I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. Guess I have been busy gardening and planting.

I received my seeds from Burpee, planted them in starter cups on the deck, and a half hour later a sudden downpour that washed all my seeds away! Ugh! So, what few I did manage to save seem to be doing pretty well. I have eight tomato plants in the ground, bunches of bush beans, carrots, and summer squash and cucumbers...which some little bug has nibbles almost all of the leaves off. I made a spray with dishsoap and hot pepper and sprayed them. They seem to be slowly coming back.

I also planted sweet corn, which is supposed to do well here in the heat. Of course it grows too tall to go into my garden (which is screened in with bird netting), so I planted them out and they grew about 4 inches in three days. Something munched a bunch of them as well, so they got sprayed too. Seems to have worked.

Today was mulching day. I had created a few beds filled with local flowers. The weeds got ahead of me, so had to do a major weeding, then spread 17 bags of mulch. I think I got my exercise today. Looks great. Isn't it so satisfying to accomplish something and be able to sit back and enjoy your hard work?

Lots and lots of rain the past few weeks. Probably about 11" to 15" inches total. It is hurricane season here now, so these tropical waves can occur anytime. The gardens loved it, and I have not had to water in a long time.

One of my friends manages a large house on the island. The gardener, is changing out plants all the time to get the garden the owner wants (and just  FYI, this house, if you can call it that, is HUGE, and it is the second most expensive house on island having sold, as a wedding present to the new owners, for well over 10 million dollars. Ah, to dream!). Anyway, I get all the plants he changes out! Woo Hoo! Last month he brought me buckets of plants. If I were to buy them they would have cost about $500 retail. I have planted all, and they are doing great...and they were free! Now my yard, which was just scraggly bush last year, is now crammed with tons of tropical flowering plants and shrubs. Gotta love that!

I hope everyone is well, and having a great summer!

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Hi everyone,

Thanks Begonia for the comments!

OK, now I am not a Coleus expert, but I am being overwhelmed with the stuff. About  eight months ago, I found a tiny Coleus behind my rock wall in the back yard. I literally pulled it out of the earth and rushed back to the  house and shoved it in some dirt (I was on my way out).

Well, now I have Coleus coming out of my ears! I have transplanted over a hundred plants from this one! The branches get so large, they start growing roots while still attached to the main stem. They get so heavy, they break. I just stick them in some soil and they just take off. I have Coleus plants that are as high as my chest (I'm six foot one) and they just continue to keep growing faster than I can handle it.

I clipped one back, after de-flower budding, and threw the cuttings into the bush. I just noticed that they have all started to grow and are doing quite well.

I am running out of people to give them too. I have never in my life seen Coleus so big and so hearty. The colors range from deep purple to a very faded pinkish hue. It depends on how much sun they get. If they are in a shady area, the leaves are much larger than the ones in the sun. I have one in the shade that has leaves that are about 8" across. I moved it into an area with more sun, the large leaves fall off, and are replaced with smaller ones.

What amazes me the most is how this plant just adapts to it's location. I have some many in different areas and they all have different characteristics. Amazing how nature is.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments let me know.

Have a good weekend everyone!

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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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Hello People of the World!

I am new here, so bear with me as I try to figure out what to write. Let's start at how I ended up on this tiny island in the middle of the Ocean.

A bit more than seven years ago, I decided that the rat race in Massachusetts was just too much. After having come to St. John several times on vacation, I knew this is where I was to be. Long story short, sold everything, took the plunge, and have not looked back since.

What do I do for a living? I own a company that books rental villas. The villas that I book are privately owned homes that are available for rent for a week or more. I won't promote my company, that is not what this is about.

St. John is the smallest of the US Virgin Islands, and also, the most expensive. One has to be very rich, or very creative to live here. The island is only 27 square miles, and has a total of about 4500 year round residents. We have all the comforts of a small town in the States...grocery stores, dry cleaners, tons of restaurants...but all is much more expensive than what you all are used to.

We are full fledged US citizens. We are a territory of the US and have all the rights that you do, with one exception, we cannot vote for president. We use US dollars, have a regular US government, police, fire, schools...everything you do, but with palm trees and white sandy beaches!

The median home price on island is about 1.5 MILLION dollars! Kind of pricey! The grocery stores are well stocked, but last week one of the markets had Heirloom tomatoes at $10.39 each...that's right, each. Guess it is time to start gardening and growing my own.

Let me know if you have any questions about island life and what you would like to hear about. I will keep updating as often as I can, and hope to share stories about the island and how I manage to eek out an existence on this little rock that I feel is the best place on earth.

Blessings to everyone. May the sun keep you warm and the breeze keep you cool:)

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