It is wonderful to live in a tropical climate but I came from a temperate one and thought growing things here would be even easier. Not really, there has been a long learning curve for me. Things that are weeds in Calif (like mint) I treat as an annual here because I can't keep the PH low enough in the rainy season. Others, like gardenias and tomatoes, seem to do well for some people but I haven't had much luck so far. It's been a lot of fun learning, I've lost a lot of plants though. More failures than I had had in many years in Calif. I keep trying and I've learned a lot but mostly I've learned that I need to be more aware of what I can realistically supply a plant. I'm not as optimistic that I can grow anything as I was.
Getting involved in some gardening groups has been a big help. For a long time I was so sure that I had a green thumb and I could grow anything - it was a bit discouraging until I realized I was a beginner again. My Spanish is what I would call 'adequate' but before I had this level of fluency it was very difficult to find out much information about gardening and plants here. During that time I looked for forums and blogs in Australia that had similar weather and were in English. Last year I started going to lectures (in Spanish) at the local agricultural school and then I joined a bromeliad club and that led to some Mexican friends with ponds... it's helped a lot. Now, there is a new gardening group forming in English and it has a very diverse group of excellent gardeners. I'm really excited about learning a lot more and being able to ask more complex questions in my native language.
I did finally plant those tomato seedlings in my roof pond filter. They look kind of spindly but they haven't yet keeled over so I'm hopeful. I'll take some pictures tomorrow so that if they really make it I'll have the baby pictures.
