THE MINIMAL GARDEN AND NEW MEMBERS IN THE COLLECTION

IT has been raining cats, dogs, whales and dolphins in Puercorico, USA. During the last sixty days it has rained probably in fifty.  If your soil is mostly clay, good luck.  Mine is mostly sand.


The new members are Myosotis and Cuburbita.  The first is rare.  I have not seen it around in many years, a present.
I have a pink and white flower variety.


The second, from some seeds that Crispin, my former friend gave me six
months ago.  Originally planted in the first hole dug in the concrete driveway, it has reached the third one twenty feet
later.  A pumpkin is already growing, the size of a Passion fruit, that bai di guay, are also bearing fruit.


Moving to the next subject I decided to list some of my all time favorites at this moment, in case you are interested in having some kind of collection, without
much space.


Many of these plants can be grown in pots. I prefer fiber glass, rectangular ones. Think of aesthetics, color, shape and budget when the buying. Pick your own, thinking of water retention to avoid daily irrigation, rhyme and all.

Round plastic terracota looking pots look like shit with the tropical sun, UV rays after six months. Actually the color does not matter. Think of it.

TREES

Pithelobium dulce

Coccoloba uvifera

Bauhinia

Citrus sinensis

Citrus Aurantifolia

Carica papaya

VINES

Merremia quinquefolia

Antigonum leptopus

Clitorea ternatea

Thumbergia alata

Passiflora foetida/pallida l./edulis

Bouganvillea

SMALL BUSHES

Turnera ulmiforme/subulata/diffusa

Cuphea hissophilia

GROUND COVERS

Barleria repens

Tradescantia pallida/zebrina

Asystacia gangetica

HERBS

Rosmarinus officinale

Capsicum

Lipia micromera
Ocimum basilicum

FOR FRAGRANCE

Gardenia

Plumeria

Mirabilis siciliana

I reiterate that I live a mile from the Atlantic ocean.  When picking your plant collection be aware of your micro climates, heat, temperature, shade/sun salt breeze.  How much time do you have to irrigate, monitor for pests/diseases?

CAPSICUM SAUSE 

SECRET RECIPE 

BONUS

As you probably know yours truly is a fan of spicy, hot gastronomy from India,

Mexico, Thailand and China.  Those are Meccas in the subject.

In Puercorico, USA, the homemade hot sauce looks like dirty, yellowish water.

This is what it takes.

1/4 pound hot Capsicum

800 ml water

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

Fresh peeled garlic

Oregano

Basil

Onion 

Boil the above for 15/20 minutes.

Divide and place all the solids in the 200 ml

glass bottles.

Pour the liquid.  Leave them bottles outside for one day under the sun.

You do not have to keep it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

EDITORS NOTE

Bouganvilleas are woody. In some circles they are not considered a vine, but they behave like some.  Most people in Puercorico are pruning slaves of this plant/tree/vine.  Let the damn plant grow, then determine what is the best shape, size for your garden.  Do not be an idiot, pruning in anticipation. You will RUIN IT.

Hot sauce wise, everyone is an expert.  Mine is not written in stone.  I tell you more, the best in the market is: 'Tuon Ot Sriracha'. www.huyfong.com

Apagad e idnos o apaga i vamonos. Time to go.

GARDENING SKETCHES FOR THE LAYMAN

IF you have children, or know nothing about gardening and its many related phases, areas of knowledge and possibilities, you could start with a bean and a corn, the most simple elemental principle of botany, and the divide of vascular plants.  Dicots, monocots for their friends.  

Plant them in plastic cups with some holes to allow the excess water to exit. Use 3 different environments, shade, bright sun and complete dark. Watch  juat jappens.

Phototropism will certainly be the first
concept to learn.  Plants bend towards the light when in the wrong space, or when competition for light gets hard.

