Rock magic

We have had so much fun playing outdoors these past two weeks. The rainy season is easing up, and flowers are beginning to bud. 
We have been working hard in the greenhouse and on the garden island. We have two new raised beds on the island already growing corn, snap peas, bush beans, melons, potatoes and tomatoes.
In the greenhouse, we are working on onions, more tomatoes, pineapple, celery, sweet peppers, and various herbs. 
When our friends/neighbors see what we are up to, they always return with freshly dug starts for us. We have been gifted fig trees, horseradish, thai basil, cilantro, and Chayote. 
Chayote works its way into every dish it seems. It comes from the squash family and has virtually no flavor, but the texture of uncooked potato or unflavored apple.You  can buy chayote 6 for 1000 Colones, in Dollars thats  6 for a little less than $2.00. 

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You'll find chayote in salads, soups, desserts.. we even had cilantro, tomato, chayote and cheese omelets this morning.  This evening, we baked a pineapple and chayote crisp. The pineapple is too sweet to resist right now, though we have wanted to try a recipe for chayote pie. Evidently, the chayote will act in place of apples in apple pie with very little difference in taste. Can't wait to myth bust that recipe! 

We have also been busy reviving our rock garden. We have some spectacular ideas for this new space. 
The casita trail had been washed out during the hurricane and left some beautiful river sand. So we built a rock retaining wall and back filled it with sand, compacted and graded it to create a new riverwalk. ​

We then added several sets of rock stairs for better, more surefooted access to different areas of the sandy river beach. We are using all natural products, river rocks, sand, driftwood and clay with the understanding that a washout could happen again in the future. We don't want to risk foreign material being washed into the river. (Though they are calling it a 50 years storm.) 
It is our collective goal to keep things as natural, and organic as possible here at Hush Valley, to protect the beauty and tranquility of what drew us all to this place to begin with. 

This next week we will be working on a large river rock fire pit with benches made of wood tat washed up on the rocks. The trees had been peeled bare by the force of the water and rocks, leaving them absolutely beautiful as benches around the fire pit. 
We have been collecting plants that were displaced in the storm- loads of orchids, bunch grass, ferns, and other shrubbery and are planting them throughout the rocks cape as well. We even transplanted some aloe in the case of a river beach sun burn. 
It was really disappointing to lose the waterfall garden. It was such a beautiful addition to the amazing landscape of Hush Valley, but we are really excited about this blank canvas as well! 

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