island.  Sheep grazed steep slopes all around. Modest crops of barley, oats,

and potatoes were grown in raised beds, where thin soil carefully augmented with applications of mineral-rich seaweed.

Winter storms, rolling unchecked across thousands of miles of open ocean, struck the islands with almost unimaginable ferocity.

In 1852, 36 islanders--roughly a third of the population at that time--chose a long and arduous journey to Australia over remaining on St.Kilda. Many perished at sea."

Now the question, why/how people forget this kind of knowledge, thousands of years old.  Improving the soil?  The answer could be found with a little meditation. What do the Khmer in Angkor Wat, Incas and Mayas have in common after developing impressive civilizations and disappearing, but the impossibility of feeding their always increasing population?

that is that

 

SUMMER OF 1959

IN 1959 I was fortunate to spend a whole week away from home at  my aunt Marta's* and her dad, living relatively far from each other.  Isabel, her husband, a short, pasty, blue eyes with a huge bold head fellow took me there.

Our  wooden house had  a zinc roof, 3 bedrooms, plumbing, electricity and plenty of termites chewing  it away,  with a toilet/shower where the outhouse had been many years earlier.

Marta's  had a green tar/card board roof, palm tree floors and walls made out of Roystonea regia. One bedroom the size of our tv room, a smaller area with a dirt kitchen or fogon**.  Water from a stream four hundred meters away and outhouse.  

That means nothing except the numbers...We were a family of  four, they were ten, in half the space. At night, the sole room became a bedroom with the portable cots.

After that sociological description, lets get to the previous post: sugar, tobbacco and coffee

My earliest experiences with nature and plants took place then and there.  Saw the first bushes of Coffea arabica with flowers and fruit and got to share some chores with Tobbaco nicotiana. 

After the leaves were collected  they were tied through the stems with a flat needle and string, to be hang to air dry in the 3 stories high structures, made out with straw walls.  This activity was shared by all members of the family.

The conditions of people living in the country had been described as miserable, poor, dirty and humble then and now.  Not having in plumbing, sewage and electricity, a sign of backwardness.

Yet my relatives had a couple of horses to travel, chickens, pigs, and cultivated food stuffs, besides the cash crops.  Lacking money for this or that forced people to be creative, to solve problems on their own, not having a hardware or grocery store to buy.

Some diseases were consequence of not wearing shoes, hard work  being exposed to weather conditions.  Others result of a poor diet 
or any kind of hospital facilities near by or far away.

Many people give an exaggerated importance to education, as if every one could only be useful for him/herself with a high school diploma then.  Now is a college degree.

I can not say the were unhappy, or depressed/ They lived differently in contact with the environment...what it offered.  There was no credit, or credit cards, one had to be creative with little resources.  Never saw a morbid obese in those days, BK, KFC came much later.

Any one could make a list of everything that was wrong about poor people living in the country side.  What went awfully wrong were the  mindless alternatives provided by politicians,
engineers, architects and every one else involved in the destruction of 
an agricultural economy with all the imaginable things that were wrong vs the dysfunctional industry/manufacture/housing/highway fever that went on for maybe, forty years.

We had little, but it was ours. Crime, fraud was not rampant. If you wanted to eat, you had to do something in return.  Honesty meant something.

In Puerto Rico, after the financial trap  government, bankers and speculators sunk us, the ones that will have to pay, some fools here are talking about resuscitating agriculture.

My views on landscaping maintenance, agriculture, edible gardens, ecology and environment are not taken from the monitor, over here
it seems to be the rule.    


During this 'vale of tears' I am convinced that talk is cheap. Good will is useless without a foundation, vision, focus and commitment.  

When I look around, the scene that many ignore, is that population growth will neutralize any effort to improve living conditions of many people, here and there. It is a trap, without escape.  It is similar to the silly attempt to build enough roads, highways or parking lots, to keep up with spore like spread of all kinds of vehicles.

