Friday, September 7, 2012

Owning a Home in the Virgin Islands - Landscaping Update

I thought it was time to give you an update on our landscaping as it has been a while. The previous post can be found here: Landscaping June.

The bad -

My septic tank banana tree that has never produced a banana in two years was blown over by TS Issac.


I cut the stalk below where it give way, so we shall see if it re-grows.

The other banana tree I had planted, well when we had our cistern cleaned and re-coated, the workers poured the dirt and muck on it, it died, but alas I planted yet another one. I am determined to have bananas as in the store they are up to 99 cents a pound!


The mango tree, well it didn't do so well.



So, in it's place we have a ?


The Good! The papaya tree is doing really well! Sadly, I discovered the life span of this tree is only like 3-5 years.

Now on to the vegetables. The zucchini started to bear fruit, but then turned all yellow and got infested with worms. It never made it and will not be trying that one again!

Basil is rocking, have used it many times already in some dishes.


The jalapeno peppers are doing well with some peppers that are almost ready to be harvested! Sadly though I discovered underneath the leaves this white fuzz with black scales underneath the fuzz. I sprayed it with insecticide as I believe these are mites? If you have any ideas let me know?




The lettuce is doing great and have had several salads already from it. It is doing so good and with a box of salad going for $7 a box, I bought another planter and will start a new batch.


I have also started a new pot with green bell peppers as price for those here is $1.49/lb.

I am anxious to see if I can keep growing these vegetables year round here!

On another subject, if you are interested in what is going on for entertainment on St Thomas, there is a new Facebook page that is letting us know what to do! St Thomas Weekends Etc