The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.  Thomas Jefferson

Twenty years ago I was substantially more tranquilo in the act of smuggling than I would be today. With nary an afterthought as to the possible consequences, I waltzed unscathed through immigration and customs at Juan Santamaria International Airport with a dozen ‘pups’ of banana plants, artfully ensconced among the colorful clothing in my 7 year-old daughter’s suitcase. Jefferson’s point of view may not have been foremost in my mind, but I was definitely on the road to ‘going bananas.’

Individuals with a firmer grasp of reality might have taken the time to notice that there is probably a reason why the large banana producing areas in Costa Rica are not located in Guanacaste. Six months of “the seasonal equivalent of the Sahara” puts the broad, delicate leaves through the proverbial shredder and the water-filled pseudostem, what we think of as the trunk, takes a severe hit due to evaporative losses in our verano. And that’s part of how I evolved into a smuggler.

If you’ve driven the Pacific Coast Highway in Southern California, say, headed for the right-point perfection of Rincon, as you head north of Ventura the coastline veers to the right. Just past the Ventura Overhead, there’s a small town called La Conchita, on the inland side of the highway, nestled up against a formidable wall of south facing cliffs.  In the early 90’s, anyone cruising the coast and actually observing the surroundings might have noticed a rather unusual feature punctuating the landscape at La Conchita—a banana plantation.

From its opening until its forced closure due to a massive, and deadly landslide in 1996, the Seaside Banana Gardens operated by Doug Richardson and his partner Paul Turner, became the most famous attraction in La Conchita. Although horticultural authorities maintained that bananas could not be commercially grown in California, Richardson and Turner proved them wrong by cultivating over 50 exotic varieties. The unique microclimate of the community’s location was ideal for this purpose. Many subsequent generations of bananas continue to grow and thrive throughout the home gardens of La Conchita today.

I was fortunate enough to visit Seaside Gardens just before beginning my 20-year agricultural odyssey here in Guanacaste. While I may have been more than a bit naïve about growing bananas on my land in Guanacaste, the information placard on two varieties of bananas blazed brightly through the early morning fog trapped up against the steep cliffs behind La Conchita:

Raja Puri and Mysore, home garden varieties from India, resistant to drought, resistant to wind.

It would be nice to be able to say I experienced an epiphany, a sort of “aha moment.” The truth is, it was more like, “no duh, now that kind of seems to make sense.” And, after 20 years of going bananas in Guanacaste, both literally and figuratively, yeah, they do make sense. But, like everything in life, the devil is in the details. The visit to Seaside Gardens provided some important ‘take home lessons.’

It can be argued that agriculture, just like real estate, is all about ‘location, location, location.’ Called ‘microclimates’ above ground, or “niches’ when you take into account soil and water issues as well, there are plenty of nooks and crannies in coastal Guanacaste where bananas definitely fit into the broader picture of a diversified food producing landscape. If you’re living at a higher elevation to enjoy the spectacular views, you might just have to create a special ‘niche’ in which the bananas can thrive. Tricks of the trade include identifying the lower, more humid areas of your site, windbreaks, contour plantings in trenches that then collect both water and organic matter to help pamper your babies.

As I mentioned above, variety is the spice of life when it comes to choosing plants for our zone. In addition to the ones from India, and another from Indonesia, there are several other, short-statured forms of my favorite fruit that help keep things more compact, less exposed to the wind, and easier to tuck into protected sites as you lay out your plantings, or notice them as your landscape matures. As indicated in last month’s article, “In Grave Danger of Falling Food,” the most obvious “no, duh” approach to growing bananas here is to use sewage effluent, underground, in a ‘constructed wetland’ system to transform yucky into yummy, all thanks to the wondrous workings of natural processes. Please bear with me for another couple of random—but relevant—points.

Home grown bananas afford a taste treat that you simply can’t imagine if you’re used to the commercially produced—and pesticide packed—varieties which are dumped on the local market. The varieties developed and used by the banana companies have thick skins, need to withstand long journeys in gas filled containers to promote ripening and fall far short of the flavors and textures that you can have almost year round a short stroll from your home. Tim Morris, pastry chef extraordinaire and former owner of the bakery in Playa Negra, once told me that the Indonesian “Ice cream” banana, was the best, sweetest variety he had ever used in baking.

