Island Gardening, Caye Caulker style

Mom with the beginings of the garden.

Our first tomato !!!!

The garden grows. Great containers eah.

Milk container lined with palm husk. dries out quick.

salad garden and seedlings.

Gardening on a small island almost a necessity if you want salad and fresh greens other than cabbage. I couldn't have imagined the task ahead. Water was number one. All of our potable water was rain catchment. Quite valuable we came to know. Potting mix, what no potting mix. black dirt, where I find black dirt? Oh, the guy at the back bridge on Tuesday evening with the boat. He also has botons. Ok, I find the guy with black dirt, how many? He only has five, I take them. Next week he shows up with ten, I take them, the next week I see him in village he expects my to buy more, I say no, he not happy but ok. No more black dirt for me. But then I was in BC at Prosser's getting fertilizer and a 500g. vat and saw they had a bale of Fafard peat moss, price was good so bought it too. Out on that little limestone spit of land peat moss was heaven sent. Thus the garden grew and grew. It grew so well that folks walking by became interested and soon so did the police. Now the police Never came down to where we lived, but one morning three showed up. One plain clothes officer two in uniform one with a gun(Barney) don't know if it was loaded. Anyway they hailed us over Champ's barking and I went down to visit. the inquiry was all about the plants. What they were and what I was going to do with them. Yes,"what was I going to do with them?" "Yes" "Eat them" I said. "Eat them?" they said. "Eat them" I repeated. Anyway, they wanted to see what I was growing to eat. So I chained up Champ and led the parade up to the garden. They were impressed. Many things they had never seen, others they knew but had never seen growing. From chard, kale, okra, peppers, tomatoes, green onions, kalaloo, basil and a whole lot more. they finally became satisfied all was for eating, but where did I get the black dirt? Yes, "where did I get the black dirt?" I said some guy at the back bridge that's all I know. Then as they left the officer says, "I bet you could grow just about anything." I said,"Yes I could" He said,"You know what we were looking for" "Yes, and if I were growing that they would never find it" "Dat maybe true" he said walking away. "Have a good day" he trailed "you too" says I. Now to water the garden and scratch my head thinking what the fuck!!!!

The trials of island gardening, drip irrigation, water holding polymers, proper crop selection. Offer tours to the cops!

No I didn't share, and they didn't come back either.

Cheers,

Dan