I was asked about our growing season here, and I'm happy to report that it is basically year-round since Guatemala is in the tropics! I have grown flowers throughout my life in the different places we have lived, and I have gotten back into flower gardening this past year.
We don't have four seasons, but we do have a rainy season and a dry season. This means the plants almost drown in the daily rain showers for half of the year, then face a drought the other half! During the rainy season, I am learning which plants can't take that much water: for example, geraniums, which I replanted into pots and placed under roofs where they get the sun part of the day, but I can regulate their water. During the dry season, I spend time watering everything once a week, including the St. Augustine grass, which is a thick vine.
We had many rocks remaining from our builder's over-estimated purchase for using in our retaining walls, so I've been placing them around our yard to make garden areas around the grass. I've recently planted different colors of hibiscus, hydrangeas, rose of Sharon, poinsettias, bouganvillea, and tropical azaleas, all of which bloom year-round here. I've also tried planting spider plants outside, as well as mother-in-law tongues, which are doing well. I'm enjoying it!
Plants at our local nursery are cheap, but they don't always live long, so I have to baby them and hope for the best! I'm always fighting insects and fungus, but we recently found some products in town to treat them. I even accidentally brought home some snails on my last purchase of plants! Here are some pictures I took in our yard recently.
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| If you zoom in, you can see the hummingbird. |
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| Geraniums hiding from the rain |
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| Hibiscus on a young bush. I have planted 7 varieties/colors and am waiting to see how they do. |
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| Rock garden on steep hillside |
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| Training bougainvillea to grow up an old swing set as an arch (Our dog Lucy is in her favorite spot on the bridge over our sand filter for kitchen sink and shower drainage water.) |
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| Another bougainvillea arch made of PVC pipes (The small building houses our water pump for drawing water out of the cistern which is under the arch.) |
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| Experimenting with color |
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| Between carport and house |
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| This anthurium was small when it was first gifted to me by our builder, and now it's several feet tall. |
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| Discovering that some bougainvillea prefer to be bushes instead of climbers |