The other thing to bear in mind if you’re considering going bananas here is, hey, get real! Get used to seasonal changes. People from areas that are snow covered 3-6 months of the year somehow manage to take it in stride better than those of us from California or other warmer areas. During the dry season, things aren’t going to look nearly as great as they do this time of year. But I can assure you, given bananas’ versatility, fast growth and response to a few basic requirements, in a few years you’ll be pleasantly surprised to step out of your home into a grove of sugary delight, a unique fruit that humans have been enjoying in their home gardens for more than 5000 years.

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 18 years experience in Guanacaste. 2658-8018.  peifer@racsa.co.cr

El Centro Verde is dedicated to researching and promoting sustainable land use, permaculture and environmentally sound development. www.elcentroverde.org/

Take a look at the latest interview with Casey from Lot 13, a dry-season resident originally from Vermont, who shares commentary on her experience gardening for the first time on her lot this year. She brings a lifetime worth of gardening expertise to Pueblo Verde and her successes will have your mouth watering in no time…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oh what a wicked web we weave….. (Sir Walter Scott)

It’s like déjà vu all over again. For anyone who wasn’t so drugged out and asleep at the wheel during the political and social ferment of the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s, these lyrics resonated deeply with your personal experiences.

There’s something happening in here,
What it is ain’t exactly clear…
Paranoia strikes deep,
Into your life it will creep.
Start’s when you’re always afraid
Step outta’ line, the Man comes
And takes you away.

OK, so now it’s like flash back time. You don’t even have to step out of line, ‘cause we now know that ‘the Man”, may in fact, be listening to you on the phone, checking out your doings on You Tube, looking at what you searched for on Google, etc., etc., etc., across the spectrum of information technologies that we use every day.

The guy who caused all the recent, high-tech hullabaloo, 29 year-old Edward Snowden, worked for the NSA through a private contractor firm until hightailing it for Hong Kong just as his massive ‘dump’ hit the political fan. Barack Obama was in the process of berating the Chinese over their evil intrusions into US cyber affairs, when the whistle blew in a series of articles published by the Guardian in the U.K. Turns out the US has been hacking into the Chinese networks big-time, for a long time, thereby besmirching the smiling, sincere image of transparency that Obama has polished to perfection. Actions speak louder than words, they say, and according to Snowden, he leaked classified details about U.S. surveillance programs because Obama worsened “abusive” practices instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate. Obama, worthy of note, former professor of Constitutional law, currently operating as the head surgeon in charge of eviscerating the Fourth Amendment which guarantees:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Subsequent to the release there has been a fascinating series of analysis. Here are some tidbits.

The Second amendment, the “right to bear arms,” has a fiercely loyal corporate sponsor, the firearms industry with their loyal lapdog the NRA. The Fourth amendment does not enjoy such corporate patronage.

The government put up the defense that they were only looking at the patterns of messages, and not the contents. This position was refuted by a mathematician and former analyst at a major computer-networking firm. Patterns provide plenty of information, she argued, that can be deployed, not only in the prevention of terrorism, but to facilitate insider trading in the financial world, provide damaging personal details to apply leverage on politicians, etc.

One example. It turns out the Bush administration was tapping the phone of Hans Blix, the “arms of mass destruction” inspector from the UN, sent to Iraq prior to the US invasion. The information obtained was used to smear Blix in the US media and undercut his credibility.

The capacity for mining the bonanza of digital data is beyond the wildest wet dreams of legendary FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. Entrenched in power for decades and largely untouchable, Hoover deployed legions of gumshoes on 24-hour surveillance to accumulate reams of damaging personal anecdotes which served to silence critics and ensure support on Capitol Hill.

The view through the all seeing overlook afforded by the Prism program is that a handful of nerds like Snowden, sitting at well-connected workstations, can cast the cyber dragnet and select the juiciest morsels of data for whatever creepy task is afforded priority. Just as in the days of Hoover, control over politicians, was mentioned as a logical possibility in one of the most recent Op-ed pieces.

Avid Howler aficionados, might recall a previous article, in which I looked at the contrast between visions of the future: George Orwell’s omnipresent, intrusive and repressive Big Brother vs. Aldous Huxley’s dystopian world of drugs, operant conditioning, corporate tyranny and a sheep-like populace which comes to “love the instruments of domination.” It now looks like we get to enjoy ‘the best of both worlds.’

Face it. We are all hooked on the obvious advantages and downright marvels of modern Internet, wireless and satellite-based communications technology. Yet now more than ever, the inconvenient truth is staring us in the face.

