The end of the dry season is here, finally the heavy hot humid nights have a chance of breaking into real rain. Two nights ago we fell asleep to such a pleasant soft rain – a gentle beginning to what we know will be months of torrential downpours and dramatic lightning storms.
The dry season here is s o d r y that we had just about given up our back yard garden. We could keep a few pots of herbs in the courtyard, but watering behind the house became so time consuming and difficult to coordinate with all of our business trips up to the coffee region. The courtyard thrived, the ornamentals enjoying the pure sun, and we’ve enjoyed a few more heads of those heavenly little banano rosas. Everything changed when we installed a drip irrigation system with a battery run timer in the back garden. Amazing. Irrigation is a life and farm changing technology here. I knew that theoretically, but now I have lived to see and feel the difference a good system can make in a gardeners life. Finally we can have a green garden out back, with basil and eggplant and tomatoes and garlic and ginger. Drip irrigation systems do not, however, resolve the leaf-cutter ant and iguana pest problems, and they continue to devour anything that isn’t smelly or spiky.
Along with our little chicken coop and garden, we have managed to cultivate such a sweet relationship with our next door neighbors. Luisito, who is five, is in charge of our chickens when we leave on a trip, and has done such a good job that he has been promoted to garden-waterer and protector-of-the-garden-against-iguanas. Which he usually does with his little rubber slingshot. Although I haven’t witnessed a successful hunt, I often get long rambling accounts of which trees and holes the iguanas came out of while I was gone, and how many piedras Luis slung to scare them all away. When we left for the states for a short trip last month, Luis promised to be extra attentive. The morning after we returned I glanced out the back and stopped, thinking someone was in our yard. No, Luisito and his grandfather had built us a “scare-iguana” in the back bed! Now we just need to figure out what a “scare-leaf-cutter-ants” looks like!
Ginger is one of my favorite things. Period. To watch sprout, to grow, to grate, to eat, to drink.
On its way to unfurling into an impressive 5 feet tall orange cactus flower.
A Sacuanjoche tree, the national flower, unfurling new leaves
Gallon water bottles cut in half make excellent seed trays along the sunny wall in the courtyard.
Last week we celebrated my birthday with lots of tropical flowers, fruits, and friends.
Sustainable Farming in Nicaragua 
May 8, 2013 at 4:21 am
Rachel,
Thanks for the post.
If the “scare-iguana” works, how about a cardboard cut out of an “Ant eater” for the leaf cutters? 🙂
Don Ball
May 8, 2013 at 9:38 am
Great idea. That would be a great project to do with Luis one weekend. We joke all the time about raising anteaters! I’d like a flock, to work here and rent out.