I realize that any time is fine to start gardening, living in an apartment or not.  Start planting or learning theory.  The second may be less costly or time consuming.  You do not need to buy books, the web is free...Seeds, plants are anywhere. If you have no money, improvise, collect, plant, trial and error.

ll SKETCH 

There are four books that I have enjoyed above others at times when reading books was meaningful.   That means reading, poems, short stories and novels.  Most are useless literature, except for escapism, dreaming and  with all the values literature professors give good and bad literature as part of their job. 

Don Quixote, Tropic of Cancer, Dubliners and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

These four are still great reading for whatever reason after three decades.  But One Hundred Years, is the one most connected with nature in my classical humble opinion.  The English translation by Gregory Rabassa is out of sight.

Birds, insects,  wild and domestic animals, minerals, medicinal plants, herbs, trees, edible and ornamental plants, in brief, NATURE in all its manifestations are evident part of life in Macondo.  Sure if in a jungle, what else?

That is the point.  Even though I have heard recently, about two fellows, Juan Marse and Josep Pla, authors from Catalunya,  that I would love to read, the literature in these times confirm a disconnection with the environment, flora and fauna...Everything seems to flow around concrete/asphalt and the SELF. Hollow words in a vacuum.  The existential anguish, loneliness, suffering,  being misunderstood and on and on.


Apaga i vamonos...

IN THE NEXT EPISODE

the minimal possible garden

one mile from the ocean

DESTRUCTION OF THE GLOBE A DAMNED CIRCLE

JUST watched a documentary on rtve.es,  the result of potassium and phosphate mining in some regions of Spain.  

The result? Salt in the aquifers, streams, rivers, soil and wells. The issue? The amount of people employed in the town...The cost? Now the government was forced to install water treatment plants to extract the salt.  All tax payers pay the bill.  Intelligent? Or what?  


IF YOU keep up with these issues the BP oil spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, may sound familiar.  But throw away your shitty environmental blindfolds.  Most of the time this kind of destruction can not be resolved permanently. MONEY may allow to pay the rent but not to drink the water or irrigate with it.


Apaga i vamonos with this. Lets finish
the George Washington residence and farm in Mount Vernon, in Virginia. 
The reference is the same, however, these are my impressions.  Either you accept them or make a trip to Alexandria, Virginia, you will love it.

The house is big and ugly.  The walls are wood, to make them look like stone.
Vanity? Fashion?  You be the judge.


The balcony facing the Potomac cool and necessary considering the incredible, intolerable humid heat in the south.


The slave headquarters? Excellent from my view. Much better than many housing in the third world today, even when considering the low ceilings.


One of my fans, Edwin Kndelabro mentioned that NEGROES or slaves brought to America to work in the sugar cane or the cotton  plantations  in the south of USA, got a bargain.


Even when considering the torture, killings, dismembering of their families, culture, Carimbos, deaths on the trans Atlantic trip, 
their descendants, except perhaps, those in HAITI, are a thousand times better than those in AFRICA who remain now.

If you know about films, check 'Sugar Cane Alley'. Children of the plantation
owner and female slaves will let you get
a glimpse of the background.  It seems that Thomas Jefferson was fond of the smell, butt of some of his female slaves.


That is that. Apaga i vamonos..

GEORGE WASHINGTON TOBACCO AND ELSE

I believe that wine, beer, coffee, single malt, chocolate and cigars are some of the most pleasurable gifts from earth, soil.  But to cover the whole court, lets include gin, vodka, tequila, brandy and rum.  Puercorico is the only country claiming bragging rights about having the best rum in the world, without any sugar cane planted or refined in its territory for the last fifty years.

The information below can be found in The First of Men

A life of George Washington

by

John E. Ferling

University of Tenesse Press

1989

Pages 64-65

The planting process began early in the year, ideally twelve days following Christmas.  At that time seeds were planted in enriched beds, manured, and covered by oak leaves to protect them from the frost.  Because the odds were long against a plant's survival, large planters sometimes set out a crop ten times as large as they could use.  In May the burgeoning young plants were transplanted into mounds that resembled molehills, each dome situated about three feet from its nearest neighbor.