The fact is, oversight and control of all this stuff can be used to monitor, mess with you, intrude into your life and, in the case of drones locking into cell phone signals, eliminate those who “step out of line” and are perceived as threats to “National Security.”

Interestingly enough, latest polls in the US show that a majority of Americans tends to agree with the government, that Edward Snowden, the whistleblower, is guilty of treason. They seem to be convinced that there’s a latent danger of a shoe bomber on every plane or an Al Qaeda operative lurking in the food court at the local mall. That the intrusive surveillance state apparatus is like a security blanket with all its cuddly and protective connotations.

As to the people in the US, perhaps too busy watching reality shows, or keeping up their life styles in a dying empire, trying to understand why they can so easily overlook the whole affair, these words are worth remembering:

Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood…(however) the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country. (Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Goering, founder of the Gestapo.)

Cynics might argue that the good news of the permanent war footing in which the US now finds itself is the positive effect on a struggling economy. Call it job creation across the spectrum of the Global War on Terror. There’s always a need for a ‘few good men’—and women of course to outmaneuver, shoot, and of course spy on all enemies of the republic, both foreign and domestic. Leaving the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was queried as to what type of government was in store for the 13 former colonies. He marked “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.” That could now be seen as an increasingly doubtful proposition.

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 18 years experience in Guanacaste. 2658-8018.  peifer@racsa.co.cr

El Centro Verde is dedicated to researching and promoting sustainable land use, permaculture and environmentally sound development http://www.elcentroverde.org/

The flowers couldn’t come at a better time for many of the animals that eat them or collect the pollen and nectar for food. With most other trees still bare and in a kind of hibernation, the bright yellow trees are unmistakable across the landscape. Certainly the animals must view these displays and hurry through the forest before the all-you-can-eat buffet is over…in about two days. The blooms last only a short few days before they fall gently to the forest floor. Many lots in Pueblo Verde have Cortez Amarillo trees growing on them. Watch this video of howler monkeys feasting on the flowers, taken from Lot 9.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Note: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a 60’s era film about inter-racial marriage, historically illegal in most of the US and still outlawed in one out of three states, when the film was released.)

It can be argued that musicians, athletes and actors such as Sidney Poitier helped, over the course of decades, to pave the way for the eventual acceptance of an African American as elected president of the United States. Nonetheless, when Air Force One touched down on the tarmac in San Jose, with Barack Obama aboard, the ensuing show was following a very different kind of script from this romantic comedy of almost 50 years ago.

Residents of San Jose were treated to a non-stop re-run of Blackhawk Down, as the skies were subject to constant aerial surveillance, ostensibly to insure the security of the POTUS. It is up for speculation as to whether the whole spectacle was choreographed to subliminally remind the assembled presidents of Central America, not to mention the population at large, as to just who runs the show in this part of the world. Not that it is really needed, of course, as the historian Samuel Huntington put it bluntly:

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”

Conveniently swept under the red carpet, dutifully rolled out for the guest of honor, was the whole history of US military intervention in Central America. As if adding insult to irony, Obama landed in an airport named for Juan Santamaría, the kid who died fighting against foreign intervention. Meanwhile, back in Guatemala, the trial against former president Rios Montt for genocide against the indigenous Mayan population was headed towards a guilty verdict. Obviously, during Obama’s visit, no one dared to ask his opinion of a dictator who enjoyed the support of former president Reagan in the 1980’s,”a man of great personal integrity and commitment,” in the words of the former film star himself.

It goes without saying that kings, emperors and elected presidents of de-facto modern day empires don’t visit the nether regions of their realm to dispense apologies. They focus on the positive, the upside of subservience and collaboration with the broader strategic goal of imperial survival. In this part of the world, business and political elites have generally seen the light, the more unruly elements having been dispensed with by means of a variety of techniques outlined in the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” by former “consultant”, John Perkins.

Central Americans now get to see the milder, ‘General Audience’ version of Full Spectrum Dominance, the script penned in the Pentagon that underlies US strategic thinking. The drones, depleted uranium-tipped bullets and bunker buster bombs, the pyrotechnics of PG action films, are currently confined to other areas, not surprisingly, in and around the strategically vital, petroleum and resource rich areas of Africa and Asia. As mentioned above, “seeing the light” for those at the top of the socio-economic pyramid, carries with it the implicit notion of lining their pockets as part of the deal.

