Ghana – Chapter 19

Accra, February 20, 2006

"I'm a Father!!!"

Hold on to your armchairs...  David and Sasha look out (Ellen, of course, will take this in stride).  G (1-G), the Gardener of Ghana, is a proud father.

Sylvanus and I have been sweating in anxiety ever since we planted our new desert garden.  Would they new plants establish themselves?  Would they flourish in this new - inhospitable for veggies - patch of earth?

We the bad news is, so far one of my new plants has "bit the dust".  (Hilarious allusion isn't that?)  So before we go on to celebrate the new arrivals, we must first mourn the passing of adenium obesum.

... Requiet in Pacem ...

? - 2006

This is what she looked like the day I planted her.  I can't bear to show you the final photo.  Just suffice it to say, you can't replicate adenium obesum by taking cuttings.  Apparently you have to find the seeds - only no one seems to know how to find the seeds.

Anyway, on to happier tidings...

Remember this little guy?  It's an opuntia paraguayensis (try to ignore the poor little adenium in the backgroung).  This is the picture I took of him at the beginning of February.

Note the top "leaf" with the notch cut into it, then compare it to these pictures.  See the difference?  Opuntia had babies!

And that's not all.  Take a look at this earlier picture of one of my as yet unidentified euphorbia ...  Check out the tips of each "branch".

Now compare those tips to this picture of the same plant taken today (February 20), just three weeks later ...

See the lighter green growths on the ends of the branches?

Oh boy!  Are you guys as excited as I am? 

OK, OK.  So sitting around Accra with a little too much time on my hands and not much to do may warp my perspective on "excitement" a little.  But I sat down Friday and watched the "Constant Gardener" DVD that Toody sent me and I've got to tell you that my "warped" excitement here in West Africa is a whole lot better that what that film portrayed.  Besides, I don't do many health projects.  (If you haven't seen the movie, you won't have a clue what I'm talking about).

Don't go away!  This was a "two-fer" bonus weekend.  I have an update on Buduburam coming up in Chapter 20.

Greg, the Ghanaian Gardener (not Constant, but reasonably prolific).

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