A week or so later,  hoeing commenced. A monotonous chore, but one that each mound required every five or six days.  When leaves appeared, normally six weeks after transplanting, the plants were topped.

In this operation the top of the plant literally was pinched off, leaving five to nine leaves of the stalk.  Now the plant could not flower and the vegetation energy was free to surge into the leaves.  Thereafter, the plant grew no taller, but the leaves grew larger and heavier.  For the course of the growing season-about six or eight

additional weeks-tobacco farmers were required to look after the weeding and the removal of suckers, or useless sprouts that inevitably burst out.  To be continued...

I have read many biographies.  It is very rare to find such detailed explanation related to any agricultural process.  

This book is worthy of reading if you are a history buff or fan.  However, it is written in that detailed style that often will make you wonder if you need all those picky details to know the man.

In my own experience, let the record show that tobacco was  part of my early childhood during one summer in Aguas Buenas City.  In this four streets, no traffic lights, in the middle of nowhere

country town, I had the opportunity  of sewing tobacco to be hung to dry.  

It was a real trip involving the whole family I was spending those weeks. Tobacco was a cash crop, very important in the lives of poor, illiterate people, then, a majority of the population, living from agriculture.

Our literature is full of short stories,

some novels, music, art in general related to sugar cane, coffee and tobacco.

As a critic regarding all related issues of horticulture, agriculture, environment, ecology, I invite you, dear reader to investigate, research on your own...There is an ocean, universe to learn something in the web.

In the next chapter I will share my impressions on the house, the farm and the SLAVE headquarters when I visited Mount Vernon.  Time to go. Apaga i vamonos...

RUMINATING BY THE GARDEN

I have been pondering about hippies, George Washington, the Industrial Revolution and its effects on Agriculture,
increasing world population, decreasing
arable land.  Not a pretty picture at all.

It is becoming a little difficult for your humble servant to focus, to present the issues clearly in some logical order.  But lets start with HIPSTERS or hippies.  Those fellows in the sixties, an offspring of the beatniks,
Allen Ginsburg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and my favorite Lawrence Ferlinghetti.  These mecanographers, were pretty odd regarding their perception of reality, society, art, music, war, church, family, state and everything else.  Check "The Howl" or the "The Howl of the Censor", if you get a chance.

They broke with every possible status symbol imposed by the culture in USA then, and other countries with similar political and economical systems. 

But getting back to the hippies, one aspect of their many influences then, and later is their views on food.  A critical stance, refusing all that still make USA a money making machine of junk food.

Vegetarians, edible gardens often with
with the added bonus of gurus, meditation, praying, yoga, and the whole bit.  For some time I read books on these matters, concluding that being a better person is a waste of time, if everyjuan else is a jerk, nine out of ten?, particularly in these concreteasphalt marsh.


But those hippies, besides free love, snort, marihuana, California Dreaming,
Easy Rider, LSD, raised  consciousness about food, food production preservation, what we eat, struggled  and went to jail  protesting against the silly, brutal Vietnam War among other things.


The fad of edible gardens now, started then.  I think it is cool except for one thing.  If one becomes good at it, with a good space to plant it will be impossible to consume the production on time.


The excess would have to be exchanged for other products, donated or thrown away.  The fellows in Puerto Rico promoting edible gardens as the salvation not only of the islanders in future times of starvation, but of the whole world, never mention this.


Or the irrigation, being in shape, diseases, plants to be planted close by, those antagonistic to others and rotation.  All is like a dream. When I want you, all I have to do is dream.


I got tired. I promised to get to George
Washington next.  I had the chance to visit 3 of his residences. Two are museums in Manhattan. He lived there during the campaign against the British.


I also visited the best known one in Mount Vernon, Virginia, with the Potomac as background.  No. My visits were not out of patriotism as some may infer.  I  was just interested in the farming side of Georgie, who not only told lies, but took advantage of his fellow countrymen thanks to his skills, experience as a surveyor.  That is that.

