Paul and I love plants and gardening.  When we lived in the US we had ten acres and we worked outside all the time.  Part of the time we loved it but there were times where we realized we were working in the garden or yard so much we couldn’t do other things we enjoyed.  With our move to Mexico we decided that we’d try to be a bit more in balance.

Our central courtyard was planted just about a year ago.  All the plants are new except the windmill palm.  We remove palm fronds frequently and with regular watering it has grown quite a bit.  We planted a bright red coral vine at the base and now the blooms show through the top of the palm.  My hummingbird feeder is in that tree, and between the blossoms and the feeder, it is a popular place.

On thing we’ve noticed about gardening in the city is it is a bit trickier to get rid of the trimmings.  In the picture below the plastic bags are stuffed to bursting with the palm fronds; the stems are bundled together next to them.  The garbage men will take them if we do it this way.

Our backyard project is almost complete.  We still need to have the back wall scraped and painted and plant cannas at the base of the wall.

Last weekend we went to El Quelite with friends to visit an old man with a nursery-picnic area.  We found the place easily, found the old man charming – and fell in love with his gorgeous cannas.  Paul and I bought 12 beautiful deep red cannas to put against the wall.  And guess what we paid?  $120 pesos, or about $8.75!  For 12!

We are going to need to buy a lawnmower this week – the grass is growing beautifully.  I think we’ll enjoy mowing our little patch with an electric mower.

The one thing I do miss from our farm up north is our worm bin.  Next on my list is to figure out where I can get some worms to get a bin started here.  I know all my plants would love the compost.

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