Hola from Honduras!

[ydolem11]

Hi! My name is Melody, and although I was born and raised in Michigan, United States, I'm now living in Honduras. I've never really gardened before although I've always had a love for nature and the outdoors, but I recently started a little gardening operation on my balcony as well as at the school where I'm teaching. At home, I have spearmint, peppermint, basil, lemon balm, pineapples, strawberries, carrots, watermelon, aloe, avocados, oranges, and am working on germinating some peppers, grapes, lemons, star fruit, and jicaro (native to Honduras). At school my students and I have planted sunflowers, green peppers, tomatoes, and watermelon as well as a couple of fruit trees.

 

[Trellum]

Hi there, Melody! I think this is the first time we see someone from Honduras here, what brought there? Are you teaching English as a second language? Just curious Anyways, I just wanted to welcome you to the forum! I hope you have a great time here. Best of luck with your gardening project.

 

[Beth_B]

Hola Melody!

What a cool assortment of things you're growing. I actually live in Michigan now but used to live in California and a place I rented had two avocado trees in the front yard. Couldn't eat or give them away fast enough, now it just kills me to pay a dollar or more for one avocado at the grocery store.

 

[Becky]

Welcome aboard Melody!

 

[MrsE]

Hi Melody, what a great project you've started! Enjoy watching all those little seedlings grow! Hope you get to share some photos!

 

[amelia88]

Hi Melody and welcome to the forums! Sounds like you've got quite an impressive line up of plants - and I love that your students are also into gardening too! I wish my school had encouraged gardening more when I was younger!

 

[ydolem11]

Thank you! Yes, I do have a little bit of everything! I'm becoming a bit obsessive with saving seeds from anything fresh that I eat and don't let anything (like pineapple tops) go to waste. I will definitely try to post pictures. I have some of my peppers poking through right now, but I'll wait until they're actual sprouts to get pictures. I did do a garden tour for my YouTube channel which you can check out here if you want to see what I have at home:

(This is the short version. There's also a link to the longer version in the description.)

I am teaching English as a second language to third and fourth grades. They're amazing and they LOVE going to the "secret garden" to work and plant things. It started because of a science experiment with fourth in which we sprouted a big variety of seeds that the kids brought, and then I realized that most of these types of projects end with the plants dying either at school or at home, so I decided to take it to the next level and got permission to use a bit of land between the school and the soccer field.

I'm super excited to see what this forum can teach me and help me out with so I can keep things alive and thriving!

 

[Jonathan Tebbutt]

Welcome to the forum, Excellent video, Although I only have Strawberries and Raspberries that I grow year after year, I do carrots and Celery but that's for my rabbits to munch on. It is mainly flowers for me, If you want to look I have a website, www.jonsgardenblog.com and you can see my garden there

 

[Sheal]

Welcome to the forum Melody. It's good to see you taking the time to work with youngsters and teach them how to grow the food that many take for granted.

 

[ydolem11]

Welcome to the forum, Excellent video, Although I only have Strawberries and Raspberries that I grow year after year, I do carrots and Celery but that's for my rabbits to munch on. It is mainly flowers for me, If you want to look I have a website, www.jonsgardenblog.com and you can see my garden there

Beautiful! As much as I love flowers, for me it's all about what I can eat, which is why I have exactly 1 flower in my little garden, and that was a gift from a student. It was part of a science experiment in which they had to compare the growth of two plants when one didn't get sunlight or water or air (their choice), and I offered to take the one that had been without sunlight and water during the duration of the experiment (she may not have followed directions super well). It was very sad-looking and had no flowers or even the start of buds when I got it, but now regularly blooms for me. Right now it has 5 flowers on it!

 

[ydolem11]

Welcome to the forum Melody. It's good to see you taking the time to work with youngsters and teach them how to grow the food that many take for granted.

Thank you. It's something that I've always been fascinated by and wished that I had been able to see more of it growing up. My family did have raspberries and strawberries in the backyard for a while, but they were just there. There was no real maintenance done on them so I never got to experience the whole process of growing things. I'm super thankful to the administration for letting me use the space.

 

[Daren]

I think Its been said a few times .........But welcome to the forum & I love the little video too & big thumbs up for helping the younger generation along the green path. look forward to hearing more about gardening in Honduras

 

[Jonathan Tebbutt]

Beautiful! As much as I love flowers, for me it's all about what I can eat, which is why I have exactly 1 flower in my little garden, and that was a gift from a student. It was part of a science experiment in which they had to compare the growth of two plants when one didn't get sunlight or water or air (their choice), and I offered to take the one that had been without sunlight and water during the duration of the experiment (she may not have followed directions super well). It was very sad-looking and had no flowers or even the start of buds when I got it, but now regularly blooms for me. Right now it has 5 flowers on it!

I do have many plants that are edible too, but clearly not as many as you, I have Carrots, Celery, Strawberries, Raspberries, a nice Plum tree. Although my main love is flowers in which I try to attract as many insects as possible, Seeing as bee's are in decline here I try to plant as much as possible to attract them and also Butterflies. I have around 6 or 7 different varieties of butterflies that come to the garden.

 

[ydolem11]

In the future I definitely want to keep bees which will mean having more flowers and such to keep them happy, but for now since my space is so limited I'm sticking with fruits and veggies. At school we've got some sunflowers growing and since my rule is "if you bring it, we will plant it," we've also got a small flowering plant that one of my 4th graders brought.

And I guess we'll be planting radishes pretty soon, since one of my 3rd graders brought me a packet of radish seeds today...

 

[Pat]

Welcome to the forum. It is so rewarding to have the children involved in the growing process so that they know were the food comes from.