PUERCORICO +INSTITTUTIONAL IMPUNITY= ZERO QUALITY OF LIFE

THE subject is not new.  While I write, when I go to bed, when I wake up the constant evil humming from Sacred Cardiovascular Muscle University.  

When the dean was approached, "they have been there for twenty years", the response.  This damn humming is similar to the one created by high tension electricity.

Now, to add insult to the injury there is a diesel bus for the students and staff passing in front of our residence, mostly
empty, six times an hour.  More noise,
and pollution from an institution of  "high learning". Sons of beaches!

The stench from the cafeteria, the noise and pollution from the delivery trucks. Daily.  When denounced the situation to the Department of Health and Environmental Quality, nothing happened. Two years of hell from these good for nothing scumbags.

Some readers may think that I exaggerate, or have lost my mind.  Well, either or, think of the amount of people in jail in your country.  The levels of noise.

The amount of overcrowding.  In Puercorico, with over two million vehicles in a one hundred miles by thirty five, all is becoming a road, highway or parking lot.  There is never enough space.  Some streets and avenues make one feel as if in a trap, the sidewalks are
parking, one walks in the road....Craters, garbage, weeds on sidewalks, gutters...

Concrete and asphalt grows as spores. NO ONE has thought of putting a stop to this madness.  There is no need of building more houses.  Concrete matchboxes, ugly, square, dark  and hot as hell.

Meanwhile in every municipality, tens if not hundred of houses and buildings remain empty, abandoned, refuges for junkies and the homeless.

What is neccessary is to stop having children, more recreational, not sex for procreation with the pertinent protection or no sex.  Laws should be written to criminalize having children without income.  The state is not a philanthropic
institution. Let the CHURCH handle aid, shelter and food.

I know, what about gardening, the environment? Well what can you conclude with this picture?


I feel lucky to keep some focus and some mental sanity. A critical/creative view about nature, my surroundings.  To exercise in the garden, to do something useful daily.

But I will be honest, Timothy McVeigh, did not act in a vacuum.  All those crazy people surfacing out
of the blue, all kinds of guns, explosives, besides their mental illness, were a result of this social portrait.  Their blind anger only satisfied with killing at random, innocent people, or those perceived as responsible.  


Rarely are these acts of madness put in a context, a wide one.  This is a sick, repugnant, immoral society.  Legislators and  tribunals for sale.  What is the individual, or group to do?  No one listens.  No one sees.

Do not worry. Do not cry for me Argentina.  I am still sane, planting,
propagating, but the others may not. Just a little angry at the picture. Time to go. Apaga i vamonos.

MOST GARDENS IN PUERCORICO SUCK MINE WILL PREVAIL

IF YOU feel offended, too bad.  Reality bites. If there is a garden worthy of merit, please let me know.  If it is in the San Juan metro area.   What I write about is not fiction, is there, empirical If I may....  If you
could prove me wrong in any way facts wise, I will confess my sins.


For an intro that will do. Today I will write about the north garden.  If recently arrived,  the back, sides of the house surrounding the garden is 3/4 concrete as most residences in Santurce.  That reality will be good for a post.  It creates a terrible variable: heat refraction. Bad for most plants, people and pets.  A pain in the ass, it feels as if inside a frying pan, wok, or sauce pan.  Let that suffice to understand the essence of the installation. 


I imagine that when the house was built in 1940, people thought progress as an asphalt and concrete scene.  Most proprietors thought  a yard can only exist plastered in concrete, no other option was possible.  Apparently better than bare ground, grass or gravel or juatever....you could think now.

Me garden somewhat known in the five continents, thanks
to endemismo, looks like this from the sidewalk.  To the right of the driveway facing the north:  A 10'  long,  12" wide,  at ground level...bed garden...


Pereskia bleo, Allium, Turnera ulmiforme, Ruellia, Gloriosa rotschildiana, Cosmos, Merremia, Pedilanthus thithymaloide and Clitorea ternatea.

Some of these are into different pots. Clay, fiberglass and plastic.  In the driveway: Barleria repens, Cuphea,
Dracaena marginata, Wedelia trilobata, Ipomoea batata, Turnera subulata, Tradescantia pallida, Asparagus, Diffenbachia, Aglaonema and Caledium.


