Hello Crinum Friends,
As we promised in the last email, see great slides of plants of Madagascar posted for you! Follow the link through our nursery web photo gallery. Two folders contain pictures from the surreal, giant island.
Literally, remembering these places calms me. This was some of the most beautiful water, plants, community, woodlands Iʼve ever been in. Crazy contrast too, rain forest spilling into the emerald green Indian Ocean, desert canyons like our Grand Canyon, quartz mountains.....translucent, ripple-leaf, under-water crinums too!
Those are only the first two places. Look at these 100 or so pictures and 3 or 4 small videos. Enjoy, but plan to go back to the site in a few weeks to see the other half of the trip - two tiny islands in clear blue ocean with nothing but huts and killer french food! (See pictures at Jenks Web Photo gallery link on this page: http://www.lushlifegarden.com/jenks_farmer.htm ).
Madagascar was one of the the most challenging places Iʼve ever traveled - there is a nice travel review in the New York Times recently and a blog entry that I wrote about some conservation and gardening issues in my Osmocote Planters Place blog.
As much as I travel and as much as I love to eat great street food, you know I have some stories about zebu steaks and raw duck liver. Youʼll see a little video on the site where a Malagasy guide teaches me to eat Afromomum (wild ginger) fruits.
Used to be that jungle hikes or slow time in airplanes & cars meant bad food. Now, I take organic, keeps-me-healthy food in my backpack, briefcase & truck console. Watch a little video about it as well as horticulturist Jennifer Glass and my Momma talking about growing lettuce & kale at www.plantsfoodbody.com
Yall have a great winter. Keep your crinum and kale warm - its not too late to mulch. In gardens, I like to leave the cold damaged leaves in place and dump a bucket of compost over the whole thing. In the field nursery, weʼre still laying down a warm rug of local bermuda hay.
Jenks, Tom, Hunter & the Lushlife Family
View of Madagascar: