Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Beef Casado at a local Soda (rice, plantains, salad, beef, and beans) — Six Dollars

“This is gross,” I say while opening a Zip Loc bag.

“Why are you messing with that? It’s a germinating mango seed. Did you touch it?” my husband asks.

“No,” I reply, while clearly holding the evidence in my hand. It would seem I have the same half-witted mind of a thief who falls asleep at the crime scene.

“Give me that. It likes carbon dioxide for development!” Rob proceeds to blow into the pouch. I hope that if I’m ever in need of resuscitation, he’s as ambitious with me as he is with this freezer grade sandwich bag.

“Please, leave this alone,” he scolds.

“What about this one?” I ask, holding up another bag filled with gooey mush.

Rob glances before sadly turning away. “That one didn’t make it.”

There is no resuscitation.

I used to think gardening was an amicable hobby, with responsible folks wearing knee pads and suede gloves planting petunias around their mailboxes. They look happy and well adjusted. They take their families to Disneyworld on vacation. They may even buy two boxes of Thin Mint cookies from the Girl Scout troop stationed in front of the Jiffy Lube.

But not Rob. He is not a well-adjusted gardener. He doesn’t plant anything around our mailbox. Okay, we don’t have a mailbox, so instead, he decides to recreate the gardens of Versailles using banana peels and a leaky hose. When you’re married to a compulsive gardener, you get used to living with their affection for all things dipped in dirt. And one of Rob’s insatiable cravings has been to find pure white bougainvillea with green styles. I’ve written about us driving down dirt roads and up steep mountains, all so he can hang from a cliff upside down and snip cuttings from this elusive bush. I’m left waving to passersby like I’ve just wandered off of the asylum.

Rob has even stood on his scooter— and then quickly fell off his scooter— while trying to clip white bougainvillea that grew over a cement wall. He sliced open his hand, caused a guy at the bus stop to pass out, and came home with instructions for me to buy Krazy Glue so that he could put his hand back together.

One day while scrolling online, Rob came across a gentleman advertising “Bulk Bougainvillea in all colors!” He was skeptical at first since he knows how hard it is to propagate certain colors like white and light pink. But Ali, the nursery owner, said he was working on it and he would call my husband in a few weeks.

You can only imagine how excited he was when we got the call, and we were off on another “Quest to find Pure White Bougainvillea with Green Styles.” That’ll be the title of my next book. It’s delivered with a rotting mango seed. Kindly provide your own carbon dioxide-filled bag.

Luckily, Ali’s operation is not leaning off a cliff, and we didn’t need any rappelling equipment to reach him. His nursery is small but efficient. Driving down the road to his home is like going back in time to our days in Grecia, Costa Rica. While you can find everything tourism in our popular area of Costa Rica, one doesn’t have to go too far to see a friendly, Tico neighborhood just like the ones we loved in the Central Valley. Neighbors sit out on porches and locals set up stands to sell whatever fruit or produce they can grow in their yards. Everyone is working together to create a pleasant living experience that is truly unique to his part of the world.

Still, Rob has been metaphorically down this road before, and he fully expected the white bougainvillea to be more of a hybrid purple, white mix, or a different color altogether. But not this time. Ali not only had white ones but a full rainbow of colors. Even ones we have never seen before! He is friendly, engaging and informative. Since we were buying in bulk, he gave us a fantastic deal. It was also interesting to learn he was the 1984 World Cup winner for Germany in Rock-Acrobatics.  (Not to be confused with the Crystal Light Aerobic Championships .)

If you are in Costa Rica and looking to create a beautiful, thorny fence line, or just wanting to add a lot of color to your garden, we highly recommend Ali for all of your bougainvillea, Hibiscus, and ornamental needs.

You can find Ali tooling around in his garden seven days a week. He’s easy to contact via Facebook or by phone at 8578-8016.

Although Rob has had no luck starting “Pure White Bougainville with Green Style,” he has propagated all kinds of plants he started from nothing more than twigs cut from mature plants. If you would like to try this at home, this is his recipe…

ROB’S PROPAGATION RECIPE

– Cut the thickest branches from the greenest plants you can find. From about the thickness of a pencil to an inch or so. Keep them wet.
– Cut away all shoots and leaves (some shoots can become more cuttings later)
– Cut the remaining branch into pieces about 1 1/2-2 foot in length.
– Prepare the side furthest from the root to go into the ground (or in other words, turn it upside down). Be sure to cut at a 45-degree angle and strip some bark at the end.
– Make a hole in a pot or directly in the ground with a stick only about 2-3 times wider than the cutting, and at least 7 inches deep.
– Wet and dip the root end into a rooting compound (We use Magic Root)
– Put the root end in the hole carefully not to disturb your rooting compound.
– Stuff the hole very tight with topsoil, wood chips, or anything rich.
– Try and keep them wet 24 hours a day for at least 2 months.
– Keep them in the shade.

Note: Many plants will have very fragile roots for a while even after they start to grow. Be careful not to let weeds take over or bump them. If you irritate the roots, you can easily kill all your hard work. If you are working in the rainy season, you might have better luck putting them directly in the ground versus in pots, but if the sun comes out, be sure to water heavily.

We would love to hear more about your gardening adventures. Hopefully, they are more along the lines of petunias around your mailbox, and much less weird bags of rotting goo, I mean propagating goo, in your kitchen!

(Read more about Rob’s garden in my newest book, Happier Than A Billionaire: An Acre in Paradise )