Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Gardening - Cusco style

The house Zac and Milka live in now has back and front enclosed courtyards.  The front one has lawn, plants and a garden bed.  Some of the jobs saved up for Lex (just because he loves it) - pruning, mowing (cutting the grass - not really mowing) and replanting the garden bed. 

Over the past 2 weekends things have been happening.  The small tree was pruned - straggling branches cut out of guttering and away from overhead TV cables - using a borrowed 'ladder'.  Not really safety certified - but Zac was holding on and it's not as if Lex hasn't dangled precariously from ladders before.  And of course pruning was done as per instructions - uneven levels and high enough to act as a deterant to anyone thinking of climbing over the wall.
 


Zac bought a plastic pot for a plant for S/15 from the nearby Mega (supermarket) - and later that day we bought a decorated ceramic larger pot at the local Tupac street market for S/12 - locally produced items are much cheaper than things that have to be brought in.

At these street markets we also bought plants, seedlings - and dirt.  Alpaca poo, along with other mulch and natural fertilisers also available.  You can buy a plant from one lady, pot from another then go to the 'dirt' lady and she'll pot it for you. 

Last weekend we returned to get another pot - S/15 for decorated ceramic pot, wire stand and ceramic drip tray.  The drip tray was brown - not reddish tones of the pot so Zac asked for an 'otra' (other).  The lady promtly pulled out a small plastic bag from her pocket - and out of that came a sponge saturated in reddish dye of some sort.  She wiped in and around the tray and handed it to us .... RED.  We could only smile. 
 
 Last week Lex 'cut the grass' - with a pair of large shears - sadly I missed the photo opportunity of Lex down on his knees snipping away!!!
Garden now has potted herbs as well as lettuce, spring onions, carrots and raddishes coming up and 2 tomato plants - that's going to be interesting because they don't look like tomato plants - we'll have to wait and see. 

2 comments:

Sophie said...

Looks just like when you were at my place... potting plants and cleaning the gutters... Except that instead of the markets it was Bunnings, and instead of a ladder it was a precariously balanced wheelie bin an d a stool!! Lol!

Lex and Judy said...

Mmm I'd forgotten about that - at least this looked like a ladder. He does have a habit of balancing precariously!!!!