Having a garden at home requires a lot of care and hard work. If the garden designed with plants that don’t grow naturally in this area, it is unsustainable. Seasons changes in the tropical dry forest cause plants to change color, dry out, or lose their leaves.
Native plants, however, can withstand the summer because they’ve adapted to this climate.
Randall García, director of the National Institute of Biodiversity, explains that native plans are all around us: “You can find them in the mountains, fields, or the coast. They grow by themselves without anyone having to plant them. Plants like coyol, pitahaya, jocote, or sandal can be propagated with seeds, cuttings, and seedlings.”
“With plants that attract pollenizer species like bees we also contribute to agricultural production,” added García.
Where To Start?
Before selecting plans for your garden, make sure that you have the appropriate soil. “We’re close to the ocean and sandy soils don’t retain much moisture. Instead, they break apart and get washed away,” explained the agronomist Adrián Arias, graduate of EARTH University.
If you’re going to prepare your own soil, we recommend you follow the following indications:
- Make layers of a moist/dry mixture. Use leaves and dirt with chicken droppings for the dry part. Use a mixture of compost and bocashi (half-processed compost) to improve the soil’s texture and water retention as well as supply microorganisms.
- Plant when the rains start. This way you’ll use less water and ensure that the plant is stable when summer arrives.
- Add synthetic fertilizer. A correct dose will enrich the soil during the first few months. You can also use root starters.
Which Species to Use?
This depends on your creativity and the function you want to give your garden. There are many type of trees that can provide shade and keep their leaves all summer, such as the beach almond (Terminalia catappa), mountain almond (Dipteryx oleifera), or the ron ron (Astronium graveolens). There are species that, although they take a long time to grow, are easy to transplant with cuttings, such as jocote, madero negro, and strangler fig.
If you want colors in your garden, you can look for bushes such as hibiscus, granadilla, and yellow trumpetbush. All of these keep their flowers for most of the year.
Another option is to incorporate edible plants that also are ornamental. Pitayaha produces tasty magenta-colored fruit, and passion fruit is a vine that is great for dividing spaces or covering walls.
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