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I live in a beautiful tropical garden near the Caribbean sea. The garden is about 2 acres and has three separate areas: ornamental, orchard and food and herbs plots. I am trying to keep it as native as possible, growing local plants and foods plus those brought from Jamaica to these shores a century ago. The garden sits by a slow green river and behind me is jungle to Panama. the garden used to be a cacao plantation, but blight introduced from Brazil 50 years ago made cacao farming worthless here. i still pick cacao from the old trees on the garden’s edges but you have to catch them before the blight sets in.
I’ve been a nomad for many years, working in education and living in various places – this is the first time I’ve been settled long enough to develop my garden. I’m loving it. It’s very hard to get seeds here and anyway seeds in packets don’t tend to be for this special humid and hot climate, so I grow through trial and error, sharing plants and seeds with neighbors and with what local produce I find at the markets. i live in a greenhouse, the trouble is keeping my plants dry and cool enough to grow – strange problems for a Scot. the insects here are also an issue, though they are incredibly beautiful and i find it nigh impossible to kill these multicoloured jewels who share my plants. The garden is completely organic and I compost like crazy, including pee and toilet paper. It’s also beautiful, I have 3 types of monkeys, otters, 4 types of turtles, toucans, parrots, fruit bats, all sorts of incredible visitors.