As in many other countries, those at the top of the food chain in Costa Rica are true believers in the gospel of globalization. The swords have been beaten into stock shares in the corporate Goliaths that now spearhead a softer—but at times equally lethal—projection of force and conquest of territory. The wholesale poisoning of rural populations and water supplies in Central America by the banana and pineapple multinationals, or the latest collapse of a multi-story garment industry sweatshop in Bangladesh serve as reminders that “the cult of money”, as Pope Francis recently pointed out, has replaced the golden calf of Biblical lore, as the false god that is the de facto icon of global worship. Humans provide the props, and Mother Nature the scenic backdrop for the latest screenplay that is the current global blockbuster.

“The Cult of Money” is increasingly the name of the game in US politics. Perhaps coincidentally, one of the first to recognize Obama’s potential as a leading man on the political stage was none other than Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks Animation studio mogul who gave the junior senator his imprimatur—and a cool $1 million plus—to get him started in his first run for office. Bearing in mind that it takes billions to get elected, the following factoid should come as no surprise. Upon his return from Costa Rica, President Obama nominated billionaire Hyatt Hotels heiress Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary. Ms. Pritzker as it turns out is one of Barack’s ‘homies’ from the upper echelon hoods of his native Chicago, and has been handy to have on board for help with the tedium—not to mention the occasional heavy lifting—involved in financing two successful presidential campaigns.

Pardon the repetition, but emperors don’t apologize to the inhabitants of their realm. Like the kings of yore, they answer to a higher power. For the moment, Obama plays a leading role in the larger script that has concentrated wealth in increasingly fewer hands in the US. And those hands are throwing ever-larger amounts of money into the political circus, to ensure outcomes that favor their personal, political or corporate agendas. The ‘higher powers’ that Obama has to heed would seem to include, in addition to those mentioned above, all the Monsanto, Goldman Sachs and other corporate minions who have been installed in the current administration as part of the increasing phenomenon of ‘regulatory capture.’ For those of us with roots in the countryside, it’s known as the fox guarding the chicken coop.

At the meeting here in Central America, local leaders were hoping to glean at least a few crumbs off the table of an empire that finds itself overcommitted abroad and faced with a budgeting conundrum at home. The best they could obtain were some vague promises to help with supplies of natural gas from the much-ballyhooed boom in shale gas production back in the lower 48. Apart from the thousands of column inches in newspapers and hundreds of hours of video to be edited down to a few juicy ‘sound bites’ and ‘photo-ops’, little of substance remained to affect the everyday lives of centroamericanos as Air Force One lifted off the runway and winged its way home to Washington.

Yes, Obama ‘came to dinner’ and his Costa Rican hosts honored local traditions with a menu that featured the traditional dish pejibaye. Sadly, the menu at the presidential banquet was perhaps the only significant acknowledgement of regional realities. What the Central American business and political elite really needs to add to their diet is a healthy portion of huevos criollos. C’mon guys, let’s turn off the main feature and get the local show on the road.

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 18 years experience in Guanacaste. 2658-8018.  peifer@racsa.co.cr

El Centro Verde is dedicated to researching and promoting sustainable land use, permaculture and environmentally sound development. www.elcentroverde.org/

A change in the weather is known to be extreme, But what’s the sense of changing horses in mid-stream.  -Bob Dylan

Like most things in life, people who haven’t lived through it have a hard time believing it. I’m talking about the nearly overnight changes from seasonal Sahara to rumble through the jungle. Last year a friend shot pictures of the road to Hotel Playa Negra. With a week or so of rainfall the scenery morphed from Death Valley to the Garden of Eden. Underfoot the texture changed from dust to drywall mud and the air from blast furnace to sauna. Pronto it’ll be time to deploy the razor sharp-machetes to keep your real estate investment from being swallowed by exuberant vegetation. Just like any number of lost civilizations or Mayan Temples.

Exhausted by weeks of oppressive heat, most of us are eagerly observing the colors at dawn and dusk or looking towards the southern skies for any sign at all of the onset of the life-giving rains.

Ironically, as the seasonal slowdown begins to hit the tourism related industries, there’s a flurry of activity for those who draw their life from the land. Just as pizza parlors are pruning their payrolls, farmers are repairing their fences, stocking up on seeds and arguing at fiestas over which varieties of corn or rice or pasture grass will provide the best results on a given parcel of land.