From a backward, agricultural and mostly illiterate, poor isle we became a concrete/asphalt/noisy hell, with a Greek like national public debt, almost 4 million people with 2 million vehicles, 30%  unemployment and growing, during my six decades of age...

 Puerto Rico a living hell of the Caribbean.

No wonder I am rarely in 

a grouchy mood. 

* Marta was a nice

person, so was Isabel,

both were dead two years later.

 The town was Aguas Buenas City,

Barrios Mulitas and Juan Ascencio

**Fogon is just a table with

a dirt top. Between 10/12''

thick. 3 or 5 stones to place

pans and such with fire wood as

needed.

NICOTIANA TABACUM COFFEA ARABIGA SACCARUM OFFICINARUM

 overture

There are many blogs, perhaps too many, about this and that.  Some are a pass time, others pretend to leave a trace, become a reference.  Mine is in the last league. Not that it will/would make any difference since knowing history, has never stopped  people, the silent majority, from making the same mistakes over and over, back and forth.

I just read an article from a 2001 TIME, a blind fellow claim to fame: climbing/reaching the Everest.  Others sail the world by themselves, with or without some GPS. The silliest, swim, run and go in a bicycle 300 miles. My claim is somewhat modest: collected over a hundred, coined/defined a few terms, practiced guerrilla without irrigation maintenance, collaborated with urban nature, the garden on a roof, insulted and denounced quite a few bastards/bastardettes, (not enough), destroying our environment with stupid landscape practices and or polluting,  but perhaps most important; I have witnessed the destruction of  agriculture and  scaffolding of our society in Puerto Rico, for the last half a century.

I remember with the same anger, sadness and nostalgia of that clear afternoon, around 3 PM, when the sun starts fading, s l o w l y, away in the tropics..when the bright becomes opaque, watching the trucks moving east on Georgetti street,  opposite corner of Farmacia San Rafael,  in the Caguas Country, with cattle like, mostly black fellow men in raggedy clothes,  their hands grasping the wooden handle bars on top, holding with the other,  their machetes in homemade paper/newspaper/string holders , carrying their human cargo home, swaying sideways, back and forth with the truck, returning from their  brutal under heat/sun sugar cane cutting activities. It was 1959.  I was in third grade.

There were plenty of trucks, some like those in India, Colombia or Mexico with folk art or signs, carrying, overflowing mounts of cut canes to the refining mills or centrales.  Adults and children  often picked the falling from the streets to consume as a treat later.  


How can anyjuan forget the tiny ashes of the burned sugar cane fields, to ease the cutting, black, fluffy, melting in your hand,  snowflakes, flowing with the wind, landing in every imaginable space, in or out...


I will have to finish this tender story here with a not so tender truth.


The cut cane was bought at lets say, 14 a pound, by the USA sugar mills companies and sold for 3 or 4 times that, in paper bags.  I imagine tons, probably two thirds of the molasses, were used to make the so called  Puerto Rican Rums.

So called?  Inquires the inquisitive, looking a little redundant?
Well if whisky, whiskey is made with this or that in the country
of origin, such like, vodka, or wine or whatever distilled alcohol for consumption  is manufactured,  with locally grown ingredients...then, there is not such a thing as PUERTO RICAN RUM, just like there is not a puerto rican scotch or vodka since molasses are imported from Dominican Republic.  If I am mistaken, in the future we could also distill bourbon, champagne and else...if it is just a matter of labeling...or an aluminum steel distillery. Caveat emptor. 

Mimus polyglottos

PINEAPPLES PALESTINIANS POST

PEPITA keeps magazines for years, until they have been read or not, throws or donates them. Here, an excerpt about them suffering Palestinians from TIME'S perspective from 2001.

TORN APART 

by Matt Rees.

WEST BANK AGAINST GAZA

A 19-year-old Beethlehem man hitched a ride home from a local wedding party one night this past March.

