Growing nopales

I finally have nopales!  For the longest time nothing happened with the nopal pads that I planted.  I knew they had roots because they were attached to the soil but nothing was growing.  Then in May, new pads started to grow.  I was not sure if I was supposed to cut some or if I needed to let it grow.  I have cut only a couple of pads and I had not cut anything from the plant that is on the ground.  I am extremely happy to have the opportunity to eat a fresh, free nopal from my garden.

 

Growing Chaya Plants

I started growing chaya in October of 2006. Lisa, a very nice and generous gardener gave me cuttings of two varieties of chaya.  I was excited to plant them in my garden since chaya was widely used in Mexico, the country where I was born.

I planted both cuttings directly on the ground, in what used to be my vegetable garden.  Back then, I had mainly plants with flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds and vegetables.

These were the chaya plants after only one year in the ground.

 

I do not use commercial pesticides in my garden and I use organic fertilizer.  I compost so I am able to use it in my garden.

I am working on my new website where I sell cuttings and chaya plants.  It is www.chayaplants.com

I am going to post instructions with photos on how to grow chaya.

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Venta de estacas de chaya en mi nuevo sitio de internet:  www.chayaplants.com

Tambien estoy vendiendo te de chaya que he hecho con hojas secas de la chaya.  Mucha gente la busca para tratar de controlar la diabetes.  Yo no la he usado en forma medicinal, solo como alimento pero si la gente desea tratar, pues me da gusto ponerla al alcance de la gente que la busca.

Dried chaya leaves for tea

I have been selling cuttings of Chaya plants and people have been asking me if I also sell chaya powder or dried chaya leaves for tea.  It is time consuming to pick the leaves, wash them, and then dry them so I do not know if I am going to have enough time to do it regularly.  For now, I am selling some on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/modayhogar

I also have Chaya cuttings and Chaya plants for sale.

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Ultimamente, he estado vendiendo plantas de Chaya y la gente me ha preguntado si tambien tengo a la venta hojas de Chaya para te o las hojas en polvo.  Me toma mucho tiempo el escoger las hojas, lavarlas, y despues secarlas pero al fin lo hice.  Por el momento, estoy vendido unas hojas para te en Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/modayhogar

Tambien tengo plantas de Chaya a la venta.

I gallon bag of Chaya leaves for sale. They are dried and could be used for tea or to put on smoothies.

Cotton and chaya

I got some goodies from the garden!  Chaya, of course, pigeon peas and cotton.  I have been saving the cotton from previous years and I think I have enough for one pillow. 

 

Beautiful Sunshine keeps me company in the garden.

Finger bananas

 

Pigeon Peas and Chaya

Some of the small chaya plants. The original 2 plants I had did not have little thorns but some of the new plants have little hair on the stems and it hurts if you touch it.