For home gardeners and orchardists, this is the perfect time of year to stock up on cow patties for compost, turn brush piles into “bio-char” (See: Char Don’t Burn, Howler ?????), and prepare planting holes for perennials like fruit trees and bananas. Many species of wildflowers and trees are dropping seeds and can be introduced into your landscape by simply tossing handfuls around and thinning as needed. It’s also a perfect moment to try to remember just how things looked during the heavy rains of the past, both to prepare for the worst and locate your plantings according to the lay of the land and the different zones of humidity. Given the predictions of another dry year, having the option of supplemental irrigation is like an insurance policy for the time and effort invested in your landscape.

Just as farmers and gardeners await the rain, likewise, those who are dependent on the flow of tourist dollars keep a wary eye on the ‘weather’, in this case, the global economy. According to a recent article in La Nación, tourism was ‘up’, according to the various parameters used in the cited study. They expressed a somewhat cautious optimism that tourism had weathered the storm of the global economic downturn and was headed for sunny skies and calmer conditions. A few quick phone calls confirmed my hunch that the deluge of tourist dollars was less than evenly distributed.

Perhaps stretching the analogy with weather a bit, in a year of somewhat ‘spotty’ rainfall, some fields and pastures simply green up faster, and stay green longer, than others less than a mile away. Friends with small hotels in Playa Junquillal reported a really good year while several people I spoke with in Tamarindo said just the opposite.

In a follow-up editorial to the report on the national tourism study, La Nación reviewed the findings, noting, among other things, which parts of the world were still stagnating economically, and warning of the various challenges to continued growth in the tourism sector. Ironically they apparently missed the fact that China is now the country that disgorges the largest number of overseas tourists per year. In the same vein, they conveniently overlooked the apparent contradiction that a country which brags about achieving ‘carbon neutrality’ by the year 2020, should be so avid in boosting an industry that depends in its entirety on millions of miles per annum of carbon rich contrails crisscrossing the overheating atmosphere of the planet while gliding in towards a smooth landing in the land of Pura Vida.

In the case of the intelligencia of La Nación—or the honchos and honchas of the political elite–we encounter a textbook example of the capacity of the human brain to comfortably sequester information that is upsetting to the ‘master narrative’ upon which we subconsciously operate.

As Upton Sinclair succinctly put it:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

The master narrative upon which these folks’ salaries, and positions in power ultimately depends is the underlying belief—the civil religion as some have called it—in progress. Call it “economic growth”, “development” or whatever you want, there’s an innate belief—a paradigm as it’s called, that the path towards the earthly nirvana is in fact paved with greenbacks, now that the gold standard is a thing of the past.

Current political leaders of all stripes and ideological persuasions strive to convince the unruly masses that they alone have the magic, the Midas touch, the miracle mix of incomprehensible policies, plans and personal attributes to appease the appropriate powers and cause the economic rainfall to bring back the bountiful harvests of yore. The parallels–religious rites and mystical incantations conducted by an anointed elite–with any number of long disappeared civilizations could not be more disturbing.

What’s unsettling is the simple fact that when the times are a-changin’ you’ve got to change to keep up with the times. And there is beyond a reasonable doubt that we are changing fast enough.

More than 80% of all economic activity on the planet is driven by fossil fuels—in transportation it’s 95%. Therefore, any increase in activity—production, transport, sales, consumption–leads to an increase in fossil fuel consumption, which leads to increased CO2, which leads to more climate change. And this holds true even in a country like Costa Rica, which preens its proverbial feathers to the lullaby of carbon neutrality as it pursues an export and tourism based model of development, both inextricably interwoven with the world wide web of increasing global emissions. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln:

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool Nature, ever.”

When globalization became all the rage with the book “The World is Flat”, Costa Rica savants in the political, economic and intellectual elite were falling all over themselves with analysis, adulation and suggestions for how to position this little eco-paradise to make the most of the latest trend on the world scene. Somehow however, this assortment of intellectual heavyweights seems to have collectively pulled the plug to their CPU’s—or possibly their frontal lobes–when it came to the carbon footprint of the new global game in town. As surely as the radiation from the Fukushima reactor meltdown affected the thyroids of almost a third of newborn babies on the West Coast of the US, the massive increase in carbon emissions from China, Cost Rica’s newfound amigo in world trade, don’t simply stay put in the skies over the Middle Kingdom. Duh! Ditto with the carbon rich contrails floating in the slipstream of the millions of frequent flier miles that underpin the economy upon which so many of us depend.

