So now we´re on the hunt for the sorts of plants that nobody wants in their garden. The ones with strong, spreading roots. The ones that crawl all over flowerbeds and take over entire gardens, lift up paving and require heavy machinery to uproot! You wouldn´t think those sorts of horticultural monsters would be so hard to get hold of but seemingly it´s not that easy. Garden centres dont really specialise in them!
So far we´ve managed to get some ornamental bamboo that a friend has grown into hedge in his garden. We didnt realise why he was so reluctant to give us some until we watched him split the handle on a heavy duty garden pick trying to hack out a few roots for us to take away and plant! He also gave us some enormous cuttings from a rubber plant which was camouflaging his entire barbeque area and wood pile. The plant had wound it´s vines in between the bricks and logs!
Our Ned Flanders neighbour also donated about 30 lemongrass roots that he wrestled out of his garden last weekend which we´ve planted under the terrace walkway in the hope that it´ll stop it from slipping down the hill. We´re now spreading the word amongst all our friends and neighbours, we´ll take all your unwanted, leafy garden pests!
We also went round to the builder´s house the other day because he wanted to show us a way to use slopes for growing veggies. He has lettuces, mint, herbs for teas, onions, plantains, lemons, bananas and all sorts of things growing in beds that they´ve made out of bamboo and filled with earth and compost. We left with lots of ideas and a goody-bag packed full of fresh fruit and veg!
An unfortunate development this week has been the discovery of a colony of leaf-cutter ants. They´ve taken a liking to one of our trees and have carved out a nice little path through our plants and nicely organised earth to get to it. I can remember my first time in the Ecuadorian jungle, sitting for ages watching and taking pictures of these little guys carrying huge slices of leaf and other bits and pieces. Now I´m less impressed by their strength and organisation and more worried for our poor, gradually balding tree! We´ve tried making a spray from garlic, hot chilli peppers and soap and it does seem to have slowed them down a bit but they are still marching and munching on. We´re hoping that we dont have to take the drastic step that the locals recommend... Setting their nest on fire with gasoline!
