Sunsets and flowers

The garden continues to produce lettuce and cucumbers, some basil and cilantro. The yard long beans are struggling and the chinese kale is lacy with caterpillar issues. The tomatoes don't seem to like the sandy conditions though a few are showing signs of fruiting.

The flowers-marigolds, cosmos and zinnias are coming into their own. They don't seem to mind the thin soil or lack of water.

And the banana plants that came without roots have all started to produce green leaves. There were 3 out of the 7 that refused to do much for a long time but persistence with watering paid off and after 2 months they also started to sprout.

The house continues to progress and now has a roof on.

The nightly sunset displays are beautiful.

A liittle progress

Nothing seems to progress for a while and then one day you realise that the seedlings you planted are producing flowers and the house that is being built has the roof started.

In this sandy soil that I am slowly building up and that plants seem to struggle to survive I am slowly seeing results.
The sunflowers started to bloom and right behind them the cosmos and marigolds are budding.

The lemon grass has decided it likes it here and is looking lush.

The first lettuce that we have picked leaves from daily for a month now is starting to go to seed which is a good thing.
It is a red oak leaf and they are meant to do well in the heat,so I am looking forward to harvesting the seeds for next season.

In the mean time the lettuce that the Karen women gave me a few weeks ago have settled well into the cow manure enhanced bed and we are eating them now. I was surprised at how well they settled in as when the seedlings were pulled from the nursery bed they didn't have soil attached and I'm sure had many damaged roots.

The old mango trees on the land are putting out many flowers. Many of the trees look like they are past it, so we'll see how the fruiting goes before deciding whether they stay or go.

We managed to track down some grafted Hass avocados and the 4 trees we bought are settling into their new home.
So little by little we are seeing results and setting the gardens up to benefit from the next rainy season.