In the right side of the driveway
there is a long, high bed 24' long and 17'' wide.


The stars are:  Nephrolepsis,  Diffenbachia, Gloriosa rotschildiana, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Gardenia, Rhoeo spathacea, Hippobroma longiflora, Aloe vera, Croton, Proiphys amboinensis, Crinum, Thunbergia alata,
erecta, Tulbagia violacea,  Alocasia cucculata and Anthurium .


This garden ends after a wall in betweenies. At the end, the edible and miscelaneus garden.  Origanum vulgare, Rosmarinus officinale, Lipia micromera, Capsicum, Basil, Allium, Chrysostemis pulchella.

On holes dug in the concrete by the metal fence: Passiflora edulis, pallida, foetida, Clitorea ternatea,
Bouganvillea, Antigonum leptopus, Mesquite and Hibiscus. 


From the list,  Hippobroma,
Croton and Aloe vera were residents when we moved.  Only one, the Euphorbia, was bought in a nursery.

Every juan else was propagated from seeds, division or cut stems.  Some collected from my strolls in Santurce. Very dear to your humble servant both rare Passiflora pallida and Passiflora foetida.  That is that.  Apaga y vamonos. 

POST PARTUM

BONUS

The caterpillars on my

white  Plumerias have departed. By the way, they

also love to munch on Allamandas.

BP BLUES RETROSPECTIVE

IT is remarkable the focus on the oil spill.  I was thinking of Minamata, Love Canal, Bhopal, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and the many more we do not know about, everywhere.

Cross thy fingers.  If a hurricane decides to pass through that route. All the surrounding Flora/Fauna will pass away.  Miles and miles from the original spill.

How could  you bring back with money the innumerable species in air, water, soil destined to die without a chance.  That is that for them.

If the first paragraph is an example, nothing has been learned. History, learning and studying it a waste of time. 

Avarice, incompetence rules..The environment is disposable, a victim of collateral fire.  

Just good to be praised by the tons of make believe environmentalists.  Those who still have lawns, tolerate golf, use trimmers, blowers, 
lawnmowers.  To name a few.
There are many, too many...

Lets bring the whale wars to the ground. Let construction companies, the greater destroyers of Flora/Fauna be the first.  

Time to go. Apaga i vamonos.

GARDENING BY THE YARD REPORT

One of the high beds in the north garden
was restored yesterday. 7' long, 17"wide,
10" depth.  The intention was to remove all vegetation and the top 6 inches of soil.

The task was a little tricky. The previous owners had blue gravel, used in construction, as mulch. I did some weeding, following with the shovel,  making sure to keep the gravel in one bucket ant the soil in another.

Once this task was finished, my home made compost took the top four inches. To help it settle I sprayed it abundantly with water.  Let it rest, and continued with the soil, following by the spraying.


Later this edible garden, received the first plantings. Two Origanum vulgare,
tree Capsicum of the sweet kind, eight
Ruellias and a couple of Plectantrus ambonicus. 

Later, one Hibiscus with red/orange flowers,  in the south side,  was relocated to this side.  It is in the company of 4 Merremia quinquefolia and 5 Clitoria ternatea from seeds, now about eight inches long.


The Cavalinna maritima on this side was eliminated.  RIP.  I could not tolerate  its ugly ways. It is better to use it as a ground cover or prune it as a bush.


On the south side, the 3 caterpillars on the white Plumeria,  are now 5 inches long.  They continue the non stop munching, with many poop pellets to enhance the surrounding soil.  I figure they have 95% left of leaves to eat.

Finally, on the west side, the tallest Murraya paniculata, out of eight,   has flowered for the first time, a real trip,
a sign of success. Time to go. Apaga i vamonos...
.

