The Bottle Wall and Garden

So, it just kills me to throw away all those glass bottles. There is not a major way to recycle them here, so they just end up in our landfill, or must be barged off island to be disposed of.

I started reading a lot about these folks that use them to build retaining walls and other stuff. So, I told everyone to save their bottles for me...wine, liquor, beer, etc. Now I have this huge mountain of bottles...so I better get started. I have never attempted anything like this before, so it should be interesting...and hopefully stable! When I get my camera (I don't currently have one) I will post some pics of the end result.

Rain today...yeah! I ordered seeds and they came, and I also had to order bird netting, which was lost in the mail. I don't dare attempt planting without the netting, or else I will be providing snacks for the wild life. We have good sized iguanas here...and they can munch down a garden in a few hours. We also have these birds called Thrushies...and they love to eat anything that is almost ripe. It is nearly impossible to beat them to the fruit or veggies. The netting will do the trick when it arrives.

Planting here can be a big challenge. In most areas of the island, the soil if quite bad, what little of it there is. Back in the plantation days, most of the island was clear cut to plant sugar cane. By removing most of the native plants, the good top soil washed away. In some areas, the micro climate even changed because of the deforestation. Areas that had been moist, turned dry. Now, a few hundred years later, the soil is coming back and the forests are returning to old growth. Kind of interesting.

I am fortunate that my yard has excellent soil. I even have worms, lots of them, something that is very rare here. I have been doing a lot of planting and everything is starting to take off. With the rains coming back,  everything is growing so fast you can almost see it grow.

The veggie garden  will have the usuals, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, beans, cucumbers, and some herbs. A good start I think. The best part is...it can keep growing as our temps only vary by 5 degrees the whole year.

Water is an issue as well. We do not have a fresh water source on island. We have large cisterns under our houses, with all rainwater being collected from the roof and drawn down into them. We can buy water (we have a desal plant), but a load of water, about 4500 gallons, costs about $350. Want to learn how to conserve water? Come live here for a bit and we will show you! Nothing worse than running out of water, and not being able to get some delivered for two days (been there, was not fun). I have rigged up a homemade system of our laundry water is piped into two large plastic trash cans. I use all of this to hand water the gardens. One load of wash, fills a 40 gallon container. I don't use bleach (the sun does the trick on that since I don't use a clothes dryer) so the water is great for the plants and they seem to thrive.

Waste not, want not. By being conscious, it is amazing how much can be saved.

That's all for now. Back out the garden as the rain has stopped and lots of weeding to do. Hope everyone is well!

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