Change the World Wednesday – 4th Jun

This year is really rattling along; June already!

Two CTWWs ago we talked about junk mail. I found this comparison a couple of days ago, it tells a story.

In the interests of conservation and saving paper, why can’t the government pass the same laws for your street or post office mailbox?

Last week’s CTWW, it turns out my milkweed isn’t, but I will keep looking. The story doesn’t end there.

We have a saying here in Brazil. “O Brasileiro não desiste, nunca!” The Brazilian doesn’t give up, ever!

Very applicable, especially with the FIFA World Cup only eight days from kick off.

While I am not Brazilian, I have embraced many Brazilian ideas. My friends say that I am quase (nearly) Brazilian.

So, I’ll keep looking for milkweed.

I just love butterflies, especially the regal looking Monarchs.

Some butterflies I encountered in Bolivia

I saw many more, and I have just realised that most of my travel photos are locked in my old hard drive. I couldn’t find the butterfly that I was looking for.

Click the banner for the full post

On with this week’s CTWW.

Yes, here in Brazil we are at the end of autumn and the weather is definitely cooler than our 40ºC+ days of summer.

This week, plant something edible. Plant in a garden, raised bed, a container, etc. If you don’t have space outside, consider herbs or lettuce in a small pot placed in a kitchen window. Try placing some seed potatoes in the ground (dig a small hole and drop them in) … then sit back and watch them grow. If you’re moving into autumn, consider planting a fruit tree or perhaps a nut tree. The idea this week is to plant food.

 

OR …

If growing food just isn’t going to work for you, please offer other ideas for enjoying local, organic produce.

I am always planting something edible. Not specifically this week, but for me it is an ongoing process.

Usually the plants that find their way into my paint tins are self grown from scraps in the compost heap.

Orange seedlings sharing the tin with a tomato plant

Like the orange seedling above. I just noticed a second seedling has sprouted on the left, this week I will transplant it (my CTWW for the week) into its own tin.

My passion fruit vines have stalled for the winter, but they are well established and in the summer will spread all over, hopeful with a bumper crop of passion fruit.

It appears too late for my tomatoes to come to anything

But plenty more seedlings will sprout between now and then.

The parsley I planted last year, is now well established. I have two pots outside the kitchen door and it features in many dishes.

Curley Parsley

The parsley are the only seeds that I have bought.

Sadly, the attempts to grow pineapples from cut crowns has faltered. They got to the size of golf balls and ripened then rotted.

The goiabeiras (guava trees) have fruit, one for the second time; but they too have gone to sleep for the autumn. I have great hopes for them in the spring and summer months. The same for my acerola (West Indian Cherry), it hasn’t begun to flower yet, but I feel it will in the coming season. Acerola are great mixed with orange juice, but you do need sugar, they are mouth-puckering sour. While they are the size and shape of a cherry, they are not at all cherry-like in taste, but have an incredibly high Vitamin C content.

This week I will turn over the compost heap, who knows what treasures I will find sprouting within?

That about does my garden update.