Missing green veggies in RD

What???????? Are You Kidding????????

Broccoli, head lettuce, carrots, onions, leaf lettuce, cabbage, celery, watercress, spring peas, green beans (at least two types), eggplant, tomatoes, spinich.....What are you missing?

You live in the wrong place, or need to visit El Nacional in Santiago or Pola in Santiago....

Newbies, sheesh!!

HB

I didn't say that

These are the readily available veggies.

Tropical sun does not make for exotic vegetable growing.

While a lot of this "could be grown " on the North Shore, it would be a risky investment without thorough research.

On the North Shore and even around Saman? they grow a lot of root veggies, like carrots, some onions, radishes. Leafy lettuce, not head lettuce (that needs the cooler weather in the high central mountains).

Most of the veggies here are grown up in the Tireo-Constanza area above 1500 mt above sea level. Broccoli, Cauliflower, head lettuce. potatoes.

Rainfall also decrees what is grown. Onions in the area around Azua, and along the Linea Noroeste. Beans in the San Juan Valley. Chinese and regular eggplants along the Cibao Valley between San Francisco and Mao. Big salad tomatoes are grown in a lot of places but the Italian variets seems more prominent as far as scale goes. Both are widely available.

About 100% of the cabbage is grown in the Constanza Valley or nearby. A tiny fraction is grown around soem towns.

HB

PS: You are the newbie, not me....hehehe

Fresh Herbs trick!

Lately in Super Pola (Santo Domingo) they have been selling some fresh herbs with the roots still on, in plastic bag; I buy them and grow them outside my house! I have fresh: Basil, parsley, coriender and green onions!

I live on the South Coast.......

Where it's VERY hot and VERY dry......summer is NOT the time to grow veggies except eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkin (ayuama(sp?), chickory (a green -domesticated dandelion), rucola/rocket (another salad green), rosemary, thyme and tarragon,green onions,beets (I love steamed beet tops)parsley.
from Sept. to May I grow leaf lettuce, swiss chard, cukes, basil, rucola, endive/escarole, carrots, dill, onions, zucchini, radishes, spinach (Jan/Feb only), red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce etc.
Our soil is almost like glue (very 'greasy') so we add coffee grounds once a year (we get the local coffee shop to save us their used grounds and put a couple black garbage bags in) and I add ground eggshells and shredded veggie peelings. I've also sometimes brought a small bag of peat moss with me to add to the garden when I come down from Canada.

Soil can be ammended by adding organic material (this is where it would be nice to have a compost bin!) and there sure is a lot of that around. Just dig it in before you plant the garden and let nature take it's course.

MommC said:

so we add coffee grounds once a year (we get the local coffee shop to save us their used grounds and put a couple black garbage bags in) and I add ground eggshells and shredded veggie peelings.

Click to expand...

Hola MommC, could you please give me more details about this?? I buy my soil but I wouldn't mind to try this also. Could I just trow in a bag of good old Santo Domingo coffee in my soil? Could the coffee and the eggshells be appealing to rats? (Don't need more of these in my sofa)

I grow squash in 4 or 5 different varieties, Peppers in a couple, tomatos in 4, Corn, Yucca in two, Batata in two, Chives, Onions, beans in 6 different types, every conceivable flavor of fruit all on my property on the north coast. I use mulch from the grass and that is it. No fertilizer nor bug spray ever. I have a couple of goats that eat and fertilize some but I don't move it around.

I have also planted thousands of ornamental plants. I love this stuff!

There are different qualities of red soil just on my 5500 meters so not all red dirt is the same.

Escott

Veggies

I can tell you from first hand experience that plum tomatoes & peppers grow readily in Las Galeras. Right in the shrub bed, with no additives except water. That was in March/April. The water came by itself in May...Big Time!! We had no difficulty buying other vegetables, except like most things in LG, you shopped early & learned when the truck was due.

Hi Juanita......

The coffee grounds MUST be used first and be careful not to spread too close to the stems/roots of anything already planted in the garden or the high nitrogen content of the grounds will "burn" the stem/roots. Just spread while damp and that's all ya gotta do! Of course if there's nothing in the garden yet, spread the grounds then dig them in and wait a couple of days (and waterings) before you plant.
As for the eggshells and veggie peelings I keep an old blender )liquidora) that I throw them in with a bit of water to make a 'liquid soup' then I just pour the result inbetween the rows of plants. It waters and fertilizes all in one!

Of course if you had the space you could set up a 'compost' pile or a 'compost' bin. There's lots of info on the web on how to start and maintain one. You'll get rich compost that is used as a mulch or top dressing that improves the soil tremendously!
You can use all kinds of things for your pile like all your fruit and veggie trimmings/peels along with grass clippings,eggshells, dry leaves (should be run over with the lawn mower first to break them up a bit) etc. etc. If maintained properly a compost pile WILL NOT attract rats!!

I grow everything organically and I have all kinds of "critters" at home in my backyard.....ducks, whooping cranes, blue Herons, turtles, muskrats, beavers,deer, squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays, sparrows, wrens, to name a few........Of course my next door neighbour (who spends a fortune each year to have a professional "de-weed" her lawn) doesn't appreciate the dandelions I cultivate. Yep....you read correctly! I cultivate the wild dandelions that crop up (I dig 'em and move them to one area in my garden). They make and excellant steamed veggie when young and are wonderful boiled then sauted when a bit more mature (before they flower of course since if they flower they becaome VERY bitter). They are high in iron, vitamin C and several other important nutrients like folate and B vitamins. :glasses:

mmmmmmnnnn! I'm getting hungry and I just ate!!!

Thank you so much MommC, I'll do a search on the net for the compost. Now if I could only grow a Maple tree in my garden I would be in heaven. I'm all out of my Canadian syrup.

You Might be able to grow one......

but you'd NEVER get syrup (they need to freeze so when they thaw out the sap runs!).

Aahh well.....I guess there is at least ONE good reason for living in the Great White North!