Three off-duty policemen who spoke with Gaza accents picked him up.  Soon after, they pulled the car over on a lonely road.  Palestinian legal sources tell TIME that the policemen then  sexually assaulted the youth. In the close knit West Bank town, the attack was an unheard-of act that scandalized the territory in the same way a murder in America suburbia would shock the community.

But the fact that Palestinians have begun attacking one another like this highlights the growing tension between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.  Gazans

particularly those in the police force, are unpopular in the West Bank.  West Bankers say Gazans take all the low paid jobs; that they steal and run whorehouses; and that Arafat gave them all the top jobs in the security forces because they are more loyal to him than West Bankers.   Of the 40 commanders on Arafat's Supreme Security Council, none are from the West Bank. 

FAST forward...The recent Fatah-Hamas conflict is a probable consequence of the arbitrary ruling of deceased
Yaseer Arafat...who planted the seeds...If you think this is interesting, go and search..Meanwhile, remember Kosovo, Chechens, Darfur, Shiites vs Sunnites, Hutus vsTutsis...they all look alike. With similar results...thousands of innocent people killed, maimed, exiled... 

Now its time to discuss pineapples, the forgotten fruit. For the last five years I have checked tens if not hundred of blogs from all over. I saw plenty, too many If I may, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and cucumbers,  but pineapples?

Not once, here me go...

Fifty Plants that

Changed the Course

of History

by

Bill Laws

Firefly Books

2010

pages 14-15

"Discovered" by the Spanish when they landed in the Americas, the pineapple proved such a delight to the invaders as it had done to the indigenous people.
Since the fruit is a conglomeration of a hundred or so individual flowers that coalesce into a giant sugary fruit, it is packed with flavor as it is with
vitamins A and C.
Propagated by planting its sprightly green crown, or striking its side shoots, or slips, in compost, the pineapple grows easily in a tropical climate.
The Spanish, who brought it home to Europe could just about find sufficient heat to grow it.
It was going to flourish in pineapple plantations
in Northern Africa and South Africa, and eventually Malaysia and Australia; and one of the world's most productive pineapple regions turned
out to be Hawaii.  However, in the dour, cold northern European countries, the pineapple
was a problem. Presented with the challenge of domesticating the "pine", Europe's gardeners eventually set to producing single fruits in wooden tabernacles warmed by stoves on hot beds of the best horse manure.

This post was brought to you by the letter 
P.


It turned out without much thought...Originally,
I was reading this article on pineapples thinking of sharing it, because everyjuan seems to like bananas and even write about it.  The banana monopoly as a favorite tropical fruit, is consequence of their constant production of fruit, pineapples on the other hand are seasonal.  But if you live in a template climate, let me tell you, the taste of those not ripened in the plant taste pretty dull if you ask me...It is another experience.  
The Palestinians?  
Only the first letter was considered, where else
in the bloggosphere would anyjuan  post on both unrelated themes at once?
Finally, the pink Phalaenopsis and Plumeria followed the same premise.


that is that..

 

 

SQUATTERS ON THE ROAD

THE previous post generated fruitful comments in many ways.  Squatters, on this neck of the concrete/asphalt/noise woods, signifying the same as in an apartment building abandoned o as in Spain. When the owners go on vacation, Rumanians or any other move in...

Or in brief, plants, not weeds, growing in undesirable, unexpected or unwanted places.

 Pepita Jimenez, reporter, photographer, collector  with criteria,  shared this squatters on the road,  growing in/on metal.  They do not need identification since one is a common place and the ones by the rear windshield, unknown to yours truly.


What is pertinent is that with the fern there is no soil or humus available. It grows just with rain water and available dust provided by wind.


The ones by the windshield does have dry leaves, branches, dust and water, becoming humus with time.


The first grows by spores, second by seeds.  

That is that.

In retrospection

Isabel Sanchez

Cristina Sanchez

Reavel

and

Pepita Jimenez

have collaborated

to make this blog,

probably

the most documented

in the Caribbean

and beyond, 

with classical humility,

unless you or anyjuan else

can prove otherwise.

