BIOCENTRIC GARDENING 2015 IN REVIEW

MOST meaningful gardens of the world,--lets take Kew Gardens-- in London, for example, is known anywhere for their installations, landscapes, research, green houses, beauty and else.

What you do not see, at least I do not, is the kind of biodiversity in the native flora/fauna benefitting from such a spectacular man made historical creation.

Sociedad Horticultural Bouret, decided to focus in a biocentric way considering climatic change with the consequences it brought to Puerto Rico, during 2015, the first ten months of mostly dry, over the average infernal hot temperatures with almost daily rain, intense and light, with a temperature drop of about 10 degrees Farenheit.

Some plants passed away unable to tolerate not the drought, most do, the constant hot temperatures over 90.  Now know those living are being used as forage mostly by snails, slugs with a few chewed by coleopterus.

2015 was remarkable for the amount of Spindalis nests, 3, and other sparrow like birds, 1, the amount of lizards went down, snails/slugs dissappeeared during the drought, making a solid comeback during November, December, their damage is mostly asthetic, no a big deal.

However the Barleria repens in the west side covering a significant area of the whole, suffered from a dk vascular disease that killed the stems from the bottom up.  Fortunately, it is recovering slowly, but presents a problem for the future.

If the disease was caused by the heat, then,
soon or later it will pass away. For that reason I started collecting agavaceas and other plants to maintain a variety to observe their tolerance of heat during the next year promising to be even hotter according to weather reports.

I have to mention the daily visits from a great bunch of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. They all seem to have their favorite 'dish', except hummingbirds they check every available source of nectar.

Finally, I want to share some of the living creatures or traces of their living in our garden. Not many gardeners think about it, distracted by the 'beauty' of this or that flower, forgetting that their garden could help to improve life in the surrounding urban asphalt/concrete context in a significant, transcendental way, choosing vegetation in consideration of such.