ISLAND VIGNETTES

I

I  HANG out in feisbuk to check the isle scene. It is hilarious.  The propagation of 'green', 'environmentalists', is remarkable.  They start with utopian ideas, with the real intent to become merchandisers, to sell juatever.  Some

like Boricuas, sembrando y defendiendo...pass away quickly.  Others, Arboles de Puerto Rico, Scuba Doggs become a business for
profit or non,  selling books or services,  or whatever comes to mind.

Nothing wrong with that, capitalism 

rules.  It is just the make believe posture, ignorance within the responsible characters involved authors, the kind that has never planted one seed in their lives.

To the village idiots in Arboles de Puerto Rico, I remind that botanical names are not scientific names.  Get on with the nomenclature.

The importance of botanical names is simple.  People who want to learn to choose, plant, care for any tree, bush or vine can do it on their own, without asking stupid questions.

OUR stupidity goes global.  Recently two feeble minded asked our Arboles,

what to plant in their three acres of land. Can someone help, asked the imbeciles.  I suggested they move to an apartment, since they do not know

what to plant in such a huge space.

II

Having a beer, or better a shot of fire water and a chaser becomes difficult.

Our bars are in danger of extinction.  It becomes an adventure for the acute observer.

Avenida Borinquen in Santurce, seventy five meters from Justo Sotomayor, a safety boxes, office equipment retail sales store.  Surrounded by migrants from La Espanhola, they occupy the seats as in an emergency hospital without buying a coke.

One feels as a foreigner in his OWN country.  That Arizona law will be welcome by yours truly, any time.  One thing is to be ugly, squat while looking for 'a better future' for the whole clan, ilegally in a foreign land, and another to behave as if it is a god

given right.

III

This morning  while taking Diva, our mighty dog to the water closet I noticed some black pellets on the ground.  Somewhat familiar, but smaller, I squashed one.  After this empirical test, there was no doubt. 

The time for Frangipani leaves caterpillar feast has arrived.  I counted 3 of these black/green, soft future butterflies munching non stop.

They are attractive to my eyes au contraire of those hairy, scary ones.

The poop in pellets is nitrogen for the soil.  When the eating stops, leaving the trees naked, they rest in the pupae stage....

Some do kill the caterpillars. A silly practice since the leaves will fall anyway.  Frangipanis have that particular way of being.  Drop all their leaves by themselves, flowering soon afterwards.  Or growing leaves and flowers simultaneously.

One thing I know. You will never see

ALL Frangipanis in the same stage at once. Anarchy rules among these

signature trees in my garden and that is that. Apaga i vamonos.

BRAGGING RIGHTS IN ME GARDEN

APPARENTLY, since the times of  one of the greatest collectors ever, Carl Linnaeus, gardeners not only brag about their gardens, some will ask you for seeds or plants, for nothing in return, or hide valuable pieces away from you.

I have shared things with a couple of serious gardeners, but in essence, people down here, are just good for the asking, not the giving. Nor that they have anything I would like.

This humble servant engages often into the critical mode easily, without much effort, being the essence of me horticultural practice.  Today, for a change, most of  the west garden, in front of the house, will be portrayed in just words.

Sitting in front, left side of the west garden, a 20"wide, 28' long and 29" high area I observe the Allium, Oxalis, and Asparagus with the sea horse banner in the background.  When the eyes move up and down, facing south, the dense dark green Barleria repens repens dominates all the way down to the opposite corner.  There, Ipomoea batata, Allamanda cathartica, Pseuderantemun reticulatum, and Alternathera brasiliana share the spot light.

This high bed has intense competition, to grab the attention.  Separated by a concrete path four feet wide from the above, is one of my favorite
spots in the multiple garden beds in our residence.  It has the same measurements, at ground level.
The property is separated from the street, by a four feet concrete wall.

This prairie like installation has Pentas lanceolatas, Cosmos sulphureous, Polyscia fruticosa, Mirabilis siciliana,
Calliandra haematocephalla, Catharantus roseus, Asystacia gangetica, Guaicum officinale Gloriosa rothschildiana, Turnera ulmiforme/diffusa, Tradescantia zebriana/pallida, Syngonium, Commelina elegans, Dipterantus prostratum purple/white, dwarf Ruellia, Murraya paniculata, Rain Joe and Datura stramonium.

