New Aerial of Kokomo and The Maine Stay

Made a quick trip to Belize City yesterday, and managed to get one shot (oriented east to west) that really highlights the incredible foliage growth on both the beach and lagoon side of the property. Compare it to the photo below taken August 23, 2003 (oriented west to east).

No... we don't run a plant nursery!

At least that's what Karen tells the folks who stop to see if they can buy her propagated cuttings. It's that time of year, as we come slowly in to some more reliable and frequent rains, to get things ready to go in to the ground. What you see here are Oleander, Ixora and a lot of Bandolero (Agave). Karen puts these cuttings in a home-brew potting mix of equal parts of... sand, black soil and hardwood sawdust. Add some 14-14-14 fertilizer and some dry cow manure and water and sun. In a few weeks they are ready to plant. 

After the rain...

This morning, just after a brief rain shower, I grabbed the Nikon D80 and did a little walkabout...

  

and then the sun came out...

Bare Back Yard - NOT!

Our back yard was bare 4 years ago! See top photo. There was one small ficus tree and a few plants. Well, we got busy and planted like crazy. Along the back fence we planted a bunch more ficus and also scattered citrus trees. We even planted a breadfruit tree. When the road got paved we had to remove some grass from the front yard, so we used that sod to make pathways in the back yard. Now we are removing some things... it's getting so overgrown! The ficus trees are 25 or 30 feet tall, and the citrus trees are too close. The breadfruit had to go! One thing you don't have to worry about in Belize, is landscaping... it's easy and quick.

Belize "Clock Vine"

Karen absolutely loves Clock Vine (Thunbergia grandiflora) and has managed to completely disguise the corner of our house with it! It blossoms all the time here... and will grow on anything. More information here.

Belize Flower Magic

It's pretty easy to get great shots of the wonderful flowers that are all around The Maine Stay beach compound... and carrying a little digital camera on my belt makes it even easier. Below is Frangipani (Plumeria) and to the right is Bougainevillea. There are tons more examples of our beautiful flowers and shrubs here.

The relative ease in planting, growing, multiplying and transplanting all of these examples really astounded us in the beginning. Now we are spoiled and it would be really tough to try to do this in a different environment!