I hope this will  be the first

collaboration from many to come.

THANKS!

EDITORS NOTE

It seems that car has been left to his luck,

getting rot...since my estimate for the repairs

cost as much as the vehicle.

THEM SQUATTERS MOCK INTERVIEW

ONE of the great pleasures with this space through the years, is the occasional interview that no one dares to do 
or even imagine.

MOCK INTERVIEWER

It has been a long while since you were interviewed, could you share your thoughts, words of wisdom,  with your  mostly fans and one foe?

ANTIGONUM CAJAN

Let the record show, (signature pet phrase) that some friends went away

after that post on comments. 

The meaning these have for a jerk blogger islander in the west of PR.

Them comments feed him, (the god)  and his blog, always with some photo op of himself, alone or with the celebrity of the moment. 

MC

So what?

AC

I think people reading this blog understand me garden is not like your garden next door,

 the environmental situation, the concrete/asphalt

context, the noise, I deal 24/7 with the apparent

abrasiveness, bluntness, harshness, directness, no prisoners taken attitude inherent in the discourse.. 

MC

Moving along. Do you have any fresh news besides

your grouchy, grimace, difficult to come by smile?

AC

YEP.  Somewhat positive.  It seems some lady in England (Bella Darcy), will publish that review of my garden shared recently from Spain with the public, in one hand.  On the other, I got in touch with some architect whose profile appeared recently on a local newspaper.  There is a possibility of doing something together.

MC

That is strange, considering your target practice trajectory with architects and landscape architects without exceptions in Puerto Rico and some foreigners included.

AC

Anything, on the surface may appear strange to anyjuan. But no juan can write/say, your humble servant is blind,

or has no vision.  This architect in particular, works with the community, goes against the current that alone is fine

to me eyes.  Time will tell if something materializes in both positive instances mentioned or become water and salt, the rule, custom and use here, from my acidic perspective.

MC

Do you continue the old habit of visiting gardening

and related blogs to find cracks in their theoretical

frames, views and such?

AC

Not as I used to.  To get information and learn something

I visit one here in Bayamon, and USA, Albuquerque, Tucson, Australia and Mexico.  I also visit some meaningless ones here, to stay in touch with our mass news fed reality.

I get worn out easily. Let me share this experience.

Even when I take photos, I do not consider myself a photographer, or movie director when doing video clips.

The objective, in a photo, is not what matters, but

how cool the effect, the photo itself comes along. I

do not give a flying fart, for pretty photos. I am writing about a garden, any garden or vegetation.

My garden, I have noticed, looks crisper, better in a sense, in photos

than when I stroll, monitor for insects, sweep, trim,  or irrigate. It has better resolution, it looks artificial, unreal. To my eyes.

MC

Is that why you are reluctant to 

just show photos of flowers out

of context as in a vase?

AC

Exactly, please show me your garden, not just

silly, bit and pieces.

MC

That is easy for you to say/write, after all 

you garden in 350 square meters of sand surrounded mostly by concrete.  What about big gardens?

AC

I am getting tired.  If you have a big garden, take some

segments of it, take them photos a let us know what is going on. That will suffice.

AC

Could you ask one or two final questions. I am getting tired, the third time mentioned, you are not getting the hint.

MC

What the hell, is your blog...Tell us about the tittle and that lady in England...

AC

During this time I have been interested in gardening concepts and definitions, lately more. I have not much to add about weeds, but here is a new concept:

'squatters'
I will not demand copy rights to the definition, but these
are self seeding plants from our collection or not,
in our property, pavement or wall cracks/crevices  or any other possibility not expected to have plants growing. Squatters 11, 111 grow in the concrete pavement of our east garden. 1 Grows next door in our fence frontier, exactly in the corner.  Goes without saying, these squatters exist because they do not bother me at all, at least now.  But that is weed behavior in any league, to most people.