This garden requires minimal maintenance, some irrigation and pest management. Worse problem so far, is the frequent visits of white flies, to Murrayas and Calliandra, but easily resolved.

Down here, there is no other garden that I would recommend to visit. They all stink. The element of composition totally
absent, no pieces of conversation, no focal point, no meaningful contrast in 
height, color, texture, fragrance: NOTHING.

Puercorico is probably, the Mecca of shitty, landscape maintenance and installation mismanagement, from agronomists, landscape architects, and ignorant fools in the trade,until further notice. That is that. Apaga i vamonos.

Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader

MOSTLY STRICTLY GARDENING NEWS

Yesterday was different.  When I was getting ready to water spray the front of the house collection, an attractive pale woman with symmetric build up, made a comment about your favorite garden.

She expressed her ideas with solid knowledge of the issues.  No wonder. Her name? Yanira, a collaborator in the only environmental tv program in Puercorico, GEOAMBIENTE. This show, even with some irritating, exagerated
inflection news like broadcasting style cliche delivering flaws spoken language delivery from Ms. Falcon and guests, I have learned some from it.  NO JUAN ELSE is doing it or has the credibility to do so.  The quality of  the photography, environmental information,  and music in seven out of ten programs, is excellent.  At any rate, if the rest of the staff of Maria Falcon, is like Yanira, it explains the 
recognition GEOAMBIENTE has received in the concrete/asphalt isle and 
beyond.


Last night around 10PM, I went searching for a brown beetle or many.
The culprit/s had been chewing the borders of the leaves of an elderly Coccoloba uvifera, or Sea grapes, for the uninitiated.


This tree is relevant for its age, 8 years,
from a seed from Guanica City. It has been in pots all the time.  This particular
species of beetle spends its life cycle, around this tree.  I found around eight
grubs in the previous pot when It was transplanted.


When I sprayed the beetle at work, my 
secret formula: soap, hot sause and oil, 
killed it, but the unlucky one remained stuck to the leaf of his last diner. The legs are designed to hold on

Today was cleaning the garage roof day.
The feeble minded in Sagrado Corazon University planted: Tabebuias, Pterocarpus, Mahogany and other similar trees 3 feet from the fence separating these public hindrance institution from our house and both next door residents.


These moder suckers, not only pollute the air with smoke, noise and else, one has to climb a 15 feet ladder to clean
the roof of the garage to allow the rain flow down the drain.


I did a little pruning of the tree and the problem is getting less agravating, since
the amount of accumulated leaves is decreasing in consequence.

I keep some of the leaves for compost, and return kindly the rest to the University with no heart, just a cardiovascular muscle, capitalist pigs of 
the christian lacquer..


After all that rain in May, now it is the damn dust from the Sahara.  Pondering on the problem I decided that the countries responsible for screwing it up with this sickening sand dust,  for us in the west of Africa, should pay just like the silly plan to allow countries to pollute with C02!


I am still with Israel, and a little sad in retrospect, with the result of the Crusades. Glad they were kicked out from Spain. The islamists are terrorists
at heart and will blow themselves up with any pedestrians and passers by.
That is that. Apaga i vamonos.

CANNABIS SATIVA ONE POSSIBLITY TO PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT

I HAD mentioned that I would post on the subject from a nice reference that serious gardeners of the antigonum kind would/should have at home new or used.
I speak/write on the subject as a gardener, former user, (it is like riding a bycicle), but not of the Blunt kind. In
my day it was ZigZag, Bambu, nice smooth colored/white/long/short rolling paper or pipes.  These were homemade types or bought.  Wow/guau at this speed It will become a intimate memories for the future. That is that. The reference is known to habitual visitors, here it goes.