Turning a blind eye to the portents of looming changes does precious little to deter their arrival. Wending one’s way out of one economy and into another is not quite so simple as Henry David Thoreau’s decision to move into a cabin in the woods for a year. It’s more like straddling a widening crevasse on an Alpine glacier. Both sides offer unstable footing and in the middle it’s a long way down.

At the risk of “playing it again, Sam”, I would argue that the future is likely to incorporate more elements of the past than we can currently imagine. As an example, take the 5-7 thousand year success of the corn-based cultures of Mesoamerica. In my own work, I’ve noticed a substantial uptick in the number of people who are interested in producing more of their own food. It may be because of high food prices, or an intuitive sense that “something’s happenin’ in here.” Whatever the motive it’s a positive step in a promising direction. That said, I’m stepping out the door and headed for the garden.

When the tone of the music changes
the walls of the city shake.
- Plato, The Republic

And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard..
It’s a hard rain, a’ gonna’ fall. Dylan, Bob

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 18 years experience in Guanacaste. 2658-8018.  peifer@racsa.co.cr

El Centro Verde is dedicated to researching and promoting sustainable land use, permaculture and environmentally sound development www.elcentroverde.org/

Over the coming months, wood panels will be added to the gate and then flowering vines planted at the post to add a beautiful, green display welcoming residents and visitors to our neighborhood.

The gate is  easy to open and close – an important feature during the rainy season!

The gate will withstand strong winds and keep neighboring cows out of our gardens.

Our dry-tropical climate has its gardening challenges but with her many years of experience growing food in Vermont topped with a few years working at our local organic farm, Mi Tierra, Casey has been supplementing her kitchen’s pantry with fresh, organically produced food this year. We asked Casey a few questions about her gardens which were a new project on their lot this year.

Q: Roughly how big are your beds?
A: The beds are 2 x 20 meters.

Q: Will you provide a sampling of what you’ve grown this year?
A: In the garden beds we grew various types of tomatoes and squash, green beans, basil, kale, dill, sunflowers, and spinach. IN containers I have lettuce and greens.

Q: From whom or where did you learn the basics of growing your own food?
A: I started gardening in Vermont in the 70’s and was fortunate to be surrounded by fellow-minded folks. Sheperd Ogden, a well-known gardener and author was a personal friend.

Q: Did garden locations play a part in deciding which lot in Pueblo Verde to buy?
A: Yes, indeed.

Q: What do you find to be some of the most challenging things about gardening in the tropics?
A: Severely deficient soil, insects, and lizards. Irrigation and water supply are not a problem. That said, because I am gardening in the dry season, thereby forcing vegetable growth “out-of-season,” a host of other problems (pests and diseases) can arise.

Q: How do you envision your PV gardens evolving/improving over time?
A: It only makes sense to me to improve the soil that I am working with currently before expanding to other veggie beds. Composting continues to be a challenge for me and so I am experimenting with a few “recycle” options. Luckily Tom, at ECV, has been able to produce and sell some very nice compost.

One important note is that we have planted dozens of fruit and perennial crops that comprise “gardens” also. These are more at home in the tropics and require much less care.

Q: From what aspect of gardening do you derive the most personal satisfaction?
A: Having said the above, I am a gardener and so frustration and failure with crops is ever-present and perhaps part of the price we pay for the personal satisfaction of working so closely and attentively in nature. For me, this profound time is often enhanced by eating my own, organic food.

Casey’s produce will grace yet another Pueblo Verde residents gathering later this week and we are looking forward to it. With more industrious residents like Casey and Craig in Pueblo Verde, we envision a day where the table is full of food produced in our own neighborhood.

Casey picks fresh cherry tomatoes in the garden.

Take a tour of Casey’s gardens with this photo slideshow:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The installation provides two lines per lot, allowing for a backup should a particular line develop issues down the road.  The lines are used for a land-line telephone as well as high-speed internet. All told, Matt & Ann Marie spent just under $150 for their personal installation from the electrical pole to their house.

“The internet service is so much faster and more reliable than our old data-card, ” says Ann Marie. “Plus, getting the land-line phone was a big help for us since we share one cell phone. It’s nice to know I can get in touch with someone if Matt’s out with the cell phone and I need something.”

High Speed internet is an amenity that sets Pueblo Verde apart from many other developments in the area.  A big thanks to Colin & our developers for taking on this ambitious project and seeing it through to completion.

This box set into the development provides high speed connectivity and phone service to all lots in Pueblo Verde.

Click here to view the embedded video.