Hilltop Vegetable Garden (not from the walking dead)
November 11, 2017We live on a hill, a very big hill in the country… this hill has a pool and a view that most people can only dream of, Nicoya Gulf with its islands and wild animals, you could sit there all day, if you had the time that is. We want the country dream, to be self-sufficient, to live from the land, produce less waste and produce enough to feed others around us.
What we need is a vegetable patch, not a little vegetable patch but a GIANT one, one that will feed us and our volunteers until we can take no more pumpkin soup, plantain crisps or chilies on toast. Coming into dry season this seems like a crazy idea, but here its either too wet or too hot so we figured we would try anyway. We made a plan, then another one and then just for good measure we made… another plan. Not too close to the house, no too far from the kitchen but right on the side of a massive hill, that’s the perfect spot, I knew you would all agree. Around 8-12 hours of sun light per day, a nice mix of damp and well-drained soil and not blocking the view from the pool, this is very important. We like vegetable gardens but they don’t scream out pool view to me, so we would hide it from view but make it accessible (ish).
The problem being Ernest, heat exhaustion and ants
The hill is curved, its covered with ants and its very hot, so it was perfect for digging on a super-hot day. We laid out a nice pattern, 3 areas to start with, separated with a walk way and divided up using wood from our burnt down outdoor kitchen (a story for another day). The first one will be for tomatoes, basil and chilies, the next for broccoli, radish and spinach and the third one will be for potatoes, carrots and onions. Around the edges we are going to plant avocado trees and some banana trees, when we learn to distinguish between them and plantain, as usual any help on this is welcomed. We also have some pineapple growing, but I hear that this takes like 3 years and all you get is one lousy pineapple, so don’t expect any reports back on this anytime soon.
Our veranda is now a vegetable nursery, come potting shed come ornamental dead animal showpiece, what else were we going to do with all the skeletons we brought home from planting all the trees last month. Fingers crossed they grow well and we can put them in the ground before it gets too dry otherwise that was a lot of work for very little. But we are hopeful and we have been collecting water in storage containers on the veranda so this should help too, I mean how dry can the dry season be??? Oh and find a way to stop the ants from eating the baby plants, that won’t also kill us when we eat them.
Until next time from the green fingered gringos…pura vida!
(Pictures to follow...pending wifi, we live the good life, the technology is not advanced but we remain very happy)