Wicked Plants

by 

Amy Stewart

Cannabis has been used by humans for at least five thousand years and regulated or banned for the last seventy.  Hemp fibers (from varieties of cannabis that contain very little THC or tetralydrocannabinol,  and are therefore useless as a drug), have been found in cave dwelling excavations throughout Asia.  The Roman physician Dioscorides mentioned the plant's  medicinal properties in his medical guide De

materia medica in AD 70.  Its use spread to India, throughout Europe, and eventually to the New World, where early settlers grew it as an economically useful fiber crop.

This weedy, annual plant grows to ten or fifteen feet tall  and produces a sticky, intoxicating resin that is also used to produce hashish.  All parts of the plant contain THC, the psychoactive compound that brings on a feeling of mild euphoria, relaxation, and the sense that time is

passing slowly.  Paranoia and anxiety are sometimes experienced at higher doses, but most effects subside within a few hours.

Some historians suggest that the drive to outlaw cannabis in the early twentieth century came out of the culture wars.  Recreational marijuana use was popular among jazz musicians, artists, writers, and the other ne'er-do-wells.  Its use was regulated, but not banned, by the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. The beginning of the Beat movement may have been the impetus for finally getting this evil weed out the hands of America's young people.  It was outlawed in 1951 as part of the Boggs Act

Illegal cannabis production is estimated to take up over half-million acres worldwide and yield  forty-two

thousand metric tons, making cannabis a roughly $400 billion crop worldwide.  USA production has been estimated at $35 billion, while the value of the nation corn crop is $22.6 billion and that of another wicked plant tobacco, is only $1 billion.

Back to the studio, it is evident that Haiti, to pick one, would benefit considerably, if planting, harvesting,
packing, distribution, selling of Ganja was legal.


Remember Pablo Escobar Gaviria? That out of this world mythical Colombian entrepeneur?  What he accomplished money wise is truly amazing.  The amount of people killed under his command remarkable.  Thirty years ago, killed while attempting to escape.


More recently, USA is now directly involved in a similar bloody violent exchange, the Juarez Drug Wars,  no sophistication, rudimentary, ordinary killing for market control.  The barbarian levels
of these Mexicans, have somewhat surpassed that of the south americans.


Closer at home, in Jamaica, the land of beautiful beaches, Ganja, regue, gigantic spliffs, Peter Tosh, Marley and Jimmy Cliff is going through a smaller in scale, little bloody war to stop the extradition of some local Robin Hood, just like in the film The Harder They Come.  Over sixty people killed in gun fights with the police/military in that former Spanish isle.


All these people killed in our third world for what? Why most states and politicians insist in criminalizing the use of this straight from nature "drug"?  The persecution of Ganja created the market for cocaine, heroine and everything else, available now. Methamphetamines, crack to name two? These are really destructive drugs for the users and society in general.


Things have changed somewhat. In California most Ganja is planted in
hydroponic nurseries built in nice neighborhoods.  High technology, irrigation, light, heat/humidity controls. New hibrids are created by lab freaks, more potent as time goes
by....And more expensive.


In some states of the Union some people are allowed to use marihuana for medical purposes, which I do not question. But others want to jump into that bandwagon, screwing it up for the really sick.


The last time I smoked in grand style was during my exile in Northampton, MA, with people like: Gary Dibble, Bob Cilman the elderly choirmaster,
Karen Moreno, Karol Delisle, Michal Brown, Martha Jean Deveber, Jenniffer Brown, Jim Bryda, Kent Vingt, Nick Arieta and wife, Ricardo
Arieta, Juan Aulestia an Ecuadorean jerk, Tom Bixby? I could go on but that gives a hint, how recreational smoking of herb, ganja, marihuana
whatever name you prefer should be legalized.


The killing will stop. There will be no need to kill the jerk in the next corner, when he tries to set up a selling joint.  Medical services, counseling could be provided to everyone without control,  from the tsunami like profits drugs marketing and selling provide.


That is that. Legalize drug manufacturing, planting, harvesting, 
packing, distribution, selling with quality control.  Taxes and everyjuan would/may live happily ever after.
Apaga i vamonos.
   

TI