The British lady, Bella Darcy is dangerously running out
of time to deliver...the water and salt, closer.


Bonus


In the British blog mentioned, there is an interview
to some lady photographer about light
and shade, hour of the day and such. 
You be the judge...I imagine having
a pro camera will make any  difference
between 8, 12 and 4 PM when mine were taken,
more evident/clear than my results.

  

SEX DRUGS AND GLOBAL WARMING

THE global warming covers the horticultural essence of this blog, the other two are related as you will see.

First let the record show and wonder, it seems that monotheist religions are guilty, responsible for the overpopulation in too many countries.  No abortion, no birth control, no adultery and so on.



Six decades ago days sex was not promoted, or used to promote every imaginable merchandise bluntly as in those music videos now, in which every female vocalist no matter how old,
must look like a prostitute or dance like a strip joint worker, with scant clothing.  Forty years ago, when I was in college, what pass as entertainment now, would have been  porno or obscene at least.

Lets not confuse sex over here and over there, the not the first world.  In those necks of the woods, it seems the family, following the herd, religion, peer pressure force people to do things that may not be the only option in other cultures.  Like having the baby or getting married or both.  That on the other hand may also be the rule over here, (Puerto Rico is not in the first world, by the way).

In brief, marriage, morals, fidelity do not seem to be the best or only option. After all what better example to follow than Nature. Some species are faithful to each other for life, others are not.  No one tells either one what is morally right. However, that sex is for procreation only.

Capitalism, property and marriage seem to be interconnected historically. Women as property. Merchandise. One type of merchandise is for the exclusive use of the husband, while prostitutes are for the willing customer.  Tiger Woods, the village idiot, spent thousands of dollars on call girls. 

That example will do, ( remember is my way or the highway), for argument sake. Its seems that having sex with just one partner only becomes as fun as eggs without salt. Adultery, clandestine sex being the answer.  Historically, the damn bible has plenty of it.  


The only way to stop the destruction of the earth is to stop the children madness,  to either,  have no sex or abstinence...Carnal exchanges for exercise, fun, relaxation with protection for men/women or  the self gratifying kind.


Those countries with famine, result of droughts, what is their density of population?  Where are they?  Who is going to feed them?


It seems that by 2050,  2 more billion of creatures will be around. I hope to be dead, before, believe me.


Zero growth population must become a goal...no other way josei....


What about the drugs in the tittle?


Thanks for reminding moi....Drugs just like sex are totally over rated.  When I was younger, smoking a spliff, some alcohol, was part of the scene..Then it was amphetamines, acid, coke/heroine (snort only in me case), hash and downers, mostly while a freedom fighter in Deutshland.


There was plenty of sex, during the ladies man period/era.
Many women of different backgrounds, color, size, pedigree and education...Looking in retrospection...it was some how fun, because it was clandestine.  But one gets tire of telling one selfish fool she is the only one on Friday, while spending the night next day with another and repeating the move on Sunday.  Not to get into the intense emptiness the day after.

The salvation is HORTICULTURE.  Or like Kasketron, a  a follower of Woody Allen wise words: 'Masturbation is the best sex, because is sex with the one I love'.


I suggest that if any juan out there is going to talk/write about self sustainable agriculture, environmental protection or ecology, pretty please with sugar on top, do not bring the bullshit argument, always out of context, about producing what one consumes. Or the inequality of the distribution of wealth....without a quick glimpse to that.

It looks more and more that the globe is shrinking, while the  non stop fornicators propagating expand by the minute, destroying the environment as collateral.

If you feel a certain deja vu...yep you are right. But as Gide said: Everything has been said/written, but since people do not pay attention, it has to be repeated.

that is that

BONUS

the biggest jerks I have known about

these issues

are

Igor

Elvis

Bizcochito

these fools have in total about

18 children,

most out of wedlock

in Puerto Rico, USA