We are renting a house near the center of Corozal Town. It is a nice house, a kitchen, a dining room, a family room, three bedrooms, a bathroom and a garage. There is a wall all around, lower in the front and higher on the sides and back. All windows and doors are very secure with burglar bars. There are at five small grocery stores, the big market with produce, fish and meat vendors, bus station, post office, plaza, and the municipal wharf, all within a five minute walk. Houses are typically of wood or concrete block construction. Roofs are either palapa, zinc or concrete. During a hurricane, a concrete house with a concrete roof is considered to be safest.
The yard has flowers and a sour orange tree and a yellow plum tree. I have made a small garden and am growing Oregano, garlic and a spinach like plant called Chaya. The houses on the sides and the house behind all have banana and plantain trees. These take about nine months to bear fruit, and I may plant some in the backyard. I will have to consider carefully where to put them, as they spread and get very large. We need to reserve space for the cloths line, and I have tomato and pepper seedlings that I want to plant in the garden. Banana trees could shade the garden too much.
2 comments:
So Wonderful that you have begun a garden! Already!! This was another thought I had to inquire about.
Your house is quite impressive, and I note it has ample space for the horde of refugees that -- in onesies and twosies -- will be trickling your way, I am sure. I already know of two -- a woman and her 17-year-old son -- who wish to visit next year. She had heard of the paradise of Belize and spoke to me about her desire to see it before I even mentioned that I knew someone there. Her heart "soared like a hawk" when I mentioned the existence of a family there and the possibility that they might -- might -- be willing to host a brief visit in 15 months. More on this later by other means.
In the posting on the rug, I got a little confused. Is the floor of your home cement or linoleum tile? Should I pack some Pledge when I visit? How 'bout a "suck-broom" with attachment for hard surface floors? I think the very best way to get stuff to you is for visitors to add it to their baggage.
The yard and garden sound wonderful. Are you pursuing an "organic" path or are chemical contributions welcome?
Enough of this for now.
I love you all very, very much.
- StormRider - Covington
It is not much of a garden at this point. The potato plants grew well for a while but then died. There was an unusual dry spell during August and September. The landlady gave me a start of oregano and chaya, a spinach substitute. These are flourishing, as well as the garlic, purchased from the market. I have started tomato seeds in a bucket, these were doing very well, but with the recent rains, most have drowned. There is no hole in the bucket. I tried to remember everyday to tip out the water. Some yet survive, and this is selection in action, although it would seem I am selecting for plants that can survive their caretakers laziness. Still, thats a useful trait for a plant in my care to have. The peppers are unusual. In the US when I lived in Hamilton, I had a large garden. I grew peppers called Bolivian Rainbow Chillies. These are small hot peppers that come in green, yellow, red, orange and purple all at the same time on the bush. Very beautiful. I got them from a specialty seed outfit called Seeds of Change, a good company at the time, maybe still good if they haven't be purchased by Cargill or ADM. Anyway I found a sprig of this pepper plant in the market being used as a decoration. I asked the lady how much, but she wanted a lot for it. Noticing two dried up pepper pods, I pointed and asked how much for just them. She pulled them off, asked if I wanted them for planting and gave them to me for free.
Regarding refugees: Yes, this is part of why we are here. Email me with information regarding her and her son and when and why they might come to Belize. The floor is tile, I don't think it is linoleum, it's like ceramic tile. I think thats what it is. No Pledge needed, we just mop it. As for what you should bring when you visit: When the time for that draws near, if you don't mind, we will have a list. I doubt you will have luggage space to include a "suck-broom". Besides a mop works perfect. As for the garden, I garden "organicly". It's not from much of an ideological point of view. All those chemicals are expensive, dangerous, and come in quantities unsuitable for three to five tomato plants. Fertilizers too. I just have a garden to grow things, it's not a big deal if something dies. It is for me to learn things, discover things. It would not serve it's purpose if it became a big chore and produced uniform homogenous stuff.
Years ago, I read about all the plants that were invented, not discovered, because a lot of work went into making them more suitable for human use. I remember thinking then, that it would be wonderful to garden in that part of the world where so many plants were developed thousands of years ago. The wild varieties, ancestral types still exist in the area. New cultivars could be developed for new conditions, and the wild genotypes are important for that because they contain enormous genetic diversity.
Suddenly I found myself in that very part of the world, for other reasons. Now that I am here it would be almost criminal not to stick a shovel in the dirt. Alas, I shall have to buy a new shovel, as the one I had has disappeared. I suspect some chico malo has thiefed it. Eventually I will drag myself to the hardware store a block away and buy another one. They are cheaper here than in the US.
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